Egyptian judge detained in suspected murder of anchorwoman wife Shaima Jamal

Egyptian prosecutors have arrested a judge over his alleged involvement in killing his 32-year-old wife, TV anchor Shaima Jamal, and burying her in a villa in Al-Mansouria area, local media has reported.

Reports said Al-Geeza authorities found Jamal’s body buried under a villa farm on Monday after she had been reported missing by her husband over a week ago.

It was said that the husband alleged in his missing person’s report that she had last been seen in a commercial complex in the 6th of October area.

In a three-minute video posted on Al-Hadath Twitter page, renowned broadcaster Amro Adib said that Jamal entered a coiffeur shop and never left.

After being missing for nearly a week, Egyptian authorities found her shot dead and buried in a villa farm in Al-Geeza province.

Local media said prosecutors’ investigations alleged that her husband was involved in her murder following marital disputes.

It was also reported that a witness testified before prosecutors that he had close ties with the husband and “was aware that the husband was allegedly involved in the murder over marital disputes since he witnessed the circumstances and knows where she was buried.”

Prosecutors summoned some of Jamal’s family members, who testified that she “vanished while she was with her husband.”

Due to his work as a judge, which grants him immunity, prosecutors obtained special permission to question the husband and issued an arrest warrant.

Egyptian authorities did not release any details on how the murder happened despite unsubstantiated rumors circulating on social media that her body was subject to alleged abuse and disfigurement after she was shot. It has only been confirmed that the investigation is ongoing.

Prosecutors said they gathered evidence that corroborated the witness account pertaining to the body’s whereabouts.

Crime scene investigators and prosecutors accompanied the witness and a forensic examiner to the villa where Jamal’s body was found buried. The witness admitted that he collaborated in the crime before he was detained.

Born in 1980, Jamal presented several TV shows, the most famous of which was “Al-Mushaghiba” on LTC satellite channel. She was suspended in 2017 for allegedly using heroin during a live episode about drug addiction before later clarifying that it was “soft sugar powder that she took for acting purposes and not heroin.” She was then nicknamed the “Heroin Anchor.”

She also worked for Egypt’s Al-Hadath Al-Youm.