The victim’s lawyer pleaded on Thursday for the French judiciary to lift the closure of the case at the end of 2019 due to the lack of cooperation by the Egyptian authorities. The Investigatory Chamber will announce its decision on February the 1st.
This is an absurd judicial case. The French judiciary acknowledges the rape of a 14-year-old girl during a cruise in Egypt in 2008, but still stopped the proceedings on December the 31st 2019. The reason was the lack of cooperation by the Egyptian authorities, who refused to release the interrogation protocols of the two accused.
The victim appealed against this decision. On Thursday January 13th, her lawyer, Gilles-Jean Portejoie, pleaded before the Investigatory Chamber of the Court of Appeal in Riom (Puy-de-Dôme) to reverse the dismissal of the case. A decision will be announced on February the 1st. “There is one certainty in this case, and the judge says so in her discontinuation order, which is that this young woman was raped in heinous conditions. It is intolerable that our judicial institution should bow to the indifference and dishonesty of the Egyptian authorities,” reacted lawyer Gilles-Jean Portejoie to Le Figaro newspaper. (…) Le Figaro