Security forces arrest Lebanese woman for insulting Egyptians

CAIRO – 1 June 2018: Egypt’s security forces arrested a Lebanese woman called Mona al-Mazbouh on Thursday after accusing her of offending Egyptians and cursing them through a video that went viral on social media.

Al-Mazbouh posted a video on her Facebook account talking about several situations that took place with her as she was spending her vacation in Cairo that triggered her anger.

The arresting of the Lebanese woman came per an official complaint issued by lawyer Amr Abdel Salam accusing Al-Mazbouh with insulting Egyptians, the whole state and the president.

Before being arrested on Tuesday, Al-Mazbouh posted a second video on her Facebook account apologizing to some people.

“I definitely didn’t mean to offend all Egyptians, and never meant to say anything about the country’s political affairs,” Al-Mazbouh stated in her second video. She added that most of her first video was narrated in a Lebanese accent, and that is why most Egyptians didn’t get what she was saying correctly. She also denied all the claims about being paid for recording the video.

“I love all Egyptians and I love this country, that’s why I visited it more than once and I keep coming back,” Al-Mazbouh concluded.

On May 11, security forces arrested a woman called Amal Fathy Abdel-Tawab. She was reported to be a member of April 6 Youth Movement and was detained for six days pending investigation under accusations of defamation, insulting the Egyptian state and assaulting Banque Misr employees.

Abdel-Tawab started a live video on her Facebook page, while angrily-telling a situation that happened to her as she was finishing a routine procedure for reactivating her bank account; however, she started to mention several bureaucratic situations that delayed the procedures for a long time.

She added that she faced some verbal sexual harassments and finally started to assault everyone inside the bank. Abdel-Tawab’s video was full of inappropriate words and insults against the state, police, Egyptians and even herself for living in the country.