Several Egyptian lawmakers have welcomed the announcement of a British court to hear the testimonies of a group of women in the murder of engineering student Mariam Moustafa earlier this year.
Three 17-year-old girls, two 15-year-old girls and a 19-year-old woman have been summoned to appear at Nottingham Magistrates' Court on September 27, Britain’s The Daily Mail reported on Monday.
The Egyptian student was taken to the city's Queen's Medical Center for treatment after she was beaten outside the Intu Victoria shopping center on February 20.
She died at Nottingham City Hospital on March 14, 2018 of a stroke.
The head of the Egyptian parliament's foreign affairs committee, Tareq Radwan, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the investigation into Moustafa’s murder has been slow. “Yet, we hope that the court’s decision to summon the girls is a sign of further evidence that would punish the perpetrators.”
UK's Chief superintendent Rob Griffin previously said the force remains committed to seeing “that justice is done.”
MP Dalia Youssef, who is a member of a special committee aimed at following up the case, also spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat, saying Egyptian lawmakers had pressured their counterparts in the UK to keep Moustafa’s murder case alive.
“Another aspect of the case is accusations of negligence against the hospital, which had failed to conclude that the student had an internal haemorrhage,” Youssef said.
The undersecratary of the parliamentary human rights committee, Sharif al-Wardani, lauded the court’s decision to summon the girls, describing it as a “very important development in finding the truth in Mariam Mustafa’s death.”
“From the first moment of the assault, the Egyptian parliament and foreign ministry supported the victim’s family, and sent a delegation to London to meet with officials in the British foreign ministry and lawmakers from the region where the attack took place,” he added.
