Italian woman faces jail in Egypt for adultery as custody battle intensifies

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When confirmation of the conviction on appeal came through, Nessy Guerra was still in Egypt, where she has been living for some time and which she is not allowed to leave. The woman, an Italian citizen originally from Sanremo, is the mother of a three-year-old girl and has for months been at the centre of a legal saga combining criminal law, a family dispute and diplomatic tensions.

The ruling hands down six months in prison for adultery. An offence that no longer exists in Italy, but which is still prosecuted under the Egyptian system.

The case stems from a complaint lodged by her ex-husband, Tamer Hamouda, an Italian-Egyptian citizen, and is part of a separation already marked by mutual accusations and a dispute over custody of their daughter.

The upholding on appeal of the first-instance conviction (19 February 2026) now makes the risk of imprisonment for the woman much more concrete.

The trial and the shadows over the case

The documents and the defence’s statements paint a picture that goes well beyond a straightforward adultery charge. The woman’s Italian lawyer has repeatedly argued that her client has been the victim of violence and threats at the hands of her ex-husband, circumstances which, she says, drove Guerra to try to leave him.

In this context, the criminal charge appears closely bound up with the personal conflict between the two. During the proceedings, the man’s behaviour was described as disturbing. According to what was said in court, he is reported to have made statements considered highly unusual, even going so far as to cast himself in a “divine”, punitive role. Although this episode did not formally affect the judgment, the defence highlighted it as symptomatic of a broader and more troubling situation.

The central issue, however, remains the soundness of the prosecution case, built on legislation that criminalises extramarital relations, with women often treated more harshly than men.

The three-year-old girl and the exit ban

Alongside the criminal case, a second and perhaps even more delicate front has opened up: that of child custody. The girl, who is around three years old, is in Egypt and cannot leave the country. She is subject to an exit ban obtained by her father as part of the legal dispute.

This restriction has effectively blocked any attempt by the mother to return to Italy. It also means that any court ruling concerning the woman risks having a direct impact on the child’s future.

Guerra herself has repeatedly expressed her fear, including in public, that a final conviction could undermine her position in the custody case, paving the way for the girl to be placed in her father’s care.

The role of the Italian authorities

The case is being closely followed by Italy’s diplomatic network, with the embassy in Cairo and the consulates providing legal and administrative assistance and direct support to the woman and her daughter. The affair has also reached the political arena, with contacts between Rome and the Egyptian authorities to keep attention on the case.

This was confirmed by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who explained: “We are following the case with particular care; our ambassador in Cairo has been monitoring both the mother and the daughter. After all, there has been a ruling handed down in that country. We will see what can be done, in the hope that the judgment may change at the third level of appeal.”

There is, however, a clear limitation: the case is unfolding within the Egyptian jurisdiction and involves both a criminal trial and a local family court case. This means Italy can provide assistance and exert diplomatic pressure, but cannot intervene directly in court decisions.

A rare case for an Italian woman, but with precedents in battles over children

Nessy Guerra’s situation is unusual for an Italian citizen, especially given the level of public exposure. But the pattern that emerges – a criminal charge cutting across a bitter family battle over a child – is far from new in Egypt.

The same dynamic is already apparent in Guerra’s own case: the conviction for adultery comes at a time when a custody case for the daughter is still open, and, according to the defence, risks weighing directly on the judges’ decision.

Looking at past cases helps to shed light on the context. In 2018, for instance, an Egyptian court granted custody of a girl to a foreign mother after a long legal battle with her Egyptian ex-husband. In that case, the judges dismissed the man’s allegations – he claimed the woman wanted to take their daughter abroad – and ruled that the mother could keep the child with her, but under specific conditions, such as a ban on leaving the country and an obligation not to remarry.

And this is precisely the point: under Egyptian law, child custody follows very rigid rules and can change rapidly once certain factors come into play. As a rule, the mother keeps custody in the child’s early years, but she can lose it if she is deemed “unfit”, if she remarries or if she runs into legal trouble.

In other cases, the battle moves onto an even more complex terrain. The story of little Shenouda, for example, showed how custody decisions can hinge on legal, religious and administrative factors: the boy was taken from the family that had brought him up and placed in state care after a legal dispute over his identity, before further court rulings reopened the case.

In this context, accusations such as adultery are never a stand-alone issue. They can become a decisive factor in already tense separation proceedings, influencing the judge’s perception of a parent’s “suitability”. And it is precisely this overlap between criminal law and family law that makes Nessy Guerra’s case so sensitive: it is not only about a conviction, but about the very real risk of losing her daughter.