The first hearing of the trial of filmmaker and doctor Omnia Swedan before the Economic Misdemeanour Court has been set for June 27, 2026, her lawyer Mohamed Ramadan told Al Manassa.
Ramadan said Swedan was referred to the court on charges of “spreading false news liable to disturb public security through the internet, and using an online account for the purpose of committing that crime.” The case stems from a Facebook post in which she documented alleged systematic violations and abuse against female patients during her mandatory internship at El-Shatby Hospital.
On the evening of June 20, the Public Prosecution announced that it had received a complaint from the director of legal affairs at Alexandria University Hospitals and had heard his statement, in which he said the hospital had received no complaints from patients about any mistreatment or violations during medical procedures.
The prosecution added in its statement that it had questioned the defendant and that she “acknowledged that she owns the account that published the post and authored the post under investigation, and that she graduated from medical school and was assigned to an internship at Alexandria University Hospitals during 2020 and 2021, spending two months in the obstetrics and gynecology department, where she witnessed some of the medical procedures carried out on patients. Owing to her limited experience and her recent entry into medical practice, she believed these were procedures outside the norm and beyond what a doctor is licensed to perform.”
On June 17, the East Alexandria Prosecution ordered Swedan’s release on bail of 20,000 Egyptian pounds (about $400), over her Facebook post about violations in the obstetrics and gynecology department at El-Shatby Hospital she had witnessed during her internship.
The prosecution brought charges against her of “spreading false news on Facebook and misusing a Facebook account,” Ramadan wrote on social media after her questioning.
In her testimony, Swedan recounted harrowing incidents she said took place within the corridors of the long-established university hospital, describing them as “systematic violations” against women and citing four episodes she said would “never be erased from her memory.”
Swedan’s testimony included a direct accusation against one of the doctors of sexually harassing a 19-year-old girl as she screamed while giving birth for the first time. She alleged that the doctor examined the patient’s cervix in a manner that involved injury and physical violence under the pretext of disciplining her for screaming, amid laughter from the nursing staff.
She also described another incident in which a doctor assaulted another woman by slapping her on the face during labor, while a nurse verbally abused her. Swedan said that when she and a colleague were shocked by the scene, “the doctor and the nurse mocked us, saying, ‘delicate little flowers with weak stomachs.’”
Swedan also accused some medical staff of carrying out unnecessary C-sections as a means of extracting profit, or forcing some cases into vaginal delivery in conditions that did not allow for it. She also said critical cases were not admitted to intensive care without written approval from “the husband, father or brother,” refusing to recognise the mother’s own consent.
