14 - 20 March 2002
Issue No.577
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 14 - 20 March 2002 Issue No.577 |
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Limited reshuffle
PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak appointed three new ministers on Monday, one of whom will head the newly created Aviation Ministry. Although splitting the portfolio of the Transport Ministry was expected, appointing a new health minister came as a surprise.
Ibrahim El-Demeiri, who resigned as transportation minister in the aftermath of the 20 February train fire that killed 364 people, was succeeded by Hamdi Abdel-Salam El-Shayeb, former head of the petroleum company, Petroget.
Former air force chief, Lt Gen Ahmed Shafiq, was appointed aviation minister. As part of planned state reforms in the transport sector, the aviation portfolio became a separate entity.
Former Health Minister Ismail Sallam was replaced by former dean of Ain Shams University, Mohamed Awad Tageddin. Observers believe that Sallam was removed because of public hospitals' poor standards, brought to focus when the people injured during the train catastrophe were admitted to Al-Ayyat Hospital, which was in an appalling condition. The insulin shortage in recent months was believed to be one other cause of discontent with Sallam's performance.
The three new ministers were sworn in on Tuesday.
One Islamic message
ALTHOUGH Egypt's mufti, Mohamed Farid Wassel, 65, had reached retirement age when he was replaced last Monday by Ahmed El-Tayeb, observers have a political interpretation of the move, reports Amira Howeidy. Wassel, known for his controversial fatwas (religious rulings), which were not always harmonious with the government or Al-Azhar's line, projected a rather independent image of himself since his appointment in 1996.
Wassel's most famous fatwas included accepting smoking as sufficient ground for divorce, banning television quiz shows on which winners make money and describing suicide bombers as martyrs. While both the mufti and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, are, technically, government employees, appointed by the president, the latter's post is higher. Which is why, traditionally, the mufti's position should agree with that of Al-Azhar's imam. Wassel and Tantawi, however, often disagreed over Islam's position regarding various issues.
El-Tayeb's appointment was well received by Islamic scholars. Mohamed Emara, a prominent Islamic scholar, described El-Tayeb to Al-Ahram Weekly as "a good, respectable man with an independent line of thought." Fluent in both French and English, a rare quality amongst religious officials in Egypt, El-Tayeb recently served as dean of the Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Awaiting a verdict
The SUPREME State Security Court concluded on Saturday the retrial of Sherif El-Filali, a 36-year-old Egyptian businessman accused of spying for Israel, and will hand down a ruling on 23 March.
During the final session, El-Filali's lawyer, Ahmed Abdel-Khaliq, reiterated his argument that there was no evidence to back the prosecutor's claim that the defendant was a spy for the Israeli intelligence body, the Mossad.
He reminded Judge Mohamed Shalabi that it was El- Filali who went to the National Security Agency, Egypt's intelligence service, on his own initiative to inform them of his suspicion that a Russian man was trying to recruit him to work for Mossad.
El-Filali was arrested two weeks after his arrival in Cairo from Spain in September 2000. His case was first made public two months later amid increasing tension in relations between Egypt and Israel after Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out. In summer last year, a panel of judges acquitted El-Filali because he had voluntarily come forward with information about his activities.
However, because El-Filali was tried under the Emergency Law, in effect in Egypt since 1981, state prosecutors are entitled to seek a retrial if they were not satisfied with the sentence. Under the Emergency Law, defendants are not allowed to appeal their sentences and can only seek clemency from the president or the prime minister.
While making his case, the prosecutor denied that El- Filali voluntarily informed authorities about his connections with the Mossad. The only information El-Filali came forth with, the prosecutor said, was an arms deal to Iraq he was involved in together with a Russian businessman he had met in Spain. The prosecutor also read out extracts from alleged confessions made by El-Filali in which he admitted to spying. El-Filali's lawyer denied his client had made any confessions, saying the statements were made under duress, after being kept in solitary confinement for two months.
Deadly interrogation
TWO POLICE officers have been arrested on suspicion of having tortured a person suspected of theft to death and severely injuring another, police sources said on Monday.
Mustafa Abdel-Salam and Sayed Eissa were on their way to visit a friend in Nasr City when two policemen arrested them and forcefully dragged them to the district's police station. Eissa and Abdel-Salam were interrogated by Major Hazem El-Derbi and his deputy, Captain Ashraf Gohar, who allegedly beat them brutally to extract confessions from the two men of their involvement in car theft.
The body of Eissa, a mechanic, was found dumped near his house in Basatin, while Abdel-Salam is being treated for severe body injuries at a Giza hospital. Both officers, remanded in custody pending interrogation, have blamed each other for the crime.
More 'debauchery' convictions
A MISDEMEANOURS Court convicted five men of debauchery on Monday sentencing each of them to three years in prison with hard labour, with an ensuing three- year probation period.
The men were also found guilty of running a house for gay sex parties. They have pleaded guilty.
Islam prohibits homosexuality and, though not explicitly referred to in the Egyptian penal code, a wide range of laws covering obscenity, prostitution and debauchery are applied to homosexuals.
Homosexual cases have prompted international concern and support from gay rights activists. Egypt has dismissed this criticism, saying the West should not impose its values upon it.
Last year, an emergency state security court sentenced 23 men to jail terms ranging between one and five years on sexual immorality charges. Another 29 men were acquitted.
Officials alleged the group included two government employees who used to invite gay young men to their house in Damanhur, 150 kilometres northwest of Cairo, for sex parties.
Policing the web
The Ministry of Interior claims to have uncovered the origins of the rumour that a serial killer was roaming Cairo's streets in search for his next victim.
A student in the Civil Aviation Institution, who has his own Web site, made up the story and posted it on his site, the police say. The rumour circulated rapidly when people started forwarding the story to each other.
He has been remanded in custody pending investigation.
Compiled by Shaden Shehab
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