<\/p>\n
22 April 2024\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The court of cassation has extended examining the appeal No.14705 of 12 filed by The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) and Ahmed Ragheb for Law and Legal Consultations against the verdict issued by the Economic Court of sentencing Sherifa Refaat Abdel Moteleb, known as \u201cSherry Hanem,\u201d and her daughter Nora Hesham Ahmed known as \u201cZomoroda\u201d till 10 June.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Sherry Hanem and Zomoroda” were sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of 100,000 EGP for each in connection with lawsuit No. 730 of 2020 misdemeanor appeal, registered under No. 535 of 2020 economic misdemeanors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This comes after the Court of Appeal has ruled its lack of jurisdiction to examine the appeal in April 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The verdict was issued after a police force arrested Refaat and her daughter from an apartment in Heliopolis On 11 June 2020 under an arrest warrant issued by the Public Prosecution. The Public Prosecution charged Refaat with infringing on family values and principles and posting indecent pictures and videos with the purpose of distribution and display. It also charged one of the two with soliciting prostitution and the other with assisting her and creating personal accounts on the internet with the aim of committing these crimes.<\/span><\/p>\n Court of Cassation sets April 22 to examine the appeal against Sherry Hanem and Zomoroda\u2019s verdict<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The court of cassation has sat next 22nd of April to examine the appeal No.14705 of 12 filed by The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression and Ahmed Ragheb for Law and Legal Consultations against the verdict issued by the <\/span>Economic Court <\/span>of sentencing <\/span>Sherifa Refaat Abdel Moteleb, known as \u201cSherry Hanem,\u201d and her daughter Nora Hesham Ahmed known as \u201cZomoroda\u201d to five years in prison and a fine of 100,000 EGP for each of them, in connection with lawsuit No. 730 of 2020 misdemeanor appeal, registered under No. 535 of 2020 economic misdemeanors. This comes after the Court of Appeal has ruled its lack of jurisdiction to examine the appeal in April 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n The verdict was issued after a police force arrested Refaat and her daughter from an apartment in Heliopolis, On 11 June 2020, under an arrest warrant issued by the Public Prosecution. The Public Prosecution charged Refaat with infringing on family values and principles and posting indecent pictures and videos with the purpose of distribution and display. It also charged one of the two with soliciting prostitution and the other with assisting her and creating personal accounts on the internet with the aim of committing these crimes.<\/span><\/p>\n 9 November 2023<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The court of cassation has sat next 22nd of January to examine the appeal No.14705 of 12 filed by The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression and Ahmed Ragheb for Law and Legal Consultations against the verdict issued by the <\/span>Economic Court <\/span>of sentencing <\/span>Sherifa Refaat Abdel Moteleb, known as \u201cSherry Hanem,\u201d and her daughter Nora Hesham Ahmed known as \u201cZomoroda\u201d to five years in prison and a fine of 100,000 EGP for each of them, in connection with lawsuit No. 730 of 2020 misdemeanor appeal, registered under No. 535 of 2020 economic misdemeanors. This comes after the Court of Appeal has ruled its lack of jurisdiction to examine the appeal in April 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n The verdict was issued after a police force arrested Refaat and her daughter from an apartment in Heliopolis, On 11 June 2020, under an arrest warrant issued by the Public Prosecution. The Public Prosecution charged Refaat with infringing on family values and principles and posting indecent pictures and videos with the purpose of distribution and display. It also charged one of the two with soliciting prostitution and the other with assisting her and creating personal accounts on the internet with the aim of committing these crimes.<\/span><\/p>\n 27 April 2022: Court of Appeal ruled its lack of jurisdiction to examine Sherry Hanem and Zomoroda\u2019s appeal against verdict to 5 years in prison and a fine of 100,000 EGP<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n On April 27, the Court of Appeal (Circuit 15) ruled that it had no jurisdiction to examine appeal No. 14705 of 12 filed by The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression and Ahmed Ragheb for Law and Legal Consultations on behalf of content creators Sherry Hanem and her daughter Zomoroda. The Court also decided to refer the appeal to be examined before the Criminal Appeal Court.<\/p>\n On June 13, 2021, Cairo Economic Court sentenced Sherifa Refaat Abdel Moteleb, known as \u201cSherry Hanem,\u201d and her daughter Nora Hesham Ahmed known as \u201cZomoroda,\u201d to five years in prison and a fine of 100,000 EGP for each of them, in connection with lawsuit No. 730 of 2020 misdemeanor appeal, registered under No. 535 of 2020 economic misdemeanor.<\/p>\n This verdict against them comes against charges of infringing on family values and principles and posting indecent pictures and videos to distribute and display. It also charged one of the two with soliciting prostitution and the other with assisting her and creating personal accounts on the internet to commit these crimes.<\/p>\n 23 March 2022 “Court of Cassation sets April 27 session to examine AFTE and Ahmed Ragheb law firm\u2019s appeal against the verdict against Sherry Hanem and Zomoroda”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Yesterday, the Court of Cassation has set the next April 27 session to examine the appeal No. 14705 of 12 filed by The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression and Ahmed Ragheb for Law and Legal Consultations, before the 15th Circuit cassation misdemeanors of the Court of Cassation.<\/p>\n AFTE and\u00a0 Ahmed Ragheb for Law and Legal Consultations filed the appeal last August, against the verdict issued by Cairo Economic Court, pending Case No. 730 of 2020 misdemeanor appeal, registered under No. 535 of 2020 economic misdemeanor, to five years in prison and a fine of 100 thousand EGP against Sherifa Refaat Abdel Moteleb, known as \u201cSherry Hanem,\u201d and her daughter Nora Hesham Ahmed known as \u201cZomoroda.\u201d<\/p>\n On 11 June 2020, a police force arrested Refaat and her daughter from an apartment in Heliopolis, under an arrest warrant issued by the Public Prosecution. The Public Prosecution charged Refaat with infringing on family values and principles and posting indecent pictures and videos with the purpose of distribution and display. It also charged one of the two with soliciting prostitution and the other with assisting her and creating personal accounts on the internet with the aim of committing these crimes.<\/p>\n 11 August 2021<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Last Wednesday, The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression and Ahmed Ragheb for Law and Legal Consultations filed a memorandum of reasons of appeal against the negative verdict issued by Cairo Economic Court, pending Case No. 730 of 2020 misdemeanor appeal, registered under No. 535 of 2020 economic misdemeanor, against both \u201cSherifa Refaat Abdel Moteleb\u201d known as \u201cSherry Hanem\u201d, and her daughter \u201cNora Hesham Ahmed\u201d known as \u201cZomoroda\u201d.<\/p>\n Requiring to accept the appeal in form by amending the appealed verdict in the first clause of the accusations including that the defendants using their social media account to publish videos and personal photos that offend public decency, by including sexual innuendos by gesture, deed, and speech, following through offending the values and principles of the Egyptian family, an invitation containing an inducement to prostitution and drawing attention, and defendant \u201cSherry Hanem\u201d facilitating committing the crime of prosecution by filming and publishing videos and photos of the second defendant \u201cZomoroda\u201d, nevertheless, the defendants used to engage in prostitution with men in return for sums according to the statement of the investigations, and creating and using social media account for the purpose of facilitating and committing these crimes.<\/p>\n The memorandum of appeal against the appealed verdict was based on the following reasons: Violation of the law by ignoring and disregarding the implementation of the second paragraph of Article 32 Penalties and imposing multiple penalties on the two appellants, and also ignoring and disregarding Article 71 of the Constitution and Article 29 of Law No. 180 of 2018, and the appeal judgment based on false confessions prohibited by law in convicting the two appellants, corruption in reasoning, error in understanding the reality, violation of the evidence established in the papers by reliance on contradictory facts and evidence that is not objectively acceptable, deficiencies in the statement and causation by not responding to the essential defense presented by the defendants\u2019 lawyers and not invoking the element of habituality in the crime of prostitution in the appeal judgment.<\/p>\n It should be noted that AFTE had recently carried out providing legal aid for the aforementioned defendants in the stage of appealing the negative ruling issued against them before the Court of Cassation, and earlier, AFTE launched a campaign for \u201cTik Tok\u201d cases, which includes the profiles of the defendants, the legislative context of their cases, analysis of the public prosecution’s statement, the role of the companies that own the applications used by the defendants, and a reading in the case papers, AFTE will continue its efforts to file other appeals on behalf of the defendants in this case.<\/p>\n