On April 19, 30-year-old Mohamed Ragab spent the day at a friend’s wedding and then took a bus home. When he disembarked in his small village of Matay, in Upper Egypt’s conservative countryside, he was stopped by officers from the local police.
.... Ragab’s case is an anomaly: it is the only well-known example of a Sharia-based punishment doled out in court, and sentencing is normally handled by a judge, suggesting that the prosecutor in question operated well outside the system.
But Ragab’s lawyer, Ahmed Shabib, blames the case on Egypt’s political climate nonetheless. The prosecutor, he says, “felt that we now live in a religious country, and every single person should obey Islamic rules.”
Ragab, meanwhile, says he’s still reeling from the ordeal. “I’m very worried, and confused,” he says. [The Daily Beast] Read more
