The Daily Star BEIRUT: An Egyptian court Saturday sentenced a Lebanese woman accused of “insulting Egypt and attacking religion” to eight years in prison, according to local media reports. The court decided Saturday afternoon to amend the initial 11-year sentence that was reported earlier in the day, but it remained unclear why the sentence was reduced. Quoting an official in Egypt’s Public Prosecution office, Lebanese television station LBCI said the woman’s lawyer had filed an appeal, and that the court date has been set for July 29. The Egyptian state-run Al-Ahram newspaper said Mona Mazbouh was charged with “deliberately broadcasting false rumors which aim to undermine society and attack religions.”

She was arrested in May as she was leaving Cairo, after a video of her lashing out at sexual harassment in Egypt and calling Egyptians “dirty” and “pimps” began circulating, the Associated Press reported at the time. She has since remained in detention. The Daily Star could not independently verify the contents of the video. Multiple media outlets, including AP and Reuters, reported that Mazbouh insulted Egyptians. AP claimed she called them the “dirtiest people on earth” and Egypt “the country of pimps … the country of beggars,” while Reuters wrote that she said Egypt was a “son of a bitch country.” Mazbouh later posted another video, at an undisclosed time and location, in which she apologized to the Egyptian people. “I want to apologize to those I offended. When I said Egypt, I didn’t mean 100 million,” Mazbouh said in the seven-minute video, referring to the estimated Egyptian population.

Mazbouh attributed the outrage to her use of the word “shaab” (population). “In Lebanon when we say ‘look at this shaab’ [as an insult] we don’t literally mean the entire population. It’s just a saying. Maybe [things] got lost in translation, but I didn’t mean everyone and I apologize,” she said. “I am talking about a percentage of the population, those who harass.” It was unclear whether she was talking about sexual harassment or other forms of harassment as well. Mazbouh said she first posted the video on a private Facebook page that had only 25 members and that one of the participants took it and posted it on a public platform. “I know who he is, but I don’t know why he did it. Maybe he felt offended because he was a harasser as well.” Mazbouh showered Egypt with compliments, saying she loved the country and that if she had ill-feeling toward the entire population, she “wouldn’t have come back repeatedly and enthusiastically.” “But there is a percentage, one that could be found in every country, [of people] who are bad. There is one in Lebanon, albeit it’s a smaller percentage. I’m not going to apologize to those [people].”