Damaged evidence

A STATEMENT issued on Monday by the defence team in the case of the Revolutionary Socialists indirectly accused prosecutors of fabricating evidence against the defendants. According to the defence committee, the report of the technical committee that was examining the hard drive of a defendant's personal computer revealed that the specifications of the computer they examined do not match the specifications documented in the official investigations of the prosecutors. Moreover, the hard drive delivered to the technical committee of experts was "damaged".

The trial, which began last December, involves five anti-war activists: Ashraf Ibrahim, imprisoned since April 2003, and Yehia Fikri, Nasser El-Beheiri, Mustafa Bassiouni and Rimon Edward, who are currently in hiding. The activists were referred to an Emergency State Security Court for allegedly forming a clandestine organisation which intended to overthrow the government and replace it with a "hard-line communist" regime.

Human rights groups accuse the security bodies of fabricating the case to intimidate political activists and prevent popular demonstrations, which are banned under the Emergency Law.

Woman to head Egyptian Museum

FOR ONLY the second time in its history, a woman has been appointed curator of the 100-year-old Egyptian Museum, reports Nevine El-Aref .

Wafaa El-Sediq, who was the director-general of the scientific department in the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and head of the International Union for Children in Germany, was named on Monday as the head of the famed Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square. Soheir El-Sawi held the position in 2000. Immediately after taking office, El-Sediq is expected to accelerate implementation of the project to build an annex to the museum including a scientific library, a visitor centre, and souvenir shops.

Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the SCA, said that El-Sediq will also upgrade both the interior lighting system used inside the showcases and the way of displaying artefacts to match the example set other major international museums.

The current information labels provided for every object on display will be replaced by ones written in Arabic, English and French. A computerised documentation project for the museum's 160,000 objects, including artefacts in storage, will be carried out.

For her part, El-Sediq said that in order to make the best use of the artefacts that have been languishing in storage inside the museum's basement, a hall will be dedicated to hosting thematic exhibitions.

Three assistants, two of them women, have been also appointed to help El-Sediq in developing the museum.

El-Sediq received her PhD in Ancient Egyptian Antiquities from Vienna University and worked in the Egyptian Antiquities Organisation. She has participated in several international antiquities conferences in Austria, Germany, Spain and Egypt.

Tourists stabbed

ON SUNDAY two male foreign tourists walking through Islamic Cairo were stabbed and lightly injured. Internet cafe owner Hussein Ahmed Hassan was arrested by police on the scene and is being kept in custody pending investigation. Hassan allegedly stabbed one of the tourists, an Australian, in the leg, and the other, a Norwegian, in the back. The suspect is being detained on charges of attempted murder and possession of an unlicensed weapon.

According to investigators, 30-year-old Hassan, who has no previous criminal record, said he was outraged at political events in Palestine and Iraq. Police said that he mistook the two victims for Americans.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Interior, the minister of health had visited the hospital where the victims are being treated and said they would be released shortly.

Murder suspects arrested

POLICE have arrested a suspect in the murder of 42- year-old freelance art photographer Veronique Audergon. Her body was discovered when police broke into her apartment on 21 January after a neighbour complained about an odour emanating from Audergon's flat.

Audergon, who held both Egyptian and Swiss passports, had been strangled with a computer cable and stabbed 58 times.

Sherif Ali Mohamed Badr, 28, was arrested at his Cairo apartment on Friday night.

Reportedly, Badr became romantically involved with the victim four months ago while they were both studying at the French Cultural Centre in Cairo. Police say that Audergon attempted to back off from marriage plans, and in the course of an argument between the two, Badr became enraged and attacked her.

According to investigators, Badr has confessed to committing the crime and was found in possession of the deceased's cellphone.

In other news, police have also incarcerated a suspect in the murder of a Russian woman who worked as a restaurant receptionist. The suspect was identified as 18-year-old cleaner Ibrahim Abdel-Aziz Taffaf, who used to assist the deceased with the domestic work in her Heliopolis flat on a part-time basis.

According to police, Taffaf made a copy of the deceased's house keys and entered her house while she was away with the intent of robbery. Police say that the woman returned during the burglary, whereupon Taffaf panicked and killed her with a wooden chair.

Actor abroad for treatment

MILLIONS of fans of cinema star Ahmed Zaki are anxiously following his state of health after he went to Paris on 2 February for treatment. More than two weeks ago, Zaki contracted pneumonia and then suffered from acute pleuritis (inflammation of the lining of the lung). President Hosni Mubarak telephoned Zaki and urged him to seek treatment abroad at the government's expense. Egyptian doctors recommended the Institute Gustav Russy in France.

Zaki is undergoing a number of diagnostic examinations and is expected to return from treatment next week.

Minister of Health Awad Tageddin is in touch with Zaki's French doctors and regularly updates Mubarak on the developments in Zaki's case.

UNEP initiative

AMBASSADOR Lal Kurukulasuriya, the general counsel and chief of the Environmental Law Division of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), is leading a delegation visiting Cairo on 11- 14 February in collaboration with the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) to outline an environmental law training programme for Arab judges.

During his visit, Kurukulasuriya will be received by senior judicial and executive office holders of various judicial and executive bodies, including Environment Minister Mamdouh Riad, SCC Chief Justice Mamdouh Marie, and SCC Deputy Chief Justice Adel Omar Sherif.

He is expected to discuss UNEP activities in the judicial field at both regional and international levels.