Egyptian police detain suspect in new femicide case

Egyptian police arrested a man accused of killing his fiancee, the public prosecutor's office said Tuesday, as local media decried another case of femicide in the conservative North African country.

Kholood al-Sayed, 21, was killed on Monday at her home in the coastal city of Port Said.

She was reported to have distanced herself from her fiance, who was also her co-worker, the prosecution said in a statement.

Other employees told prosecutors Sayed had been "assaulted by the accused a day before the incident, and had resigned in an attempt to avoid him", the statement added.

Surveillance footage was used to verify the man's identity and "track his movements from the time he left work until he entered the property where the incident occurred, which he then fled," the statement said.

He now faces murder charges, and could face the death penalty if found guilty.

The killing is the fourth case of femicide to make headlines in recent months in the country, where conservative laws have severely limited women's rights.

In August, a student identified only by her first name, Salma, was killed in Zagazig, north of the capital Cairo, by a man whose advances she had rejected, according to prosecutors.

In a similar case in June, Mohamed Adel stabbed college student Nayera Ashraf to death in nearby Mansoura. A video of the attack was widely shared on social media.

Adel confessed to the crime and was sentenced to death. The court has called for his execution to be broadcast live on television to deter others.

Also in August, an Egyptian court sentenced judge Ayman Haggag to death for murdering his wife, TV presenter Shaimaa Gamal, whose body had been found in a remote villa two months earlier.

According to Egyptian association Edraak Foundation for Development and Equality, 296 women and girls were killed in 2021.

It said it recorded a total of 813 violent crimes against women and girls last year, up from 415 in 2020.

Nearly eight million women out of Egypt's 100-million population were victims of violence committed by their partners or relatives, or by strangers in public spaces, according to a United Nations survey conducted in 2015.