Issue No. 597
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1 - 7 August 2002 Issue No. 597 Home news |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Trial continues
PROSECUTORS demanded the toughest penalties for 11 minor railway employees in their trial at Giza's criminal court, reports Gihan Shahine. The defendants -- mainly ticket collectors, train masters, supervisors and mechanical engineers -- are charged with negligence which led to the death of 373 people on 20 February when Aswan-bound train No 832 caught fire. The defendants are also charged with squandering LE1.6 million-worth of public funds as a result of the damage caused by the accident.
Two of the employees -- who lawyers expect will be convicted -- were accused of issuing reports that certified train 832 as being well-equipped and fit for transport purposes, even though it lacked fire extinguishers and carried twice its capacity.
A tense atmosphere dominated the courtroom as Prosecutor Essam El-Deweiny announced the charges against the defendants, while at least 20 lawyers who had taken the case pro bono stood in front of the bench insisting that the defendants were innocent and that a "lack of funds was the real culprit in the accident".
El-Deweiny explained that "the doomed train moved towards death on the tracks of negligence and indifference". El- Deweiny accused the defendants of violating professional ethics and rail regulations and of having failed to fulfil their duties, asserting, specifically, that the train was not maintained or regularly inspected and that passengers' luggage was not checked to ensure that they were not carrying any unsafe items.
The defence, however, insisted that a lack of funds was to blame, further contesting the authenticity of the report issued by the technical committee assigned by the general prosecutor's office to investigate the accident. The report, the defence claimed, was too "academic" and not "down-to-earth".
The defence referred to another report by a parliament investigation committee to support their argument. The report concluded, the defence said, that the Railway Authority "has been suffering for at least 10 years" which should be blamed on "successive transport ministers and prime ministers who did not provide the Railway Authority with adequate funds".
Defence lawyers, however, told Al-Ahram Weekly that they are not optimistic about the fate of their defendants. "It seems quite possible that at least some will receive a prison term," one of the lawyers said.
Extradition denied
ON MONDAY, Britain's Home Secretary David Blunkett announced that there was insufficient evidence to support the US's extradition request for Yasser El-Serri, who is wanted for alleged links to Al-Qa'eda network.
El-Serri, head of the London based Islamic Observation Centre, is also wanted by Egypt where he has been sentenced to death in absentia by an Egyptian military court in 1994 for plotting to kill a former prime minister -- a crime which he has repeatedly denied involvement in. El-Serri, who has been freed on bail, was ordered discharged on Monday at Bow Street magistrates court after Blunkett's announcement.
El-Serri has lived in Britain since 1994. He was arrested in October last year and charged with conspiring to assassinate Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was mortally wounded in Afghanistan by two suicide bombers posing as journalists on 9 September. However, charges against El-Serri were dropped when a judge ruled he was an unwitting accomplice.
El-Serri was immediately rearrested on a US extradition warrant, which alleges he sent money to Afghanistan, knowing that it would be used to sponsor terrorism within the US.
Sentence upped
A STATE SECURITY court on Monday sentenced Mahmoud El-Fouly to 25 years in prison after convicting him at a retrial of joining the militant Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya and for involvement in the killing of a policeman. El-Fouly's previous five-year sentence for the same crimes had been overturned.
President Hosni Mubarak ordered the retrial in May.
During El-Fouly's first trial, the court had said it was lenient with the defendant because he had surrendered to authorities.
Going home
EGYPT is to recover two Pharaonic funeral masks and a granite stele which were stolen and smuggled to the United States. A Culture Ministry delegation, led by the department chief for the recovery of Egyptian antiquities, Abdel-Karim Abu Shanab, has travelled to Washington to accompany the pieces on their journey home.
The masks date back to the Roman period (30 BC to 395 AD) and were found by chance in a police raid on the home of a US arms smuggler, Abu Shanab said before leaving.
He said the stele was stolen from the ruins of a temple for the goddess Isis in the Nile Delta region of northern Egypt. It was discovered just before a June auction in New York by Christie's auction house.
Archaeology for children
CULTURE MINISTER Farouk Hosni was scheduled to inaugurate on Thursday a museum studies summer school programme for children at the Egyptian Museum. Nevine El- Aref reports.
In the garden of the Egyptian Museum, children from five to 12 years of age will gather for museum studies classes. The programme is the first of its kind in Egypt, and is similar to ones at the British Museum in London and the Louvre in Paris.
"It is a significant achievement that aims to raise the children's awareness of their heritage and enhance their identification with it," Hosni said in a statement regarding the programme. He explained that the summer school will not only teach the history of the objects on display but will enhance participants' awareness of the artistic dimension of each piece.
Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that the school will accommodate 200 children who will be divided into two groups according to their ages. Classes, which are to run for three hours each day, include extensive tours of the museum's various exhibits.
According to Hawass, assignments for programme participants will include drawing artefacts, creating replicas of Pharaonic pieces of jewellery out of coloured clay, and sculpting wooden statues.
"The best piece of art will be exhibited at the museum and the child who created it will be honoured," Hawass said.
Risky separation
AFTER consulting religious scholars, the family of the one- year-old twin boys joined at the head agreed to the performing of risky separation surgery on the babies.
Soon after their first birthday, Mohamed and Ahmed Ibrahim went to the United States for medical evaluation by a team of specialists and surgeons. It was discovered that the attachment of the twin's heads is extensive, and that it includes the connection of blood vessels, making the separation very risky.
The twins' family were left with two choices: either agree to a risky operation separating the babies or choose to sacrifice one life for the sake of the other.
Dr Nasser Abdel-Al, head of neonatal surgery at Abul- Reesh Hospital in Cairo, who accompanied the twins to the US, said that the mufti, Mohamed Ahmed El-Tayeb, gave "his blessing" for the surgery to separate the twins.
"Our main concern was the mufti's [opinion]. Now that we have [his] green light there is nothing else to be done," Abdel- Al told news agencies. "The family is giving us full backing whatever the results."
Abdel-Al is waiting for US doctors to set a date for further tests to determine exactly how the operation should proceed. A date for the tests is expected to be set within two weeks, he said.
Compiled by Shaden Shehab
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