Debate over call for public execution of rapists

Cairo: A suggestion by a lawmaker to execute rapists in public and broadcast their execution on TV has drawn mixed reactions in this conservative Muslim country.

"My suggestion tabled to the People's Assembly [the lower house of the Egyptian parliament] is prompted by the worrying increase in rape cases in Egypt," said Mohammad Qewita, an MP for the ruling National Democratic Party. He cited non-official figures, which say that only 2 per cent of rape victims report assaults to police.

"This means that 98 per cent of the victims suffer in silence for fear of social disgrace," he said.

"Executing rapists in public would deter would-be offenders."

Qewita's suggestion has drawn prompt rejection from the Ministry of Justice. "Executing rapists in public would hurt the feelings of their families while the aim of the penalty is to punish the convicted rapist only," said Mohammad Skekar, a senior official at the Ministry of Justice.

Last month, a local court in the Delta province of Kafr Al Shaikh sentenced 10 rapists to death for abducting a housewife and gang-raping her.

"There is no need to execute the rapist in public or have the execution transmitted on the air," said Sayyed Tantawei, the Shaikh of Al Azhar (Egypt's top Muslim cleric).

Disagreeing, Abdul Fatah Al Shaikh, a member of the influential Islamic Research Centre, said that executing rapists in public is a well-established rule under Sharia.

"Enforcing the penalty in public results in deterrence to others," he told Gulf News.

"The claim that the public factor is fulfilled in the presence of the police and prosecutors at the execution is untrue. They just do their job. They are not the ones who need to be deterred."