CAIRO — Egypt's new president has weighed in on one of the nation's most troubling social ills, ordering his interior minister to do whatever it takes to combat sexual harassment. A presidential spokesman says Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi also called for the decisive implementation of a new law that punishes convicted harassers with up to five years in prison. A string of sexual assaults on women during celebrations marking El-Sisi's inauguration Sunday, including a mass attack on a mother and her teenage daughter, marred the occasion and sparked outrage. The spokesman, Ehab Badawi, said Tuesday that El-Sisi also instructed Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim to honor a policeman who came to the teenager's rescue. The nation's chief prosecutor, meanwhile, ordered three men arrested in connection with sexual assaults Sunday immediately put on trial. The assault video has shocked and created a stir, along with another clip posted on social networking sites, showing a reporter for a private TV network reporting from Tahrir and telling her anchorwoman in the studio that there were several cases of sexual harassment in the square during the inaugural celebrations. The anchorwoman laughs, then says it's "because they are happy." There have been many incidents of sexual harassment during large gatherings of demonstrators in Tahrir in recent years. The square was the epicenter of the 2011 uprising that topped the longtime leader Hosni Mubarak and has since been the focal point of most large political rallies in the Egyptian capital. — AP
