A woman has been sentenced by an Egyptian misdemeanor court to three years in jail after a video of her touching a monkey’s genitals went viral.
Basma Ahmed, 20, had been charged by a Mansoura city court with “committing an obscene act in public” and “inciting debauchery,” and was sentenced to three years on those charges on Thursday, according to state daily Al-Ahram.
Al-Ahram reported that Ahmed, who has been imprisoned since October when she was first arrested, “confessed … to the incident but said she did not mean to commit an indecent act and that she had been tickling the monkey.” (RELATED: Georgia Man Arrested For Having Sex With Goat)
A video of Ahmed touching the monkey’s genitals and joking about sex at a Nike Delta city pet shop went viral, leading ultimately to her arrest.
The defendant told prosecutors she was surprised by reaction to the video and did not mean to abuse the animal.
Authorities said she has been charged twice before in “public moral” cases.