On April 3, a court ordered the hanging of Talaat Abdel-Mawgoud,...

On April 3, a court ordered the hanging of Talaat Abdel-Mawgoud, 27, a man who confessed to abducting in January a 3-year-old girl, and repeatedly raped her during more than two months of captivity. He lured the girl in front of her house in El-Qanater el-Khaiyria, 25km northwest of Cairo, with promises of chocolates. He took her by bicycle to nearby el-Manashi and rented a room. For 67 days, he stayed there, telling people he was the girl's father. A neighbor, however, noticed the girl's health deteriorating and took her to a hospital. She reported Abdel-Mawgoud to the police after doctors told her the girl had been raped. Judge Ahmed el-Ashmawi said he was punishing a man "who committed a crime that made the sky shudder." The man's court-appointed lawyer requested mercy, but told the judge there was nothing he could say in his client's defense. Shouts of joy from the girl's relatives and observers filled the courtroom when the death sentence was handed down. Egypt's top Muslim cleric, Nasr Farid Wasel, must ratify the sentence before it is carried out.