U.S. Aid Worker Acquitted After 3-year Detention in Egypt

Two weeks after President Sissi visited Trump in Washington,

and after the issue was raised during the visit, Aya Hijazi is freed.

Will the MSM credit Trump for this? Not very likely.

By Allen Cone

Aya Hijazi, 30, was cleared of child abuse and human trafficking charges in Cairo on Sunday after nearly three years in pretrial detention. Photo courtesy of George Mason University School for Conflict Analysis & Resolutuion

UPI -- An Egyptian court acquitted an American aid worker Sunday after she spent nearly three years in pretrial detention in Cairo.

The courtroom erupted in cheers after Aya Hijazi, 30, was cleared of child abuse and human trafficking charges. Cairo Criminal Court Judge Mohamed el-Feqqi also dropped all charges against her Egyptian husband, Mohamed Hassanein, and six other defendants.

Co-defendants including Hijazi's husband in the white shirt on the right.

Hijazi, who has dual American and Egyptian citizenship, was arrested in May 2014 with others at the Beladi Foundation, a nonprofit organization she founded to care for street children in Cairo. 

Hijazi grew up in Virginia and was an undergraduate at George Mason's School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution in Fairfax, Va., before moving to Cairo to work with street children.

Government prosecutors accused the couple of human trafficking and sexually abusing children in their care. The potential sentences ranged from five years' hard labor to life in prison.

The couple had been held beyond the two-year limit in pretrial detention.

"The case of Aya Hijazi and her co-defendants has been nothing less than a travesty of justice," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director for Human Rights Watch, before the verdict. "Defendants have been unable to meet privately with lawyers, hearings have been repeatedly adjourned for long periods, while the court has routinely rejected, without explanation, numerous requests for release on bail, resulting in what appears to amount to arbitrary detention."

A forensic report concluded abuse against children occurred before 2014. And the defense argued that evidence was tampered with.

The defendants sat in a metal cage Sunday like other times during the trial. The hearings were the only opportunity for the couple -- married one year before they were detained -- to see each other.

They were to be released after being processed.

Hassanein said they hoped to return to their work with street children.

"We promised them that we could come back," he said to a New York Times reporter while speaking from the courtroom cage. "Children are wealth, and they were strong while we have been in prison. We want to go back to the streets."

But he said he was unsure if the government would allow them to resume that work.

"Foreign funding is just a reason," Mohamed Zaree of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies said to The New York Times. "It's a way of targeting anyone who has an independent voice, or is critical of the current regime."

Several thousand Egyptians have been detained or forcibly disappeared by security forces since Abdel Fatah al-Sissi led a coup against Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in summer 2013.

On April 3, President Donald Trump and Sissi met in Washington, his first visit to the United States since he came to power.

Senior American officials raised her case during Sisi's visit, Hijazi's brother Basel Hijazi said in a phone interview with the New York Times from Ireland.

Cayman Islands Child Sex Abuse: Investigating the Police Investigation

“It is totally unacceptable for there to be failings such as these in the investigation of a child sex abuse allegation. I expect the RCIPS to conduct a thorough and objective investigation … to determine what went wrong. Those found responsible for the failings must be dealt with quickly and appropriately.”

— Governor Helen Kilpatrick, Sept. 16, 2016

Governor Kilpatrick has spoken with clarity, authority and righteousness. It’s an auspicious beginning to an arduous process of truth-seeking.

Most of our readers are well aware of what has sparked the governor’s ire: The recent acquittal of two suspects accused of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl, more than four years after the initial complaint was made to police.

While nobody knows what will be uncovered by the internal investigations (one a police review specifically into the aforementioned case, and one a broader audit of all ongoing child abuse cases), it appears obvious that there were significant individual and systemic failings within the police service, which allowed for the case to “go cold.”

"Cold"? Glacial!

During trial, Grand Court Justice Timothy Owen skewered the police investigation as “grossly incompetent,” not only for the inordinate delays, but also for significant gaps in evidence presented in court. The investigating police officer lost notes about the accuser’s first account of the abuse, allegedly by an uncle and cousin. Then the police never attempted to collect witness statements from anyone living in the house when the abuse allegedly occurred.

While we support the launch of the broader audit into child abuse cases by new RCIPS Superintendent Peter Lansdown, any serious probe into these issues must also extend to the Department of Public Prosecutions and into the judicial system.

How many criminal cases — not just of child abuse — are derailed for reasons rooted in ineptitude, politics, policies, who’s related to whom, who’s friends with whom, or, most broadly, the flawed architecture of the system itself? Certainly, the problems go far beyond the RCIPS.

For example, it is deeply troubling whenever we see, apparently against all odds, a case involving allegations of abuse or violence (particularly against children, women or other “vulnerable” people) make it from the police, to public prosecutors and all the way in front of a judge — and perhaps even for a guilty verdict to be handed down … only to be accompanied by a sentence so lenient that its deterrent effect fades away before the defendant has sauntered out of the courtroom and back onto the street.

On the subject of the RCIPS internal investigations, it is less than ideal for police to be investigating “their own” (particularly when the officers being investigated have not been placed on administrative leave). However, those concerns are mitigated by Superintendent Lansdown’s position and reputation, and the fact that new Police Commissioner Derek Byrne’s tenure begins in November.

The best practice might be to invite independent experts from overseas to conduct the investigations, but our memories of Operation Tempura and its spin-off Operation Cealt are far too fresh for us to conclude that “outside investigators” are a panacea in these cases.

Ultimately, the investigation will be judged not by its procedural setup, but by its thoroughness, its timeliness, its objectivity and, above all, its unredacted conclusions.

Cayman Compass

Actress Gabrielle Union, a Child-Rape Survivor, in a Difficult Place

Actress stars in controversial film ‘Birth of a Nation’,

whose director was accused and acquitted of rape

FILE - In this June 26, 2016, file photo, Gabrielle Union, from left, Nate Parker present the award for Dr. Bobby Jones best gospel/inspirational award at the BET Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. In an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times published on Sept 2, 2016, Union writes that she can't take lightly rape allegations made against Parker lightly. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File)

As a rape survivor, victim’s advocate and an actress in The Birth of a Nation, Gabrielle Union has found herself in an impossible position. Union recently, along with the much of the world, learned that her film’s director, writer, producer and star, Nate Parker, was accused and acquitted of rape 17 years ago.

Nate Parker - writer, director, producer and star

acquitted of rape 17 years ago

She collected her thoughts in a nuanced opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times Friday, writing that while she cannot take the allegations lightly, the film also addresses and raises important questions about this very matter.

It’s also the latest high-profile complication for a film that just a month ago was presumed to be one of the year’s most vital - a powerful awards contender and a possible antidote for the #OscarsSoWhite Hollywood diversity crisis.

Yet the film, which fetched a record acquisition price at the Sundance Film Festival in January, is now in the shadow of persistent controversy just weeks away from its October 7 release.

In the film, about Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion, Union’s character is raped, though it’s not depicted on screen. It’s why the actress took the part, she writes. She wanted to give voice to women of history, especially black women, who have for so long been silenced on the matter.

“I knew I could walk out of our movie and speak to the audience about what it feels like to be a survivor,” Union wrote.

Gabrielle Union - raped as a child at gunpoint in a Payless

Union, who was raped at gunpoint in the backroom of a Payless shoe store 24 years ago, says she’s been “in a state of stomach-churning confusion” since learning of Parker’s 1999 rape case.

The rape allegation came while Parker was a student and wrestler at Penn State University. Parker was acquitted, though his college roommate Jean Celestin (who co-wrote The Birth of a Nation) was initially found guilty of sexual assault. That conviction was later overturned when the accuser declined to testify for a trial.


Profound sorrow

The case garnered a lot of attention at Penn State. Parker and Celestin allegedly harassed the accuser on campus. The incident spawned a civil lawsuit by the woman against the college, with a settlement of $17,500 (Dh64,225).

Parker's accuser committed suicide in 2012

The recently renewed focus on the case also brought to light the fact the accuser committed suicide in 2012, which Parker, now married with five daughters, learned about from media reports. He wrote on his Facebook page that he was “filled with profound sorrow” and regretted that he didn’t “show enough empathy.” Parker also recently spoke to Ebony magazine about how he’s taking steps to grow and educate himself.

It remains unclear how all this might affect the release of the film, its public perception or even its awards chances. Distributor Fox Searchlight is proceeding with the October release and will still take the film, and Parker, to the Toronto International Film Festival this month. But things look very different from just a month ago when Parker was happily accepting a Sundance Vanguard Award and taking meetings in the White House.

Union’s op-ed “is certainly bad news for Searchlight, in that it keeps the focus firmly on this issue going into Toronto,” said David Poland, the editor in chief of MovieCityNews.com and a longtime industry observer. “I can’t say that the film won’t do business. It might. But half of what it might have. And its awards prospects are on their death bed.”

Yet Poland says one positive is that Union hasn’t quit on the film or its promotion. “That’s an implicit endorsement of Nate and the film, though with clear reservations,” he said. “That the rest of the cast will stick with the film at TIFF is also critical for Searchlight, which is holding on by its fingertips on this.”


Platform

Union, for her part, says that she has read the 700 pages of court transcript from the case and doesn’t know for sure what happened that night.

Instead of speculating on guilt or innocence, Union is using the platform to advocate for education and conversation on the topic of rape, consent and aggression, something she is also trying to do at home with her young son.

“Sexual violence happens more often

than anyone can imagine"

“I believe that the film is an opportunity to inform and educate so that these situations cease to occur,” Union wrote. “Sexual violence happens more often than anyone can imagine. And if the stories around this film do not prove and emphasize this, then I don’t know what does. It is my hope that we can use this as an opportunity to look within.”

Representatives for Fox Searchlight and Parker did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Janner Wrote to Michael Jackson About Pedophile Charge

Lord Janner wrote to Michael Jackson to congratulate him on being cleared of child sex charges.

The letter from Janner, who last month was deemed unfit to stand trial for 22 child sex abuse charges, was penned on House of Lords paper with his signature clearly visible at the bottom.

It comes days after Scottish police launched a new probe into the former MP for allegedly sexually abusing a teenage boy.

Janner has always denied claims that he was a paedophile and his family say he is innocent of the alleged sex attacks.

The letter was given to Jackson's friend Mark Lester, who starred in the 1968 classic film Oliver! but never passed on to the pop star, according to Ben Griffiths at The Sun on Sunday.

Best wishes: Lord Janner (pictured right) wrote a letter to Michael Jackson
 congratulating him after his acquittal on child sex charges.
 The pair met during a tour of the Houses of Parliament

Dated July 12, 2005, shortly after Jackson was cleared by a US jury of molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor, Janner wrote: 'I was so very pleased at the news of your acquittal. What a terrible time you have endured.

'I hope that you will return to London and that I should have the pleasure of seeing you once again ... so good luck and all best wishes. Yours, Greville.'

The pair first met when the peer showed the singer round Parliament in 2002.

Mr Lester found the note during a clear-out at his home in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and says Janner gave it to him during a charity do 10 years ago.

Letter: Lord Janner gave
 the letter to Jackson's friend
Mark Lester (above) who said
 it was 'inappropriate'

Mark, 56, said: 'What he said was inappropriate. No one should congratulate Michael on being cleared let alone a QC and peer. It's as if he's saying, 'Well done, you got away with it'.'

Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders maintains that the peer is too unwell to be prosecuted in England, despite evidence that he may have abused children.

But 78 MPs have so far demanded Mrs Saunders change her decision with veteran Labour MP David Winnick saying Mrs Saunders should be called before the Commons home affairs committee.

The former MP for Leicester voted 203 times in the House of Lords even after he granted power of attorney to his children because of his dementia in 2009.

As Scotland has a separate prosecution system, authorities there could make a decision independently of the CPS review.