CAIRO: The dead body of a newborn that was dumped from the fourth floor of a block in Al Haram area has uncovered the affair of a young woman and her lover that began to falter as she fell pregnant, Al Mesaa newspaper reported. When Rihab ran into him at his workplace, a supermarket which is located in the building where she lived, she didn't know that they would start a relationship that would end in tragedy. Soon Rihab fell in love with Alaa and they started meeting each other in secret, but the fact that he promised to tie the knot with her had fuelled their affair and Rihab seemed to know no end for that love. Upon her request, he signed a paper that attested to them being man and wife. But even that paper vanished into thin air after he told her it would in safer hands with him. When after a few months signs of pregnancy began to show on Rihab, she entreated her lover to tie the knot in a bid to contain the scandal, as her father is a well-known doctor, her mother a successful businesswoman. But he decided to opt out and left her to face her own fate. Her family discovered that Rihab was pregnant too late and the affair came to light as the body of the newborn was found. When the incident was reported to the police, Rihab, 27, was immediately implicated, as signs of pregnancy began to show on her despite the fact the she was unmarried. It was also known in the district that she had a relationship with a man called Alaa who was employed at the supermarket. When Rihab felt that she was about to deliver, she shut herself in the bathroom and gave birth to the baby. Having killed the newborn, she put the baby's body in a plastic bag and proceeded to throw it out the window. The woman was arrested and confessed, but her defendant argued that at the time she committed infanticide she was under severe stress which affected her actions. While convicting Rihab, the court tried to be as merciful as possible given the circumstances she had faced.
