Surprises in Alexandria beach murder

BY

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Sun, 26 Aug 2018 - 12:19 GMT

BY

Sun, 26 Aug 2018 - 12:19 GMT

Alexandria beach - Wikimedia Commons

Alexandria beach - Wikimedia Commons

CAIRO - 26 August 2018: By the end of Eid El-Adha, a video has been widely circulating on social media featuring a man bleeding on a beach and a middle-aged veiled woman screaming and crying next to him.

The victim is a house painter who was spending the day on the Abou Yousef 2 beach in Alexandria with his wife and dog.

The man - whose blood got mixed with seawater - was reportedly defending his wife against sexual harassment when the harasser killed him using a butcher's knife. The perpetrator was arrested and the public prosecution ordered his detention for 15 days pending investigation.

Murder Defendant
Defendant in Alexandria beach murder, Wesam Mohamed Anwar - TV Screenshot


Lawyer Eskandar Tefal said that his defendant Wesam Mohamed Anwar suffers from a mental illness and that he escaped from Ma'amoura Psychiatric Hospital several times. The lawyer added during a phone interview on "Al-Ashera Masaan" TV show that he requested that his client would be examined by a doctor delegated from the Forensic Medicine Authority.



The beach supervisor, Yasser el-Masht, told the show presenter Wael el-Ebrashy over the phone that the defendant - who is unemployed - had been involved in harassment incidents weekly on the beach.

Masht clarified that the beach is not gated so people do not get inspected when they enter. The defendant, who resides nearby, got out and returned while hiding the knife in his pants. “He started attacking the man. I heard screaming. People gathered and tried to push him away using umbrellas,” the beach supervisor explained.

Masht added that the perpetrator, 39, ran toward the sea after he murdered the victim asserting that the beach’s staff kicked him out several times but he used to return.

Mohamed el-Sayed, an eye witness, revealed that the “first stab was in the victim’s head”, refusing to uncover more as he has already testified before the prosecution and would only talk to entities conducting investigations.



The brother of the victim’s wife, Mohamed Rashad, sprung a surprise in a phone interview at the same show as he negated that the crime was driven by a harassment incident, stating that there was no fight in the first place.

Rashad said that he would not be able to reveal any details as investigations are still underway and his sister suffers from a nervous breakdown.

Head of the Central Department of Tourism and Resorts in Alexandria Ahmed Hegazy said in a phone interview on "Massaa DMC" TV show that a number of witnesses said that the reason behind the fight was that the defendant frequently annoyed the victim’s dog, adding that the victim died because of a wound in his neck.

The official revealed that the lifeguards brought the perpetrator and escorted him to the nearest Border Guards Unit.

The public prosecution has not issued any statements on the investigations’ primary results; also, the autopsy report has not been released.

Egypt suffers from sexual harassment incidents which intensify during official holidays. A number of those incidents ended up with violence against the victims and sometimes fatal injuries.

By the end of March, a young woman named Samreen was harassed by a truck driver who chased her on Alexandria's corniche until she was knocked out of her bike. The initial medical report of Samreen’s condition stated that she suffered from brain infiltration, fractures in two of her ribs and a post-accident trauma.

Last May, a Helwan University student named Omnia Khalil was verbally harassed and grabbed by her jacket on campus by one of her peers who punched her in the eye when she reacted by pushing him away. Bystanders in the cafeteria failed to intervene as they thought that the assaulter was her relative, according to her Facebook post.

In 2015, surveillance cameras in one of Cairo’s malls showed a man slapping a woman called Somaia Tarek, 38, who said that was due to scolding him for harassing her. The harasser served two weeks of imprisonment following being sentenced by Cairo Misdemeanor Court

Two years later, as a vengeance act, the harasser attacked Somaya with a cutter, leaving a deep scar on her face. He admitted of committing the crime.

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