Two men were arrested by police on Thursday (December 6th), the Egyptian public prosecutor said, after the suicide in December of a teenage girl whom they allegedly blackmailed by posting edited images of her on the internet, a case which caused an outcry in Egypt.
Read also Adolescent suicide: warning signs to know
Basant Khaled, a 17-year-old high school student who lived with her family in a village in northern Egypt, committed suicide on December 23 by swallowing a poison pill.
She was apparently blackmailed by two young men after refusing to have relations with them, an official in the attorney general's office said on condition of anonymity.
On Thursday, the prosecutor's office decided to take the two men into custody for four days to investigate the alleged "
extortion and use of social media in a way that harms others and causes the death of" a minor.
"
"I don't deserve what's going on"
Edited images - naked according to local media - of Basant Khaled were widely relayed on the internet and were viewed by his father and his classmates, according to the official and the victim's sister. "
The images are mounted on someone else's body
," the girl's father, Khaled Chalabi, told local media. "
She's my daughter, and I know her well and I know her manners
," he added. A handwritten letter that Basant Khaled left to his mother before committing suicide was shared by Egyptian media. "
Mom, I hope you believe me, I am not that girl, these are edited images, I do not deserve what is happening
," she said.
The police also arrested one of the schoolgirl's teachers, accused of harassing the girl in front of her classmates by presenting her as "
the number one trend
" on the internet.
These events sparked anger among internet users who created a hashtag and demanded the arrest of those responsible.