Court reduces TikTok influencer Haneen Hossam’s 10-year ‘human trafficking’ sentence to three years.
An Egyptian court has reduced TikTok influencer Haneen Hossam’s 10-year sentence for “human trafficking” to three years, a judicial source has said.
The source told the AFP news agency on Monday that although Hossam’s jail time was reduced, the Cairo Criminal Court also fined her 200,000 Egyptian pounds ($10,740).
The selection of influential women has reignited a heated debate in Egypt about what constitutes individual freedoms and social values.
Hossam was first arrested in 2020 and, along with another influential person named Mawada al-Adham, was sentenced to two years for “attacking the values of society” in online videos. She was detained after posting a video on Instagram explaining how women can earn up to $3,000 by streaming videos using the Likee video creation platform, which authorities interpreted as promoting women selling sex online.
An appeals court acquitted the couple in January last year, but they were later charged with “human trafficking,” a charge Hossam allegedly incurred for telling his 1.3 million followers that girls can earn money by working. with her on social media.
So, at 19, she was sentenced in absentia and arrested last June.
Adham received a six-year sentence and a £200,000 fine. She is still behind bars.
Hossam’s lawyer, Hussein al-Baqar, confirmed to AFP that the sentence had been reduced. As she has already served 21 months, including the time under investigation, she “may be released in June or July,” Baqar said, adding that the latest sentence could still be appealed.
His case went back to court under routine proceedings because he was no longer in absentia.
Strict internet controls
The targeting of women in the media is not unusual in Egypt, where a number of belly dancers and pop singers have been targeted in recent years for online content deemed too bawdy or suggestive.
In recent years, Egypt has enforced strict internet controls through laws that allow authorities to block websites deemed a threat to national security and to monitor personal social media accounts with more than 5,000 followers.
Monday’s ruling “means that the justice system is criminalizing what influencers do globally every day when they invite others to work with them and monetize TikTok activity,” said Mai el-Sadany, managing director of the Institute. Tahrir for Middle East Policy based in Washington, DC. , he wrote in a Tweet.
“There are real and serious cases of human trafficking that must be prosecuted; these TikTok cases are not.”
Last year, the rights group Amnesty International condemned the sentencing of Egypt’s TikTok influencers.
“Women TikTok influencers are being punished for the way they dress, act, influence social media and make money online,” said Amnesty International researcher Hussein Baoumi. “This is part of the authorities’ attempts to control cyberspace by monitoring women’s bodies and behavior.”
Reference-www.aljazeera.com