Arabic press review: Egyptian women arrested after trying to sell child on Facebook
Egyptian offers her child for sale on Facebook
An Egyptian court on Tuesday sentenced two women - a mother and grandmother - to three years in prison for offering a newborn baby for sale on the social media site Facebook, according to the London-based newspaper Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed.
According to the case details, the two women offered the child for sale because he was the "result of a relationship outside the framework of marriage" and they asked for a price of 50,000 Egyptian pounds ($1,600).
The court also fined the two women 200,000 Egyptian pounds (about $6,400). Public Prosecutor Hamada el-Sawy referred the two defendants in the case to the criminal court on charges of human trafficking after the incident spread on social media.
The referral decision stated that the two women offered the child for sale and commercially exploited him by agreeing to offer him for sale through the personal account of the first defendant (the mother) on Facebook.
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The referral decision confirmed that they exposed the child's life to danger by offering him for sale for money.
Jordanian sentenced to read Quran
A court in Jordan has sentenced a university student to recite the Holy Quran and memorise parts of it rather than serve a jail term, after convicting him of assaulting another young man and threatening him, according to the Jordanian Petra news agency.
The young man assaulted and threatened another person and caused him harm, but the victim later dropped the charges.
The court also found that the defendant was a university student and the sole breadwinner for his family, and therefore decided to give him a chance to reform himself through an alternative punishment by sending him to the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs.
The court said in its decision that it had proved that the defendant had committed the crimes attributed to him, which warranted punishment.
However, given that the defendant was still young, it said it was necessary to give him a chance to reintegrate into society away from the sentence of imprisonment or a financial penalty.
Algerian officials' properties seized
Algerian judicial authorities have begun confiscating the assets of former officials and businessmen involved in corruption cases during the term of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, according to a report published by the London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
One of the most prominent cases dealt with by the Algerian judiciary is the file of former health minister, Abdelmalek Boudiaf, in which the court issued a decision to punish him with seven years of imprisonment and a financial fine of 4 million dinars ($30,000).
The court also sentenced his son to four years in prison with a financial penalty of 3 million dinars ($22,000), while his daughter was sentenced to 18 months of suspended imprisonment, with the seizure of all movable properties and bank accounts belonging to the family.
Algerian authorities also decided to confiscate all properties of the former minister of solidarity and family, Djamel Ould Abbas, after the Supreme Court rejected an appeal against charges of embezzlement and squandering of funds of terrorism victims.
The Supreme Court's rejection of the appeals submitted by the former minister means that two previous judgments against him have become final and effective, one being a six-year prison sentence and another being a four-year prison sentence, in addition to immediately initiating the confiscation of his immovable and movable properties and bank balances that were not declared.
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