Saturday, an Egyptian newspaper reported that the Criminal Court in Tanta witnessed the first session of the trial of the five defendants in the case of Basant Khalid, a victim of blackmail.

Basant Khalid, 17-year-old female, had committed suicide in January after two young men photoshopped her pictures and posted them on Facebook to blackmail her.

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According to the newspaper, the session took place amid strict security measures inside and outside the courtroom, noting that no one was permitted inside the courtroom except for the two parties of the case, and Basant's mother, father and two sisters made sure to attend the session.

The session, which lasted for 30 minutes, was held in which the defendants’ defense requested the prosecution witnesses to hear their statements in the case, blaming the victim’s family for the lack of supervision and lack of follow-up, which was met by Basant’s defense with uproar.

The defense also said that the main defendant was coerced into making these confessions during his interrogation and that his attorney was not present during the interrogation.

The Juvenile Criminal Court is considering the trial of the sixth juvenile defendant in the case, which will be heard on February 24 next.

The mother of one of the defendants, defendant Abdul Hamid Sh. 19-years-old, said that her son was innocent of the charges against him, stressing that her son was a classmate of the deceased and advised Basant a lot when he learned of the incident.

She explained that she spoke with her son to ascertain whether he was involved in the case or not, and he swore to her that he was innocent and had nothing to do with what happened and that he was only advising the deceased.

She added that Basant's father had met with them on the day of his daughter's suicide to solve the problem amicably, but he received a call from his family that his daughter committed suicide, so he rushed home.

The court adjourned the session for deliberation and decided to postpone it to the March 8 in order to implement the defense requests.