Egypt! كشفت التحريات الأمنية ملابسات واقعة إجبار شاب على ارتداء ملابس نسائية والتعدي عليه بالضرب أمام المارة في أحد شوارع مدينة بنها بمحافظة القليوبية، بعد تداول مقطع فيديو يوثق الواقعة عبر مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي., ‘Pay or he dies’ families told as more Egyptians risk Mediterranean crossing, Egypt arrests network linked to international fraud targeting InstaPay users, Six defendants in Seeds School child sexual assault case referred to Grand Mufti, نجحت الأجهزة الأمنية بمديرية أمن القليوبية في ضبط المتهمين بالاعتداء على أب ونجله في قرية باسوس التابعة لمركز القناطر الخيرية، وذلك عقب انتشار تفاصيل الواقعة على مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي., Egypt prosecution removes activist Alaa Abdel Fattah from travel ban list, Disappearance of Chinese woman in Egypt uncovers cyber fraud gang, Her name is Chi Guangying (nick name Fofo), she arrived in Cairo Egypt on August 6th 2025, 满身符文的乖乖女池广滢在埃及失联, 池广滢妈妈：我女儿很乖的, ضبط قرابة 4 كيلو جرام من المشغولات الذهبية والفضية “مدموغة بدمغات مطموسة ويشتبه فى كونها مقلدة”

2026.2.19 ضبط قرابة 4 كيلو جرام من المشغولات الذهبية والفضية “مدموغة بدمغات مطموسة ويشتبه فى كونها مقلدة”
(ضبط قرابة 4 كيلو جرام من المشغولات الذهبية والفضية “مدموغة بدمغات مطموسة ويشتبه فى كونها مقلدة” داخل 6 محلات لتجارة المشغولات الذهبية بالقاهرة)
فى إطار جهود مكافحة الجرائم التموينية المتعلقة بالغش التجارى لضبط المنتجات المغشوشة .. فقد تمكنت الإدارة العامة لشرطة التموين والتجارة الداخلية بقطاع الأمن الإقتصادى من ضبط (كمية من المشغولات الذهبية والفضية وزنت قرابة 4 كيلو جرام “مدموغة بدمغات مطموسة ويشتبه فى كونها مقلدة”) داخل (6) محلات لتجارة المشغولات الذهبية بدائرة قسم شرطة الجمالية بالقاهرة تمهيداً لبيعها بقصد الغش والتدليس على جمهور المستهلكين لتحقيق أرباح غير مشروعة.

2026.2.18 ‘Pay or he dies’, families told as more Egyptians risk Mediterranean crossing

Weeks after Hamdy Ibrahim left his village in Egypt’s Nile Delta hoping to reach Europe, his brother’s phone rang with a chilling message from Libya: pay now or the boy would die

KAFR ABDALLAH AZIZAH: Weeks after Hamdy Ibrahim left his village in Egypt’s Nile Delta hoping to reach Europe, his brother’s phone rang with a chilling message from Libya: pay now or the boy would die.

A smuggler was on the line, demanding 190,000 pounds ($4,000) to secure the 18-year-old’s place on a boat, part of a rising exodus that last year made Egyptians the top African and second-largest global group of irregular migrants to Europe.

“I told him we couldn’t afford it,” his brother Youssef told AFP from Kafr Abdallah Aziza in Sharqiya, an hour’s drive from Cairo.

“But he warned: ‘Handle it like the other families do. Otherwise he’ll be thrown into the sea.’“

Hamdy left in November with a dozen peers, vanishing without a word after contacting smugglers online. Soon, calls poured in from Libya.

Families were told the men would “be slaughtered or thrown into the mountains or sea” if they did not pay, said 55-year-old Abed Gouda, whose brother Mohamed was among them.

Desperate parents borrowed heavily, sold gold and gave up what little they had to save their sons. But weeks later, they learned the boat carrying the group had sunk near the Greek island of Crete.

Seventeen people died — including six from the village — and 15 remain missing, among them Hamdy and Mohamed.

More than 17,000 Egyptians reached Europe via the Mediterranean last year, while 1,328 people of all nationalities died or disappeared on the world’s deadliest migration route, according to Frontex and the UN.

In recent years, a currency collapse and soaring inflation have deepened poverty nationwide, leaving much of Egypt’s more than 50 million people under 30 feeling they have no future at home.

In Kafr Abdallah Aziza, the pressures are clear: cracked irrigation canals cut jagged lines through unpaved roads, carrying only a trickle of water to parched fields.

Women ride past on donkey carts, piled high with vegetables, jolting over potholes deep enough to trap a wheel.

Half-built brick houses sit on once-fertile land, where families eke out meagre livings through small trades or day labor.

When AFP visited, relatives of the missing packed into a local elder’s cramped home, showing WhatsApp and Facebook groups filled with blurry images, unverified lists and rumors.

‘Lack of hope’

“Half of our young people are now considering illegal migration,” said village pharmacist Refaat Abdelsamad, 40.

Since 2022, the Egyptian pound has lost over two-thirds of its value. Bread prices have tripled and fuel costs have risen four times in two years.

That same year, Egyptians were already among the largest groups attempting irregular migration, with the UN recording more than 21,000 arrivals.

“Desperation and economic deterioration are major factors,” Timothy Kaldas, deputy director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, told AFP.

There is a “lack of hope that things will improve.”

Hamdy earned just 500 Egyptian pounds ($10) a week as a plumber. He left, his brother said, because he “just wanted a better life.”

After Egypt curbed irregular departures from its own shores in 2016, routes shifted west through Libya, where smugglers move migrants across the desert in minibuses and pickup trucks — a journey Nour Khalil of the Egypt Refugees Platform calls “more dangerous.”

The UN says Egyptians rely on “well-established smuggling networks” that charge high fees while survivors report “arbitrary detention, torture, rape, sexual slavery, starvation and forced labor,” according to French charity SOS Mediterranee.

In 2024, the EU signed a 7.4-billion-euro economic development deal with Cairo, in part to curb irregular migration.

But Kaldas said border controls miss the root cause: “People need to feel secure in their homes.”

Across Egypt, Khalil said migration has become “a widespread goal,” even among educated professionals.

“Those who can leave legally do so. Those who can’t are pushed into irregular migration, even if the journey carries extreme risks,” he told AFP.

‘I’d do it again’

In Kafr Moustafa Effendi, families still mourn the dozens of young men who died or vanished in 2023 when a rusty fishing boat carrying 750 migrants capsized off Greece — one of the deadliest shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, now the subject of multiple court cases over alleged coast guard negligence.

Islam and El-Sayed, both 18 then, were aboard after their families scraped together 140,000 pounds each, their cousin Abdallah Ghanem told AFP.

“Back then, people caught minibuses to Libya as casually as if they were traveling to another town in Egypt.”

Despite the grief, the hopeful cling to success stories.

Construction worker Hassan Darwish left Sharqiya in 2023, believing he had “no future” in Egypt.

Now 24 and living in Rome, he says he earns about $700 monthly while awaiting asylum.

“I saw horrors,” he told AFP by phone. “But I’d do it again.”

He now supports his mother and sick brother, which “would never have been possible in Egypt.”

2026.2.14 Egypt arrests network linked to international fraud targeting InstaPay users
The Ministry of Interior said on Saturday it arrested a criminal network that collaborated with international criminal elements in electronically defrauding citizens and draining their accounts on the InstaPay electronic payment application.
The ministry’s action came after social media users widely circulated warnings in recent days following incidents in which citizens had large sums of money stolen from their bank accounts via messages appearing to come from InstaPay, using deceptive messages known as “Flash SMS.”
These incidents sparked shock due to the advanced hacking methods used, which allow perpetrators to remotely take control of victims’ phones as soon as they open the application and enter their details, freezing their screens, and enabling the withdrawal to be completed within minutes.
According to the ministry’s statement, investigations revealed that international criminal elements based in an Asian country were operating a fake electronic application used to defraud citizens and deceive them into believing the application could be used to watch encrypted TV channels for free.
Once activated, the app hacked their phones and took control of them, then sent text messages claiming that a sum of money had been withdrawn from their accounts on InstaPay.
When the victims accessed InstaPay to check the amount withdrawn by entering the secret PIN code, all funds in the account were drained and transferred to electronic wallets activated by three individuals inside the country.
These individuals then converted the money into encrypted digital currencies and sent it to the international criminal elements managing the application, the ministry said.
After completing the necessary legal procedures, authorities arrested the criminal network members inside the country.
In their possession were 35 mobile phones, 32 SIM cards-16 of which were linked to electronic wallets-two laptops, eight bank cards, five accounts on applications used for illicit digital currency trading, sums of cash, seven kilograms of silver, and nearly one kilogram of gold.
The total value of the seized items is estimated at around EGP 8 million, the ministry said in the statement, affirming that legal measures have been taken.
The ministry further warned citizens against accessing unknown and unverified links to avoid their phones being hacked and their money stolen.
The ministry’s action comes as part of the state’s intensive efforts to combat online fraud crimes through coordinated security operations, advanced digital investigations, and public awareness campaigns.

2026.2.13 كشفت التحريات الأمنية ملابسات واقعة إجبار شاب على ارتداء ملابس نسائية والتعدي عليه بالضرب أمام المارة في أحد شوارع مدينة بنها بمحافظة القليوبية، بعد تداول مقطع فيديو يوثق الواقعة عبر مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي.
وأوضحت التحريات أن خلفية الحادث تعود إلى تغيّب فتاة، كريمة أحد المتهمين، لمدة يومين عن منزل أسرتها، حيث تم تحرير محضر بتغيبها، وعقب عودتها أفادت بأنها كانت برفقة الشاب محل الواقعة لدى شقيقته، ما تسبب في نشوب خلافات بين الطرفين.
ومن جانبها، كشفت الأجهزة الأمنية بوزارة وزارة الداخلية المصرية تفاصيل الواقعة، مؤكدة أنه بتاريخ 12 فبراير الجاري تلقى مركز شرطة بنها بلاغًا من الأهالي يفيد بقيام عدد من الأشخاص بالتعدي على شاب وإجباره على ارتداء ملابس نسائية، واعتلاء أحد الكراسي بأحد الشوارع، مع تصويره باستخدام الهواتف المحمولة.
وبالفحص، تم تحديد وضبط 9 متهمين، من بينهم سيدتان، وجميعهم مقيمون بدائرة المركز. وبمواجهتهم، أقروا بالتعدي على المجني عليه، وهو عامل يقيم بدائرة المركز، ما أسفر عن إصابته بكدمات وسحجات متفرقة، وإجباره على ارتداء ملابس نسائية وتصويره بدافع خلافات شخصية، لارتباطه بعلاقة عاطفية بكريمة إحدى المتهمات.
وتم اتخاذ الإجراءات القانونية اللازمة حيال الواقعة، فيما تولت النيابة العامة مباشرة التحقيقات.

2026.2.12 Six defendants in Seeds School child sexual assault case referred to Grand Mufti
A Cairo criminal court on Thursday ordered the referral of six defendants accused in the high-profile Seeds International School child assault case to Egypt’s Grand Mufti for a religious opinion on whether they would receive the death penalty.
The court has set 5 March for the pronouncement of the final verdict.
The defendants are charged in connection with a brutal criminal case involving the kidnapping and sexual assault of young children in kindergarten at the Seeds International School in the Al-Salam district of Cairo, first reported to police on 20 November 2025.
The Public Prosecution opened an investigation after receiving reports that five children had been abducted and assaulted inside the school by several staff members.
Prosecutors interviewed the victims and their guardians as part of the inquiry, ensuring confidentiality under laws that protect the identities of minors.
Earlier forensic and investigative work uncovered physical evidence and testimony that formed the basis for charges of abduction and indecent assault. Authorities detained multiple suspects and expanded the probe to include additional individuals after corroborative forensic findings.
The referral to the Grand Mufti is a procedural requirement under Egyptian law when the judiciary considers capital punishment, allowing for a non-binding religious opinion before sentencing.

2025.12.20 Egypt prosecution removes activist Alaa Abdel Fattah from travel ban list
Egypt’s public prosecution has lifted the travel ban on political activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah; his lawyer, Khaled Ali announced on Facebook.
The decision follows approval by Prosecutor General Mohamed Shawqi in response to a formal request submitted by Abdel Fattah’s legal team to investigative authorities.
The travel ban lift comes nearly three months after President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi commuted the remainder of Abdel-Fattah’s prison sentence.
Abdel-Fattah, one of the most prominent figures of Egypt’s 2011 uprising, was arrested in September 2019 and spent two years in pretrial detention before being sentenced in 2021 to five years in prison for spreading false news.
In July 2025, a Cairo court removed Abdel-Fattah and six others from Egypt’s terrorism list, where he had been placed in 2020 by a criminal court ruling.

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2025.9.30 9月30日凌晨，埃及内政部官方社交账号发文对此进行了通报，文中称：关于部分社交媒体账号所传播的有关一名中国女游客在埃及境内失踪的消息。经调查核实，她与其他几人已被依法控制，因其隶属于一个专门从事电子诈骗的犯罪团伙（该团伙共8名成员）。
网友评论：
满身符文的乖乖女在埃及失联？以为她被电了，没想到她是电人的
池广滢妈妈：我女儿很乖的[尬笑]
胸前整那么大个纹身，孩子妈说孩子是个乖乖女[看]
一开始网友说是符文战士，去那边卖淫的。
池广滢 内蒙古包头市人

2025.9.30 Disappearance of Chinese woman(Chi Guangying) in Egypt uncovers cyber fraud gang

The Egyptian Ministry of Interior has clarified reports circulating on social media regarding the disappearance of a Chinese tourist in the country, confirming that it was part of an organized cyber fraud operation, not an ordinary tourist incident.

According to an official statement from the Ministry of Interior, on Tuesday, the gang consists of eight members, including three Chinese nationals, specializing in fraud and extortion

Authorities apprehended one of the kidnapped victims, a national of the same country, who was rescued during the operation.

Investigations reveal that the gang lures most of their victims, primarily Chinese nationals, online with promises of lucrative e-commerce job opportunities.

Upon arrival in Egypt, the group kidnaps them and forces them to contact their families to pay ransom through online platforms.

The suspects were arrested in a residential apartment in Cairo, with authorities seizing firearms, knives, stun guns, and mobile phones containing evidence of their criminal activities.

In recent years, criminal gangs specializing in luring victims online with false e-commerce job offers, then kidnapping them and coercing them into paying ransom through digital platforms, have become increasingly common in the Arab region.

These crimes are part of a broader global phenomenon. According to Interpol’s 2025 report, cyber fraud in Asia and the Middle East has caused annual losses of up to $50 billion, with a particular focus on Chinese tourists due to the strength of the Chinese currency.

In August 2024, the Egyptian Ministry of Interior announced the dismantling of 12 cyber fraud networks, resulting in the arrest of 45 individuals.

Most of the victims were Chinese, as part of the “Safe 2025” campaign to enhance tourist security.

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