Cairo: An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced a Lebanese woman to 11 years in prison after she appeared in an online video more than a month ago lashing out at Egyptians.
The Heliopolis Misdemeanour Court in East Cairo convicted the woman, identified as Mona Mazbuh, of defaming Egyptians and showing contempt for religions in her video that provoked an outcry in the country, legal sources said.
The court also convicted her of outraging public morality with her video remarks, they added.
At the trial that opened last month, Mona’s lawyer told the court that the woman suffers from neurotic disorders due to a brain problem, the sources said.
The ruling, which can be appealed, was issued more than a month after Mona was arrested at Cairo airport before she could fly out.
The arrest was made on an order from the country’s chief prosecutor in response to several legal complaints that accused her of insulting Egypt’s men and women in the Facebook video that went viral.
On June 3, the top court ordered the woman stand an urgent trial.
In the video, Mona angrily accused Egyptians of involving in street abuses and fraud.
Before her arrest, she appeared in a second video in which she apologised, saying it did not mean to offend “respected Egyptians”.
She added that she loved the country and has visited it several times.
