Egyptian actress Wafa Makky has finally been set free after serving a three-year jail sentence at al Qanater prison. The actress had been imprisoned after being found guilty of beating her maids.
Last year, Makky was denied the second appeal she filed against her jail sentence. The actress was hopeful that the court would grant her the appeal after she had served half of her sentence, but the courts denied her request stating that the charges against her can not be given a lesser sentence and she must serve the entire term she has been convicted to, reported the Qatar based, Al Raya.
Wafa’s defense had previously submitted an appeal to lessen the verdict and allow the defendant to be set free. Lawyer Mamdouh Al Wasamy, head of Wafa’s defense, announced that he would submit the appeal and was hopeful a just verdict will be made in favor of Wafa.
Mamdouh had stressed that the court should set Wafa free due to the fact that she did not commit an honor crime or a crime that affects national security. He stressed that even though Wafa already served most of her sentence, he is insistent that she be set free to clear her name of all the accusations that have risen since the first day she was tried.
At the end of June of this year, a Cairo court ruling had lessened the 10 year prison sentence for Makky to 3 years for the beating of her maids. The court ruling also sentenced all other parties involved in the case, like her mother and other relatives, to a one year prison term each for assisting in the beatings of the maids.
Makky revealed that the whole trial was a scam and that she was falsely set up, and had previously filed for an appeal for her 10 year jail sentence. Her defense was that she was set up by the father of the maids that were working for her and that he had blackmailed the actress demanding money or else he will take her to jail under false charges. The father was given 40 thousand Egyptian pounds and in fact evidence was presented in front of the court of the whole matter.
The thirty-six year old actress was convicted in December 2002 for torturing her two housemaids, sisters (Marwa, 16, and Hanadi Abdul Hamid, 19), in collaboration with her 57- year old mother. The Criminal Court in the Egyptian governorate of Al Munofiyah issued the 10-year imprisonment verdict against Makky, who was apprehended after weeks of fleeing along with her mother.
The incident, which aroused the Egyptian public opinion last year, spurred the Actors Association to issue a resolution barring Makki from acting upon her conviction. Many Egyptian newspapers and magazines have published detailed reports on the incident with pictures of torture seen on the maids’ bodies. – Albawaba.com
