Cairo – Two youths were arrested on Thursday over the suicide of a schoolgirl whom they were allegedly blackmailing with digitally altered photos of her on the internet.
The case of internet shaming and loss of a young life has stirred angry demands on social media in Egypt for those responsible to be held to account.
Basant Khaled, 17, who lived with her family in a village of northern Egypt, died after swallowing poison on December 23.
A source in the prosecutor general’s office said she was being blackmailed after having refused to have a relationship with the youths.
The photos posted widely on social media were seen by her parents and classmates, the source and Basant’s sister said.
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“Her face had been attached to the body of someone else,” their father, Khaled Chalabi, told local media. “She’s my daughter, I know her well and she’s not like that.”
In a desperate suicide note to her mother, shared with Egyptian media, Basant appealed for her understanding.
“Mum, you have to believe me, I am not that girl, the images are fake, I don’t deserve what happening to me,” the teenager wrote.
The two youths are being held for four days of questioning over “extorsion and the use of social media in a way causing harm to others and that led to the death of a minor”, the prosecutor’s office said.
Police have also detained a teacher who had upset the girl in front of her class.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
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