Witness detentions cast shadow over Egyptian 'MeToo' movement

FILE PHOTO: A general view of houses, resident towers, banks and hotels in Cairo, Egypt, November 9, 2020. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

CAIRO (Reuters) - Student Seif Bedour wanted to support his friend, a witness in a high-profile rape case, by accompanying her to a Cairo police station when she was brought in by officers on Aug. 28 after offering to testify on behalf of the victim, his sister says.

At the station, Bedour was detained and has been held in jail for four months on morality charges, relatives and activists say, even though the then 14-year-old had no connection to alleged rape and was not at the scene when it occurred at Cairo's Fairmont Nile City Hotel in 2014.