Journalist sexually assaulted at Tahrir celebration
By IANSWednesday, February 16, 2011
WASHINGTON - A journalist working for CBS News “suffered a brutal and sexual assault” when she was covering the celebration at Cairo’s Tahrir Square Feb 11, the day when Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak stepped down.
The correspondent was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a story when she and her team was surrounded “by a dangerous element amidst the celebration”, CBS News said Wednesday.
It was described as a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy.
“In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers,” the media report said.
The correspondent then managed to get in touch with her team, went back to the hotel and caught the first flight to the US the next morning.
She is now recovering in the hospital.
Mubarak was forced out of office after ruling Egypt for nearly 30 years following mass protests. The protests began at Tahrir Square Jan 25 and soon tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in capital Cairo and in other parts of the country. Tahrir square in downtown Cairo had become the epicentre of the protests with demonstrators refusing to leave till Mubarak, 82, left.
