Odd circumstances

Fatemah Farag looks for clues regarding the arrest of internationally renowned Egyptian architect Mamdouh Hamza in London

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"This is a nightmare. A total nightmare," Omayma Hatem told Al-Ahram Weekly over the phone from London. Her husband, 57-year-old Mamdouh Hamza -- who has been under arrest in the British capital since 12 July -- heads Hamza Associates, one of the largest engineering consultancy firms in the Middle East. He has worked on mega projects like the award-winning Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Toshka and Sharq Al-Tafri'a. He is also a current affairs columnist and a major player in the Children's Cancer Hospital fund-raising initiative.

Hatem said she had "been told he is detained on charges of entrapment. Why and how I do not know." News agencies managed to pick up a few more details from a Scotland Yard spokeswoman, who said Hamza, "an Egyptian with no residence in the UK, appeared in custody at Bow Street magistrate court on 14 July, charged with four counts of soliciting to murder, and was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on 21 July".

A court hearing is due to be held on 1 September.

According to Ibrahim Hilal of Hamza Associates, Hamza "had been invited to attend the Queen's birthday party at Buckingham Palace on 13 July. He was due back in Cairo on 16 July, but his wife called the office and said he was not feeling well, and that we should carry on with our business as usual. We are used to Dr Hamza's frequent travels, and we adhered to normal work procedures."

It was only when the local press broke the news of his arrest on Sunday that colleagues and friends discovered the truth behind his absence. "The first few days after his arrest, I was in a state of ugly shock," his wife said. "I was sure everything would be cleared up immediately. During that time, I only spoke to family. But then people started calling to ask about what was going on, and I told them."

The rumours have been rife. According to independent weekly newspaper Sawt Al-Umma, Hamza was arrested for plotting to assassinate Housing Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Suleiman. Another weekly, Al-Osbou', added the names of Parliament Speaker Ahmed Fathi Sorour and Zakariya Azmi, the president's chief of staff, to the alleged hit list.

The semi-official Al-Gomhouriya newspaper also reported that Hamza had been plotting to kill the housing minister. It quoted Suleiman as saying that Hamza went to Britain "to [hire] criminal elements to carry out the plan in Egypt".

Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit would not comment on the reports, telling reporters that Egypt was concerned that Hamza was being detained on undisclosed charges.

Although one source described the Egyptian government's attitude towards the case as "hands off", Abul-Gheit said, "the foreign ministry received the news of Professor Mamdouh Hamza's arrest with great concern. I have asked our embassy in London to make urgent contacts with the British authorities to establish the true nature of this case, and the charges being levelled against him."

When rumours that Egypt was involved in his arrest also emerged, Abul-Gheit himself stressed that "the Egyptian government did not request the arrest". Other Egyptian diplomats said, "we were not involved in this matter at all, before it came out in the press. We did not communicate any information to anybody in London."

Egyptian officials said that -- on the contrary -- they were trying to help Hamza. The Egyptian Consulate in London, they said, was ordered to help Hamza obtain defence lawyers. "This is our part, and we are doing it," said one official.

While the official refused to comment on Hamza's business dealings or possible squabbles he had with senior Egyptian officials or cabinet ministers, he flatly denied that the Egyptian Embassy in London had anything to do with arranging the arrest upon the request of a senior Egyptian official. "Egyptian embassies do not meddle with such affairs. This is not the role of the diplomatic corps," the official said.

Informed sources said the accusations Hamza was facing were not conveyed to the concerned British authorities via "the regular official channels", but via direct "legal contact between some of the concerned figures and Scotland Yard".

These accusations include conspiring to harm and attack senior Egyptian figures, as well as threatening to kill others.

It took Hatem until Monday to contact her husband. "There were problems with procedure. He is entitled to talk, but I had to forward money to him first, and they [British authorities] wrongly routed the money to Abu Hamza Al-Masry [a controversial UK-based Egyptian preacher]. But we were finally able to clear things up, and we spoke. His spirits were very low," she told the Weekly.

"However, when I told him of all the people in Egypt who have been campaigning for him, he cheered up," she said. "Now we are concentrating on getting him out on bail." Hatem said she had yet to be given any fixed dates regarding the developments in Hamza's case.

Abdel-Raouf El-Ridi, Chairman of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Relations, told the Weekly that the council was conducting high level contacts to ensure that Hamza is treated properly while awaiting his hearing in September. "Hamza is an active member of the council and of the civil society movement in Egypt in general. He is not just a topnotch engineer, but a true Egyptian intellectual who should be treated as such," El- Ridi said.

According to El-Ridi, a request from the council was forwarded to British authorities, and a delegation of the council's board members also held a meeting with the British ambassador in Cairo on Monday to convey this message as well. "Our objective for calling this meeting was, first, to convey our deep concern over the developments of this case. We did say that we are very disturbed by the sudden accusations and the arrest of Hamza," El-Ridi told the Weekly.

The council delegation also asked British authorities for permission to send a delegate to meet with Hamza, and offer support. "We have to get the approval because otherwise a council delegate could go to London and not get access to Hamza. The problem is there are some unclear aspects of this case, so we have to be acting in agreement with the concerned authorities," El-Ridi said.

Hilal, who described Hamza as "a well known engineering consultant [who] has been honoured and recognised by many international organisations, and is a public figure in his own right", said, "I find it quite hard that anyone could believe any of the rumours being circulated. No one can figure out what is happening, and it is so difficult to speculate on what is going on. However, all those we deal with have expressed their solidarity."