Books – Mahmoud Saeed:
The Public Prosecution announced the reopening of investigations into the death of Naira Salah Al-Zoghbi, a student at Al-Arish University, to determine the causes and circumstances of death after her parents doubted the cause of her death, as well as what her colleagues circulated on social networking sites.
Naira’s colleagues at Al-Arish University claimed that a colleague of hers threatened and blackmailed her with nude photos that she took surreptitiously while they were together in the university residence. They also circulated a “screenshot” from one of the university’s groups to threaten the student by publishing the photos.
The Public Prosecution said that it ordered the exhumation of the buried body of the student Naira Salah Al-Zoghbi, and an autopsy to determine the causes and circumstances of death.
What does the law say about the punishment for electronic blackmail?
Ahmed Al-Juhani, a lawyer for the Cassation and Supreme Constitutional Courts, defined blackmail as “revealing certain information about a person, or doing something to destroy the threatened person,” and that it is “an attempt to obtain material or moral gains through coercion from a person, and that coercion occurs by threatening to expose a secret.” blackmailer”.
Article 327 stipulates penalties: “Anyone who threatens another in writing to commit a crime against one’s life or property shall be punished by death or life or temporary hard labor, or by disclosing matters or attributing matters dishonourable, and the threat is accompanied by a request or commission to do something shall be punished by imprisonment.”
Therefore, the penalty for extortion reaches imprisonment (3 to 15 years).
It also stipulates that “every threat, whether written or verbal, by another person, to commit a crime that does not amount to the highest seriousness, shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding two hundred pounds.”
Al-Juhani stressed “the need to be certain with certainty that there was real blackmail that occurred against the victim, without distortion, falsification, or witness statements only,” saying, “There must be technical evidence and proof that the victim committed suicide as a result of the blackmail.”
He continued: “The act and the causal relationship between the result and the act must be proven. If proven and verified with certainty, the victim’s colleague shall be punished for the crime of incitement to the committed crime.”
The cassation lawyer alluded to a legislative absence of a clear text in the law regarding the punishment for anyone who causes a person to commit suicide because of blackmailing him with scandalous pictures or private affairs, calling for the need to discuss a law in the House of Representatives to punish this crime and have the president ratify it so that it becomes effective in the courts from the date of its publication.
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Statement from the Public Prosecution regarding the death of Al-Arish student Naira Salah