Egypt court cuts TikTok influencer’s sentence to three years

An Egyptian court has reduced TikTok influencer Haneen Hossam’s 10-year “human trafficking” sentence to three years, a judicial source has said.

The source told the AFP news agency on Monday that despite Hossam’s jail time being cut, she was also fined 200,000 Egyptian pounds ($10,740) by the Cairo Criminal Court.

The targeting of female influencers has rekindled a heated debate in Egypt over what constitutes individual freedoms and social values.

Hossam was first arrested in 2020 and, along with another influencer named Mawada al-Adham, was sentenced to two years for “attacking society’s values” in online videos. She was detained after posting a video on Instagram explaining how women could earn up to $3,000 by broadcasting videos using the video creation platform Likee, which authorities interpreted as promoting women selling sex online.

An appeals court acquitted the pair in January last year, but they were later charged with “human trafficking” – a charge Hossam reportedly incurred for telling her 1.3 million followers that girls can make money by working with her on social media.

Then aged 19, she was sentenced in absentia and arrested last June.

Adham received a six-year sentence and a 200,000-pound fine. She is still behind bars.

Hossam’s lawyer Hussein al-Baqar confirmed to AFP that the sentence had been reduced. As she has already served 21 months including time under investigation, “she can be released in June or July”, Baqar said, adding the latest sentence could still be appealed.