“They arrived at 3 a.m., all in plain clothes. A nine-seat van was parked in the street where they were supposed to make me get in. My landlord, who is a former soldier, intervened and after a negotiation he managed to convince the officers that he would escort us.” Thus begins Nessy Guerra’s account to Adnkronos. The 27-year-old from Liguria was taken last night together with her 3-year-old daughter and brought to a police station in Cairo. At first she was told it was an order from the prosecutor to forcibly accompany her and the child so that Nessy’s ex-husband, Tamer Hamouda, could see their daughter, but Nessy soon understood this was a pretext.
“There is no document showing that my ex must see the child,” says Nessy, defended in Italy by lawyer Agata Armanetti. “In 2024 the child was placed in my mother’s care; we are now awaiting the appeal decision, which could overturn the first-instance ruling and grant custody to my ex’s mother, but until then the child is entrusted to my mother.” Nessy and her daughter spent hours at the station. “My daughter tried to sleep amid the shouts of detainees. They locked us in a small room for three hours and photographed the child without explaining why. Then they told me my ex was about to arrive, but I knew that wasn’t true.”
While Nessy and her daughter were in Cairo, in Holgada, a town about 500 kilometers away, a hearing was taking place involving the woman’s father and her ex-husband. “My lawyer was in Holgada and told me that Tamer was there; it wasn’t true that he was coming, so I understood they actually wanted to arrest me over the adultery charge.”
Nessy Guerra had been in hiding in Egypt because she was sentenced on appeal to six months of hard labor for allegedly committing adultery with respect to Hamouda, an accusation she has always denied; she and her lawyers have recently filed an appeal to the Court of Cassation. After hours of anxiety, the ambassador arrived accompanied by the consul. “I called the ambassador many times before he answered. When they arrived they spoke for a couple of hours with a police official; at the end of the negotiation they ordered our release, but I had to sign a commitment not to leave the residence where they found me. So it’s good on one hand, but on the other I live with the fear that it could happen again.” The woman again appeals to the authorities: “They must do something because I feel vulnerable. Before I hoped no one would ever come to our door, but now I know they know where we are. My ex, as he has done before, could pay someone and find out where we live. I ask that they at least host me in the Embassy, what is happening is unbearable.” “My main concern,” she concludes, “is for my daughter: if they arrest me, what happens to the child? She is entrusted to my mother, but what if the appeal decision is reversed? What if he kidnaps her?”
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