Giza Criminal Court on Wednesday acquitted Egyptian TV presenter Reham Saeed and three others on charges of inciting child abduction and human trafficking, while handing various jail sentences to four others in the case. Saeed and some members of her crew were accused of hiring kidnappers to abduct two children with the aim of filming an episode on the subject of child abduction for Saeed's TV programme Sabaya El-Kheir on Nahar TV. However, the court sentenced a member of the show's production team to a one-year suspended sentence over involvement in the abduction scheme. Three defendants were convicted of child kidnapping, with two sentenced to 15 years in jail and fined EGP 200,000 each, and the third sentenced to five years in jail. The sentences can still be appealed. The prosecution had accused Saeed and the other defendants of inciting to abduct two children, human trafficking and broadcasting false news during an episode of her show which aired in January. On Wednesday, Saeed, who had been in detention pending trial for over a month, pleaded not guilty, telling the court she had no involvement in arranging the kidnapping. In the trial, her lawyer presented correspondence and phone call recordings suggesting his client had neither been informed about the incident nor incited it. She has not yet been released at of time of publishing, according to a judicial source.
