Two Egyptian men have been apprehended following the death of a 17-year-old lady Basant Khaled who committed suicide after doctored images that made her look like she was naked, went viral.
Basant Khaled’s sister Shahinaz told local news that one of the young men asked her sister out and when she turned him down, the two of them created and shared the photos.
The two men identified as Ibrahim. A and Abdul Hamid. Sh fled their village Kafr Yaqoub in the Nile Delta Province of Gharbuyah where it happened and were in hiding before they were arrested.
After the images were circulated, Basant’s schoolmates taunted her, and her teachers allegedly bullied her. Her father was said, to not have believed that the pictures were fabricated.
Eventually, Basant became severely depressed she swallowed a toxic pill.
“Mum, I hope you understand that I am not this girl,” she wrote in a letter to her mother before committing suicide. “These photos are fake, I swear to God.”
“Mum, I’m a young girl and I don’t deserve what’s happening to me, I’m severely depressed. I can’t have any more of this. I’m tired. Show me mercy, you raised me well.”
The Arabic hashtag “Basant Khaled’s right must be returned”, in support of Basant and against electronic blackmail, trended on Twitter. Khaled, Basant Khaled’s grandfather, who is about 70 years old, died due to the deterioration of his health following the death of his grand-daughter.
According to the rights organisation Belady, electronic blackmail has grown extensively in the past several months where indecent pictures or videos of women are published online for the purpose of extortion, blackmail and sexual exploitation.