21 - 27 December 2000
Issue No.513
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21 - 27 December 2000 Issue No.513 |
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Prejudging the case
By Nadia Abou El-Magd
"A defendant is hanged by the Mufti before he faces trial," wrote prominent columnist Salah Montasser in Al-Wafd newspaper. Veteran Al-Ahram columnist Salama Ahmed Salama insisted that "the legal system, the Shari'a (Islamic law), and legal principles all guarantee the accused the right to defend himself, no matter how great his crime... We can't cancel all that with a mere fatwa (religious edict) that undermines justice for the sake of making headlines."
Both journalists were responding to the news that lawyers are refusing to defend the alleged spy Sherif Fawzi El-Filali. The Mufti, Sheikh Nasr Farid Wassel, has claimed that defending him is "haram ... haram" (religiously forbidden), and anyone who would help him win acquittal would be viewed as a partner in his alleged crime.
El-Filali, a 34-year-old Egyptian engineer, was arrested last September after being accused of spying for Israel's intelligence service, Mossad. His trial is scheduled to begin on 13 January.
Interviewed by Al-Ahram Weekly at his office, Sheikh Wassel insisted that what he had said was quoted out of context. He explained that he was asked, at one of the seminars he attends during the holy month of Ramadan, about Islam's position on a lawyer who defends a spy. "It was a general question, and no names were mentioned," the Mufti said.
Sheikh Wassel also drew a distinction between the accused who admits to a crime, without coercion, and the defendant who denies committing the crime.
If a defendant admits to his lawyer that he committed a crime -- be it that of spying or any other -- the lawyer should not defend him and falsely try to prove his innocence. If the lawyer does go ahead with the defence, he would be defending immorality and would, therefore, be an accomplice in the crime. In case of defending a spy, the lawyer would be betraying his nation and religion, "because they are one and the same," Wassel concluded.
Wassel became Grand Mufti in 1996. He is the 18th Mufti since Dar Al-Ifta'a was established in 1895. More than 5 million fatwas have been issued since then.
"If the defendant has not confessed his crime to his attorney, and his lawyer does not have concrete evidence that he has committed the crime, it is religiously allowed to defend him; it is a religious duty to help him out of his ordeal, even if he does not have money to pay his lawyer," he added.
Wassel has previously issued a fatwa prohibiting Egyptian businessmen from having trade relations with Israel, describing such relations as "treason," especially during the Al-Aqsa uprising.
Wassel was also quoted by the Nasserist weekly Al-Arabi as saying that "visiting Israel amounts to a crime against state security," and that Egyptian men who marry Israeli women should be "punished."
"This is not marriage, this is sex outside wedlock and is forbidden in Islam," he was quoted as having said.
Islam, however, does not bar Muslim men from marrying Christian and Jewish women.
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