28 June - 4 July 2001
Issue No.540
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 28 June - 4 July 2001 Issue No.540 |
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Promoting women
STRESSING the importance of enhancing women's role in public life, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak chaired her seventh meeting of the National Council for Women (NCW) on Monday, reports Reem Leila. Noting that the NCW has no executive powers, Mrs Mubarak encouraged aggressive coordination with public offices as a way to bring the organisation's goals to fruition. Members discussed the NCW's schedule for the year 2001-2002 and ways to promote women in terms of economic and social development. Mrs Mubarak said that the NCW would set up training courses for young people, as well as the NCW staff, as a way to increase awareness of women's role in various fields. The NCW approved a working plan for cooperation with the international agencies, which, according to NCW Secretary-General Farkhonda Hassan, will take the form of financial and technical aid.A fresh start
SATURDAY's first hearing session of the Arkadia Mall murder retrial was less sensational than the hearings of the original trial. Omar El-Hawari, a 29-year-old businessman charged with stabbing to death 37-year-old Mahmoud Rawhi, board chairman of Hertz Egypt, was granted a retrial after an unexpected turn in events during the first trial. The high-profile murder, took place at the Pomodoro restaurant at the Arkadia Mall on 12 April. After 12 sessions of hearings, the first trial by a Criminal Court seemed to be approaching its end when matters took an unexpected turn. The defence team contested the jurisdiction of the court and accused the three-judge panel of bias -- in effect demanding a retrial before another circuit of the Criminal Court. Although the Cairo Court of Appeals turned down the defence's request, presiding judge Galal Ibrahim declared that he was excusing himself from conducting the hearings "because the defendant does not feel that the trial is fair." As the retrial opened, it became clear that the judge would not only hear the case against El-Hawari, as was the situation before, but about 20 other cases as well. El-Hawari was placed in the court's caged dock along with about 20 other defendants. The courtroom was packed with relatives and lawyers of all defendants and there was no chance for dramatic scenes by El-Hawari's fleet of lawyers or by Rawhi's family. No more photography either, as the judge forbade it. After the procedures of naming the lawyers of the defendant and the civil claimants, El-Hawari pleaded not guilty and the court opened the sealed envelope of "exhibit one" -- the butterfly knife allegedly used by El-Hawari. The defence demanded its witnesses be summoned to testify, that a court representative visit the scene of the crime, and that other related court cases be included in the trial. Essam Abdel-Aziz, a friend of El-Hawari's, is also on trial for inflicting a permanent scar on a friend of Rawhi's. The judge only agreed to summoning the witnesses. Hearings resumed on 27 June.Mechanism shut down
SECURITY authorities shut down the Cairo office of the Sudanese Centre for Human Rights and prohibited its activities on Egyptian soil. The centre is an affiliate of the London-based organisation and opened its Cairo office in 1991. Centre workers said that the office had been shut down to quiet the group's vocal criticism of the Sudanese government at a time when relations between Egypt and Sudan are improving. The centre has a history of denouncing Sudan's human rights record with regular reports on the torture of prisoners, arbitrary arrests, slavery and the government's role in the 18-year civil war against southern Christian and animist rebels. The Egyptian Association for Human Rights Legal Assistance said in a statement on Monday that the closure "will greatly damage the status of Sudanese refugees and the political opposition by depriving them of an important mechanism for expressing their problems, worries and political views."African interests
IN PREPARATION for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, prominent figures from the African continent gathered in Cairo for a two-day conference which ended yesterday, reports Dena Rashed. The conference aimed at defining the priorities, interests and concerns of African countries. In her opening speech, Minister of Environmental Affairs Nadia Makram Ebeid underlined the importance of preparatory processes around the world to the success of the 2002 Johannesburg summit. Ebeid also stressed the importance of environmental sustainability as a crucial pillar of development. "The conference aimed to assess Africa's achievements in the economic, social and environmental fields since the 1992 Rio summit: the obstacles facing the continent in achieving its goals of development and the effects of ongoing international changes on Africa," said conference chair Mustafa Kamal Tolba, president of the International Centre for Environment and Development (ICED) and former executive director of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). The recommendations of the conference will be submitted to the African ministerial meeting, organised by the Economic Commission for Africa and the UNEP, in October. Compiled by Shaden Shehab
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