The Mansoura Misdemeanor Court on Thursday sentenced a housewife to three years in prison for sexually harassing a monkey in a pet shop in Mansoura city, al-Dakahlia governorate, by touching its genitals.

The court charged her with inciting sedition and provoking emotions and lewd acts in public.

A video of the incident went viral on social media in October showing the defendant while she was touching the genitals of a monkey in a public store with the intention of arousing the animal’s sexual instincts and inciting the public to commit adultery.

The police identified the suspect and found that she is named Nesma, 25, and a resident of a village in Dakahlia. She, with help from a friend who recorded the video, made moves to arouse the monkey sexually while it was in a cage in a shop by fondling its genitals.

The investigations found that the defendant had previously been charged in a prostitution case and was trying to promote herself by using this video. Police arrested the woman and she confessed to the incident.

In the investigations carried out by the Public Prosecutor’s office, the defendant admitted that she committed the incident and that she did not mean any lewd act.

She said she was walking with some of her friends and stopped in front of a pet shop in Mansoura, adding that as soon as she saw a monkey in a cage in front of a pet store she began to caress it.

She added that the matter evolved as a sort of joke, so she touched the monkey’s genitals and was surprised by the interaction that led to one of her companions videotaping the incident and publishing it on social media without her knowledge.

She said she did not know how the video clip went viral on social media, adding that it had been on the phone of one of her friends.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm