Egypt singer Sherine jailed for joke about insanitary River Nile
KEY POINTS
- Sherine Abdel Wahab was arrested after she told a fan that drinking from Nile might give them parasites.
- This week another Egyptian singer was jailed for two years for "inciting debauchery" in a provocative music video.
Egypt has jailed another singer, this time for joking about the cleanliness of the River Nile.
Sherine Abdel Wahab was handed a six-month prison sentence after she jokingly told a fan that drinking from the River Nile might give them parasites.
"Drink evian instead," she told the fan.
The lawsuit was filed in November after a video emerged of Wahab saying that drinking from the Nile would give her schistosomiasis, a disease caused by parasitic flatworms in the water.
On Tuesday (27 February), Wahab, 37, was convicted by a Cairo court of spreading false news and ordered to pay a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (£407).
Wahab, who is a judge on the Arabic version of TV show 'The Voice', has also been banned from performing by the Egyptian Musicians Syndicate because of her "unjustified mockery of our dear Egypt."
After her arrest, Wahab apologised for her "foolish joke."
"My beloved country Egypt and sons of my country Egypt, I apologise to you with all my heart for any pain I may have caused you," she said.
Wahab is the latest Egyptian musician to be sentenced to prison in recent months.This week, singer Leila Amer was jailed for two years for "inciting debauchery" in her "provocative" music video, which shows the singer making obscene hand gestures while a man watches a belly dancer perform.
The lawyer who filed the complaint, described the video as a "moral disaster" and "great risk to Egypt".
In November, Egyptian singer Shyma was also handed a two-year prison sentence after she appeared in a pop video dressed in her underwear and eating a banana in a suggestive way.
Amnesty International has recorded multiple instances of people being jailed on charges of "inciting debauchery."
Last year, Egypt sentenced 13 LGBT men to three years in prison after finding them guilty of "habitual debauchery." Activists have described the situation in as the "worst LGBT crackdown"in almost two decades.
The crackdown started in late September when several people were detained after holding up rainbow flags at a concert of Lebanese indie rock band Mashrou' Leila in Cairo.
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