Female attendees at a rally to support Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s election were allegedly raped and sexually assaulted by Muslim Brotherhood supporters. The nation’s former army chief was sworn in as president June 8 after being elected in a controversial May election; a military coup ousted the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013.
Egypt’s Ministry of Interior released a statement on the June 8 event, stating that seven men between the ages of 15 and 49 were arrested for sexually assaulting “a number of women,” the nonprofit Middle East Forum reported Thursday.
Video of one such incident involving a 19-year-old woman was uploaded to YouTube but taken down shortly afterward, the organization reported. Another less-graphic video remains online, in which a camera trained on the woman does not capture what happened after a mob forcibly hauled her into an overpass.
The Middle East Forum bills itself as an organization that “promotes American interests in the Middle East and protects Western values from Middle Eastern threats.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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