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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31 March 1999 Issue No. 422 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31 March 1999 Issue No. 422
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Tales of horror in Shebin Al-Kom
By Shaden Shehab
Ten members of parliament alleged last week that the directors of two orphanages in Shebin Al-Kom -- capital of the province of Menoufiya, 50kms north of Cairo -- caused the deaths of some of the children in their care and sold their organs to major hospitals catering to the well-heeled.
They also charged that some of the children's death certificates could have been forgeries.
The deputies, who are members of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), said that 25 children, ranging in age from eight months to a year-and-a-half, had died within a two-month period and that their death certificates bore obvious irregularities. The nation was struck with horror.
The story unfolded on 15 March, when, during a parliamentary session, Shafiq El-Guindi, a Menoufiya deputy, announced that he would ask the government for information on the alleged sale of children's organs in the province. Speaker Ahmed Fathi Sorour responded that the request should be referred to parliament's social affairs committee. An angry El-Guindi was advised by Kamal El-Shazli, minister of state for parliamentary affairs, to file an official complaint with the prosecutor-general. The following day, El-Guindi, along with nine other Menoufiya deputies, approached the Prosecutor-General Ragai El-Arabi who agreed to launch an investigation.
Left at the doorstep
photo: Ahmed Abdel- Raziq
The two orphanages targeted by the deputies are the Women's Association for Health Care, founded in 1996 to look after parentless and abandoned children, and the General Association for the Care of the Handicapped, which was founded in 1997 for parentless, handicapped children. The Woman's Association was run by Mona El-Gazzar, while the other orphanage was run by her husband, television director Mohamed Abdel-Aal.
The two were removed late last year after an investigation by the Ministry of Social Affairs uncovered financial irregularities and exposed the poor quality of care at the institutions.
Both orphanages were run by a temporary management until last month, when a permanent team took over. The investigation by the Ministry of Social Affairs was the result of a complaint filed in May 1998 by lawyer Farouk El-Mehallawi, husband of Abdel-Aal's former wife. El-Mehallawi accused Abdel-Aal and his wife Mona El-Gazzar of trading in the children's organs.
Mahmoud El-Naggar, head of the ministry's social services department in Menoufiya, said "money donated to the orphanages was obviously not being used for the children. Upon taking over the orphanages, we found that all the children had been badly looked after, and had malnutrition and health problems, which were left untreated."
El-Naggar said when Abdel-Aal was removed, he closed the orphanage, took the 10 handicapped children to the local social affairs department and left them on the stairs. Social affairs officials, with police assistance, reopened the orphanage and took the children back.
There are rumours that the MPs filed their complaint because they are involved in a dispute with the governor of Menoufiya. It is also said that Abdel-Aal's former wife, Hala Zahran, who used to work with him at the association, approached the MPs in order to set up Abdel-Aal and his new wife, as an act of revenge.
Mahmoud Abul-Nasr, one of the MPs, told Al-Ahram Weekly that "it is true that there are disagreements between us and the governor, but saying that we made up the accusations because of these disagreements is absolutely not true. We are not so evil as to try to gain politically, at the expense of unfortunate children."
Abul-Nasr continued: "After all, isn't it true that 25 children died over two months? Isn't it true that the death certificates have irregular serial numbers? Did we make all this up to fight the governor, or are they facts?"
However, he said that the matter might have been exposed in the wrong way. "We should have gone straight to the prosecutor instead of announcing it in parliament," he said.
Shafik El-Guindi, the MP who requested the information in parliament, said that the matter had to be exposed, "after a high number of citizens pleaded with us to look into the suspicious actions at the association." He added that "the whole matter is mysterious, especially that it is not known where the children were buried."
Shebin Al-Kom's two grave-diggers, who are brothers, were reported to have said that they did not remember burying 25 children in May and June 1998.
"The fact that all the deaths occurred in government hospitals and they all received government-issued death certificates is strange," said El-Guindi.
He said the serial numbers on nine of the death certificates were consecutive, implying that "nobody else died in Shebin Al-Kom during that period." The numbers are also irregular in that certificate number 634330 is dated 2 January while number 634321 is dated 23 June. Moreover, all of the certificates are signed by the same health official, the doctor's signature is always blurred by the government stamp and the reason for death is usually heart failure or heart failure and dehydration. El-Guindi added that the MPs had the originals of the death certificates.
Mohamed Abdel-Aal, the former manager of the orphanage, told the press that the allegations against him were false. No charges have been pressed against him and prosecutors in Menoufiya declined comment, citing an ongoing investigation.
Zakaria Hanafi, lawyer for Abdel-Aal and Gazzar, told the Weekly that the allegations were "absurd". "When the truth comes out and all of the allegations are proved to be false, we will file a lawsuit seeking rehabilitation because these people have tried to do good and, as a result, have had their reputations tarnished."
Hanafi said the children died because they were in such bad condition when they were abandoned. He added that some of them had been found in rubbish bags. With regards to the irregular serial numbers, he said those numbers were taken from copies of the original death certificates.
Asked why Abdel-Aal, who has been described as not being financially well-off, took charge of the association if he did not have enough money to look after the children properly, Hanafi said that Abdel-Aal sold his car and relied on donations, "but he did not know that would not be enough."
In an official statement to parliament, Minister for Social Affairs Mervat Tellawi acknowledged that some of the deaths did occur in the orphanages but that they were "the result of gross negligence by officials and widespread corruption." The ministry launched an investigation and found evidence of financial and administrative irregularities. The results were sent to the governor who replaced the management.
The governor of Menoufiya, Adli Hussein, told the press that "up to 29 children at an orphanage, which is under investigation for alleged trade in children's organs, died of natural causes in the past two years." He said the authorities had not come across any cause for suspicion regarding the children's deaths.
Bahiga Hamam, who was appointed by the government to replace Abdel Aal as director, told the Weekly, "We have no knowledge or evidence about such charges. I don't think there is anything to these allegations." Asked about what the orphanage requires to operate efficiently, Hamam said, "We do not need anything. The donations we receive and the Ministry of Social Affairs give us enough money." Away from the eyes of officials, a three-year-old desperately asked the Weekly for 10 piastres. Given LE1 his face glowed and he said "I will not tell anyone."
