CAIRO: A number of women's rights groups and organizations protested on Wednesday outside the Egyptian National Diabetes Institute after a janitor reportedly raped 7 patients while they were unconscious and receiving medical attention in the hospital. The New Women Foundation sent an invitation to activists to join the protest on Wednesday, which was a silent demonstration in respect to the patients inside the hospital. A number of other initiatives were expected to take part in the protest. The cases broke when one patient realized what had happened to her while she was under anesthesia and filed a report against the man along with a doctor who works there, the protest statement said. The janitor, identified as 37-year-old Mustapha is now being held in Sayeda Zeinab jail on detention awaiting a court date. The janitor said he “liked the lady immediately when I saw her go into the operating room.” He then waited for the surgery to end and came into the room and closed the door behind him, before committing the sexual assault. “I have so many problems with my wife that made me end my future,” the janitor told al-Youm al-Saba'a newspaper. When the 51-year-old woman awoke, she began screaming and told the staff of the NDI what had happened and the janitor was immediately recognized as the culprit. The NDI then told police and the man was arrested and confessed to the crime. Nobody at the NDI has been reprimanded or lost their job over the incidents. Rape is a crime often penalized by the death penalty in Egypt and in many cases life in prison. BN
