Lebanese police announced on Saturday the arrest of three Egyptians suspected of participating in the gang-rape of a young woman in a large hotel in Cairo.
Read also: Egypt is looking for nine suspects in a gang rape case
The Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) explained that they received on Thursday a letter from the Interpol office in Egypt containing the names of seven Egyptians who were in Lebanon and "accused of raping a young girl in 2014 in a hotel in Cairo, ” they said in a statement, specifying that orders had been “ immediately given to carry out the necessary investigations ” . The ISF intelligence service “determined that five of the seven (wanted suspects) entered Lebanon on different dates. Two left (Lebanon), leaving three suspects in Lebanese territory, ” the statement said.
These three Egyptians were arrested Friday in the village of Fatqa, in the region of Mount Lebanon (east of Beirut), said security forces, without specifying when the three suspects - identified by their initials and year of birth AT (1988), AE (1990) and KE (1987) - would be transferred to Egypt. The Egyptian prosecution said Wednesday that it had ordered the arrest of nine suspects, seven of whom were abroad. A few days earlier, he had announced the issuance of arrest warrants without specifying the number.
The alleged assault had gone unnoticed, until accusations surfaced on social networks in July, including the Assault Police account ("Police harassment"). According to this account, a group of six men allegedly drugged and raped a young woman in the five-star Fairmont Nile City hotel. The names and photos of the defendants, from wealthy families, have been circulated widely online, but AFP has not been able to verify their authenticity. The authorities have not made any identity public. The arrests in Lebanon come days after one of the nine suspects was arrested on Wednesday as he tried to flee Egypt. He was taken into custody and is accused of participating in the gang rape.
The Egyptian prosecution announced in early August the opening of an investigation, indicating that it had "received a letter from the National Council of Women, accompanied by a complaint" lodged by a woman "who had suffered sexual assault from several people in Fairmont Nile City Hotel in Cairo in 2014 ”. The hotel said it had conducted an internal investigation, saying that the rape had never been reported "to the hotel or to the tourist police".