Russian belly dancer faces charges in Egypt over racy video

The sources said the woman identified as Ekaterina Andreeva and known by her stage name “Gawhara” (jewel in Arabic) would be deported, but her lawyer said she would go on trial.

Authorities also accused the dancer of not having the proper documents allowing her to work and live in Egypt.

But her lawyer Mohammed Saleh denied the accusations against Andreeva and said rather than being deported she would face a trial at an undisclosed date.

“There will be no deportation because her papers are in order,” Saleh told AFP.

“She will face trial (for incitement to debauchery),” he added

The video, widely shared online, shows her performing a sensual dance in a Cairo club and wearing a revealing lace dress.

Andreeva had been detained at a Cairo police station, security sources said, adding she was expected to be sent back to Russia on Saturday.

But on Thursday night security sources said she had been released.

The authorities under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi have cracked down on some artists in Egypt using wide-ranging morality laws.

Shyma, a little-known 21-year-old Egyptian, was sentenced to two years in prison in December over a racy music video clip.

She was arrested after appearing in a video showing her in a mock classroom licking an apple and appearing to mimic fellation on a banana in front of a chalkboard scrawled with “Class#69”.

In 2015, a court jailed a female dancer to a year in prison for “inciting debauchery” in a raunchy music video for a song called “Let Go of My Hand”.