An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced a former doctor, who denounced violence inflicted on women in an Alexandria hospital, to six months in prison for spreading false information, her lawyer announced.
Omnia Swaydan was convicted for a Facebook post describing widespread abuse at Al-Shatby University Hospital, where she interned between 2020 and 2021, according to her lawyer Mohamed Ramadan.
Ms Swaydan was found guilty of spreading false information likely to “disturb public order, sow fear among the public and cause harm”.
However, she was cleared of having damaged the reputation of hospital staff.
The court also imposed a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($408), said Mr. Ramadan, adding that he would appeal.
In her post, now deleted, she detailed alleged cases of obstetric violence, patient neglect and degrading treatment of women at Al-Shatby.
She had notably denounced a sexual assault on a woman during childbirth, and described alleged cases of refusal of care, in particular to a victim of sexual assault and to a seriously ill pregnant woman, for lack of proof of marriage.
The former doctor, who now works in the cinema industry, was arrested in mid-June at her home and then released pending her trial.
According to the prosecution, she explained to investigators that some of these facts dated back to the time when she was training and that due to her “limited experience”, she had considered them unusual and contrary to current medical practices.
Still according to the prosecution, she also admitted that other facts had been reported to her, without her verifying them, by “people she could not identify”.
Before he was committed for trial, Alexandria University said it would investigate, adding that any wrongdoing would be dealt with “with the utmost firmness.”
The doctors’ union assured that it had not received any official complaints regarding these incidents and called on anyone with evidence to submit it through official channels.
Following this case, several women shared on social media about similar experiences in public hospitals in Egypt, particularly Al-Shatby.
The AFP was unable to independently verify these allegations.
