Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 March 2002 Issue No.578
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Over the border
ARAB LEAGUE Secretary- General Amr Moussa contacted the Iraqi government on Tuesday over the fate of an Egyptian and a Kuwaiti who strayed into the wrong side of the demilitarised zone (DMZ). The two men were with the Venezuelan ambassador to Kuwait when, during a visit to a UN Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM) camp on 15 March, the car was mistakenly led into Iraq by its UN escort.
Ambassador Eloy Fernandez said that his car was following the UNIKOM patrol car when "suddenly we were on the Iraqi side of the border."
The border, which is more than 100 kilometres north of Kuwait City, has been closed since the end of the 1991 Gulf War. It is fenced and patrolled by UNIKOM.
Fernandez and his companion Freddy Bernal, the mayor of Caracas, were allowed to return to Kuwait immediately. But Iraqi border guards detained Abdel- Aziz El-Masri Ahmed, the ambassador's Egyptian driver, and Jassim Al-Randi, a Kuwaiti municipality worker.
Secretary-General Moussa called Naji Sabri, the Iraqi foreign minister, to discuss the issue, the League said in a statement.
UNIKOM says Iraq has transferred Ahmed and Al-Randi to Baghdad and handed them over to the judicial authorities.

Egyptians in Guantanamo
FOR THE first time, Egypt has acknowledged that some of its nationals are prisoners in Camp X-Ray, the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In an interview with the daily Al- Ahram newspaper, Minister of Interior Habib El-Adli said, "The American authorities have recently arrested a number of Egyptian terrorists. They are now being questioned at the American base in Guantanamo Bay." He said prisoners belonged to Al-Qa'eda network and worked for Osama Bin Laden.
The number of Egyptians in Guantanamo is as yet undisclosed. El-Adli said US officials had not released an exact number because "fleeing members of terrorist organisations are not in the habit of carrying real passports."

Militant retried
ON SATURDAY, the retrial of a suspected Islamist militant began in a state security court. In 1992, Osama Farag, 38, was convicted in absentia of arson attacks on nightspots and police property and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment with hard labour.
Farag was deported from Bosnia last October. He now faces several charges including committing arson along with other members of the militant group, Al-Tabligh Wal Da'wa, in 1985 and 1986 and membership of an underground extremist group that advocates violence.
Under Egyptian law those sentenced in absentia are entitled to a retrial once in custody. During his retrial, Farag told the court he had not fled Egypt and that nobody tried to stop him leaving. He claimed that he had been held in a dark cell and subjected to torture since his return last year, and demanded a medical examination to verify his claims. The court was adjourned until 20 April.

No khul' for Copts
A CHRISTIAN divorce was refused by a court on Saturday. Mona Halim, an Egyptian Christian, was trying to end her marriage under the law of Khul'. The law entitles women to divorce by court ruling on condition they give up all financial rights. The divorce is permitted if three months of attempted reconciliation have failed or six months if the couple have children.
After the law was introduced, Christian scholars theorised that any woman could be granted a divorce if she changed her religion from that of her husband.
Halim left the Orthodox Coptic Church, her husband's denomination, to become a Maronite. She then filed for divorce.
At the hearing, the judge said that the Khul' was not in accordance with Christianity. "The Bible says that marriage is a sacred bond that cannot be broken unless adultery is committed."
Halim's is a seminal case and was followed closely by several Coptic women. Movie actress, Hala Sidqi, who attended the hearing, left the court in tears. She has been seeking a divorce for a decade.
Compiled by: Shaden Shehab

Recommend this page

© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved

Send a letter to the Editor

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