A Lebanese woman detained in Egypt was released from jail Sunday after the Egyptian Court of Appeals amended her previous sentence to one year and suspended it local media outlets reported.
Mona Mazbouh was arrested in May as she was leaving Cairo, after a video of her lashing out at sexual harassment in Egypt and calling Egyptians “dirty” and “pimps” began circulating, the Associated Press reported at the time.
Egyptian Attorney General Nabil Ahmad Sadeq said he received calls from Egyptians pressuring him to investigate the matter and ban her from entering Egypt again.
She was released Sunday after court adviser Mohammad Abou Shanab gave his ruling.
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry applauded the court’s decision in a statement issued Sunday evening.
“The Foreign Ministry welcomes the decision of the Egyptian Court of Appeals ... to suspend the prison sentence ... and applauds their understanding of the circumstances of the case, especially in regard to her health.”
Her parents called for her immediate release after she was given an 11-year sentence and charged with “deliberately broadcasting false rumors that aim to undermine society and attack religions.” They said she considering ending her life.
“The girl is dying, crying all day and night, and now she’s thinking of committing suicide,” Mazbouh’s father said at the time. Her sentence was later reduced to eight years after Mazbouh’s lawyers filed an appeal with the Egyptian Court.
Multiple media outlets, including AP and Reuters, reported Mazbouh insulted Egyptians. AP claimed she called them the “dirtiest people on earth” and Egypt “the country of pimps ... the country of beggars,” while Reuters reported she said Egypt was a “son of a bitch country.”
Mazbouh later posted another video, at an undisclosed time and location, in which she apologized to the Egyptian people. “I want to apologize to those I offended. When I said Egypt, I didn’t mean 100 million,” Mazbouh said in the seven-minute video, referring to the estimated Egyptian population.
Mazbouh attributed the outrage to her use of the word “shaab” (population). “In Lebanon when we say ‘look at this shaab’ [as an insult] we don’t literally mean the entire population. It’s just a saying,” she claimed. “Maybe [things] got lost in translation, but I didn’t mean everyone and I apologize,” she said. “I am talking about a percentage of the population, those who harass.”
Mazbouh said she first posted the video on a private Facebook page that had only 25 members and that one of the participants took it and posted it on a public platform.
Mazbouh showered Egypt with compliments, saying she loved the country and that if she had ill-feeling toward the entire population, she “wouldn’t have come back repeatedly and enthusiastically.”
“But there is a percentage, one that could be found in every country, [of people] who are bad. There is one in Lebanon, albeit it’s a smaller percentage. I’m not going to apologize to those [people].”
This article has been adapted from its original source.
