16 - 22 August 2001
Issue No.547
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 16 - 22 August 2001 Issue No.547 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Another chaotic Al-Nabaa hearing
The latest hearing of Mamdouh Mahran's trial by a State Security Misdemeanours Court was as stormy as expected, but it ended with a surprise announcement. Shaden Shehab was there
Sunday's third and, as it turned out, last hearing session of the trial of Mamdouh Mahran by a State Security Misdemeanours Court was as chaotic as the previous hearings, which began on 24 June. At the end of the three-hour session, presiding judge Osama Mohamed Ali announced that a ruling would be handed down on 16 September.
Mamdouh Mahran
Mahran, chief editor of the independent weekly Al-Nabaa and its sister publication, the daily Akher Khabar, is on trial for publishing articles and photographs on 17 and 18 June which purported to show a defrocked monk engaging in sexual activity with a woman. The newspapers claimed that this happened inside the Deir Al-Muharraq monastery, near the southern city of Assiut, but failed to mention that the monk had been expelled.
At about 10 am on Sunday, when the hearing was about to begin, lawyers of the Coptic Church became engaged in a verbal exchange with Mahran's lawyers over seating arrangements. As in the previous hearings, security men had ordered the church's lawyers to be seated on wooden benches on the left side and Mahran's lawyers on the wooden benches on the right. However, church lawyer Mamdouh Ramzi, for an unknown reason, insisted on sitting with Mahran's lawyers. After almost half an hour of exchanged shouts, security men managed to convince Ramzi to join the church's lawyers on the left side. Tens of security officers took position between the two sides.
Judge Ali then entered the courtroom and asked Mahran's lawyers to make their defence presentation. He was soon interrupted by Naguib Gabriel, a church lawyer.
"Your honour, we wish to be given the opportunity to speak out," Gabriel said.
"You are not entitled to speak because you are not party to the case. You are only permitted to attend because this a public trial," Ali answered impatiently. He then asked Mahran's lawyers to begin.
"We affirm our respect for the court and state that any previous actions taken by us were an exercise of our legal rights," said Mursi El-Sheikh, a lawyer for Mahran.
Mahran's defence team had contested the jurisdiction of the court and accused the judge of "not being the appropriate person" to hear a case that has attracted so much public attention. But the Court of Cassation quashed the request on 8 August.
El-Sheikh and another of Mahran's lawyers, Nabih El-Wahsh, demanded that an investigation into the actions of Adel Saadallah Gabriel, known before his dismissal in 1996 as Barsoum El-Muharraqi, and a videotape purporting to contain a record of these actions, be appended to the case evidence.
"This will show that Mahran published the truth because the woman who filed the complaint against El-Muharraqi said that he had been blackmailing her for the past 10 years, that is, before he was defrocked," El-Wahsh said.
"This is an insistence on defaming the church," Gabriel shouted, setting off another verbal exchange between the two groups of lawyers. Judge Ali left the courtroom.
More security men arrived and succeeded in restoring order. Ali came back and asked Mahran's defence to continue their presentation.
El-Sheikh said that an ordinary court, not a state security court, should hear the case. Mahran's lawyers had contested with the Administrative Court the prosecutor's decision to refer the case to a state security court which invokes the emergency law, claiming that this violated Mahran's right to be tried as a regular civilian and his right to appeal. The Administrative Court will announce its decision on 4 September.
Following a 15-minute break, Judge Ali made his own announcement: "A ruling will be handed down on 16 September." he said.
"Long live justice," cheered the church lawyers. Mahran's lawyers looked grim.
Mahran is facing five charges: undermining public order and social peace and spreading sensationalist disinformation; defaming the Coptic Church and harming national unity; inciting hatred and contempt for Christianity; publishing pornographic texts and pictures which offend public morality; and attempting to influence the judiciary. If convicted on all charges, Mahran faces up to 12 years in jail.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page