Omnia Sweidan was referred to trial on false news charges on Saturday evening after her description of routine medical abuses against women went viral. Sweidan was arrested from her home last week after publishing her testimony on social media and was released on bail following investigation by prosecuting authorities. Lawyer Mohamed Ramadan, who attended the Public Prosecution’s investigation sessions with Sweidan, told Mada Masr that the trial is set to take place before a criminal court on June 27. Ramadan said he and his client only learned of the trial referral when the prosecution announced it in a statement on Saturday afternoon. Sweidan will face charges of spreading false news with the aim of aggravating public opinion, disseminating false information via social media and misusing her personal Facebook account, he said, adding that a defense team is being put together to represent Sweidan at the trial. The prosecution has leveled charges based on its investigation of Sweidan, which took place after the head of legal affairs of the Alexandria University hospitals filed a police report against her, the investigating body said in its Saturday statement on the trial referral. Sweidan had named Alexandria University’s Al-Shatby Hospital, particularly its obstetrics and gynecology ward where she received her training as a medical intern, as the site of the abuses she described. In the testimony she published on Facebook last week, she detailed a series of incidents of physical and sexual abuse against women patients. These included verbal and physical abuse directed at women in labor and the refusal of treatment of two other women: one presenting with complications after an incomplete attempted abortion and another presenting with sexual assault injuries. The Public Prosecution statement portrayed Sweidan as walking back her account, quoting her as saying that she believed the practices she witnessed to be “unusual procedures, beyond what a doctor is authorized to perform” only due to “her limited experience and recent entry into the medical practice.” The prosecution also claimed that Sweidan said some of the testimonies in her post were not incidents she witnessed firsthand, but which were relayed to her by others whose accounts she did not independently verify, adding that Sweidan was unable to identify or provide information about any of the patients she mentioned in the post. The statement also highlighted that Sweidan left the medical field in 2021 after completing her training for a career in the film industry. The statement followed smear published in several domestic outlets against Sweidan following her release, which stressed her exit from the medical field and downplayed the gravity of her claims on the basis that she suffers from a “chronic mental illness.” The prosecution’s statement did not address the content of Sweidan’s post, only noting that the Alexandria University hospitals’ legal counsel denied receiving any complaints from patients regarding violations against them. Instead, it highlighted how the post has “increased the engagement on her Facebook account.” Alexandria University Hospital has said that it will investigate the claims being made, in a statement in which it also warned it would legally challenge attempts to harm the university’s reputation. The Doctors Syndicate, meanwhile, said that it has not received any formal complaints of malpractice, insisting that these should be filed through formal channels and should be specific rather than general so as to protect doctors and their professional image. The prosecution’s Saturday statement concluded by emphasizing that social media is not a suitable platform for filing reports and complaints, urging citizens to follow the established legal channels for reporting. It also urged citizens to “verify information before publishing it,” warning that while the right to expression and opinion is guaranteed by law, “publishing or promoting false or misleading news when it is likely to cause panic among citizens or disturb public peace and security is a matter that requires legal accountability.” Sweidan’s post sparked a wave of similar testimonies and shocked reactions by social media users and women’s advocacy organizations, with her arrest and questioning only adding fire to the controversy. Doctors who spoke to Mada Masr confirmed that such violent behavior with women patients is prevalent in public hospitals, with some noting that the behavior is normalized against low-income women based on assumptions that they will not be able to challenge such treatment. Health officials have downplayed or excused the phenomenon, saying that posting about these incidents runs the risk of damaging public faith in the health system.The post Omnia Sweidan referred to ‘false news’ trial over description of medical abuses against women first appeared on Mada Masr.
