MOSCOW, March 8 (RIA Novosti) – US Department of State postponed issung a human rights award to an Egyptian activist whose Twitter account turned out to contain anti-Semitic and pro-terrorism posts – added by hackers, she claims.
Samira Ibrahim, 26, was due on Friday for the 2013 International Women of Courage Award along with nine other women from around the globe, including Russian investigative reporter Elena Milashina.
However, she would not get the award until the situation is clarified with some of her hatemongering Tweets, Department of State spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
Among some 18,000 entries on Ibrahim’s Twitter, SamiraIbrahim4, run in Arabic, are three endorsing the 9/11 attacks, celebrating the terrorist strike in Bulgaria that left five Israelis dead last July, and denouncing Jews in the words of Hitler.
Ibrahim denied posting these Tweets and claimed her account was repeatedly hacked, Nuland said during a press briefing on Thursday, according to a transcript at the Department of State’s website.
“After careful consideration, we’ve decided that we should defer presenting this award to Ms. Ibrahim this year so that we have a chance to look further into these statements,” Nyland said. She did not specify how long the check may take.
Ibrahim was subjected to forceful “virginity tests” by the Egyptian military after being detained at Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the anti-government protests of 2011. She exposed the humiliating practice to the world, helping prompt the military to abandon it.
The International Women of Courage Award, established in 2007, will be co-presented in Washington, D.C., by Secretary of State John Kerry and First Lady Michelle Obama. In addition to Milashina, who covers the North Caucasus for the oppositional newspaper Novaya Gazeta, this year’s recipients include representatives of Afghanistan, China, Honduras, India, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria and Vietnam.
