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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 May 1999 Issue No. 428 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 May 1999 Issue No. 428
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Special Focus Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Gama'a lawyers threaten walkout
By Khaled DawoudThe Supreme Military Court decided on Tuesday to postpone for one week hearings of a case involving 21 leading members of the country's largest militant organisation, Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya, charged with plotting to assassinate top government officials in Alexandria in 1996.
The trial opened on 29 April amid controversy, with the court starting proceedings without informing the defence lawyers. As a result, they did not attend the first session. The opening of the trial also came as a surprise to reporters who had not been told the date of the proceedings.
Reports in the local press indicated that the trial was due to start soon, but no date had been announced. Montasser El-Zayyat, an Islamist lawyer who has been defending militants for years, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the defence team discovered that the first session had been held several hours after it took place. "We are seriously considering withdrawing from the case because of the difficult circumstances we are facing, which prevent us from doing our job properly," said El-Zayyat.
He said lawyers have not been handed the case file, which lists the charges and the results of the interrogation of the defendants. "We complained to the court that we have not received the case file, and we are facing serious difficulty in getting it. If we do not get it by next Tuesday, we will announce that we are pulling out," he said.
El-Zayyat indicated that the court's reluctance to give them the case file was due to the sensitivity of the charges and the names of the top officials whom the defendants were plotting to attack.
Most of the 21 defendants hail from Alexandria and the details of the case date back to 1996.
The fact that the defendants were put on military trial was another indication that the government, while taking conciliatory measures such as releasing hundreds of militants who have been held without charge during the past year, will continue to deal firmly with militants suspected of involvement in plotting or carrying out terrorist attacks.
The latest military trial, involving 107 suspected members of the militant Jihad group, ended on 18 April. The court sentenced nine Jihad members to death in absentia, issued prison terms ranging from one year to life against 78 and acquitted 20.
The Jihad group issued a statement on 28 April condemning the sentences and insisting that it would continue its struggle, mainly against the United States and Israel. "We refuse any reconciliation and will not seek any forgiveness," the statement said.
Last week, a State Security Emergency Court sentenced to life imprisonment two leading militant figures after convicting them of leading an illegal group which staged three assassination attempts and killed one police officer. Magdi El-Safti and Mahmoud Abul-Ela led a militant group named Al-Najoun min Al-Nar or Those Saved from Hellfire. During the 1980s, the group attempted to assassinate former interior ministers El-Nabawi Ismail and Hasan Abu Basha as well as the incumbent head of the Press Syndicate, Makram Mohamed Ahmed. Most of the group's members were arrested a few months after the attacks, except for Safti and Abul-Ela, who managed to remain on the run until the end of 1994 when they were arrested and put on a re-trial. While at large, another court had sentenced both defendants to life imprisonment. During an attempt to arrest both defendants in 1989, a policeman was killed and the defendants escaped.
According to Egyptian law, sentences issued by both state security courts applying emergency law and military courts cannot be appealed and only require ratification by either the prime minister or the president. However, defendants sentenced in absentia by state security courts have the right to be retried after their arrest. The sentences handed down by military courts against defendants in absentia must be executed immediately upon their arrest, even if they are death sentences. Defendants can ask the president or the prime minister for clemency, but all such requests have been turned down since the government started referring hundreds of militants to military and state security courts in late 1992.
