An Egyptian military tribunal on Sunday acquitted an army doctor of a charge of public obscenity filed by a protester who claimed she was forced to undergo a virginity test while in detention.
The court denied the humiliating tests even took place, despite a ruling by another court and admissions by generals quoted by a leading rights group.
The ruling further infuriated the country's revolutionary youth movements, who have said claims of the virginity tests were the first sign that the generals who took over from deposed President Hosni Mubarak 13 months ago were carrying on his repressive practices.
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Less than four months before the military is scheduled to hand over power to a civilian administration, Sunday's verdict was likely to lend credibility to suspicions that the generals were trying to remove any basis for prosecution for crimes committed during their rule. Samira Ibrahim, one of seven women who said they were forced to undergo examinations to determine if they were virgins while detained by the military a year ago, won a civilian court ruling last year that affirmed the tests were taking place at military jails and ordered they be halted.
“No one stained my honor,” Ms. Ibrahim wrote on her Twitter account after the verdict. “The one that had her honor stained is Egypt. I will carry on until I restore Egypt's rights.”