Jeg havde en meget speciel oplevelse på arbejde i dag, som jeg har skrevet en kommentar om til vores database på www.arabwestreport.info. Den vil jeg gerne dele med jer alle sammen, da historien meget godt viser nogle af de problemer, der eksisterer i Ægypten, hvad angår sekterisk rygtedannelse, og snyderi indenfor retssystemet:
Illegal detained or a threat to national security?
Last week I was contacted by a priest who told me, that he knew a family who was distraught because a family member was being detained, so far for six month, without trial and that he was held in custody under wrong accusations. I talked with Cornelis and we decided to set up a meeting with the family at the office Monday May 25, 2009. The following is what we were able to derive from the meeting. It shows very well some of the problems in dealing with such cases and shows that stories of Christians being persecuted in Egypt are not just always black and white as often assumed.
Attending the meeting was Mr. Saad, who is the husband of the sister of the detained person, the mother of the detained, Menel, Cornelis and I.
Mr. Saad started by telling the story as it takes out through his point of view:
Anton is a 22 years old man who studies computer science in Maadi, working with home pages. A little more than half a year ago he had gotten in contact with a man named Salah from Morocco. They started talking about making business together. Anton made a web page for Salah and afterwards Salah wanted Anton to get customers in Egypt. So he did. He found three customers who paid a total of 27 thousand Egyptian pounds for Anton to make home pages. He changed the money paid by the customers into dollars and sent them to Salah in Morocco as agreed. One month later Salah stopped all communication with Anton and the three customers started accusing Anton of stealing their money since he was not able to finish the job without the money. One of the customers, named Muhammed, went to Anton's home and threatened to hurt his family. Anton replied in a chat, that if Muhammed would hurt his family in any way he would kill him. Mr. Saad told that Anton was shortly afterwards arrested pressed with charges of threatening to kill Muhammed. The police did not press charges against Muhammed for threatening Anton's family. Mr. Saad told that Muhammed started accusing Anton of using the money, they had given to him, on new computers and that he started to gather people to witness against Anton telling that he had stolen the money and used it on computers. Accusations that, according to Mr. Saad, are not true. These have been the charges for the last six month and nothing has happened since. Mr. Saad and Anton's mother told us, very affected, that the trial just keeps getting postponed every time a new trial is set. Mr. Saad further told us, that they only do this because Anton is a Christian and that Muslims do not want Christians to be involved in designing web pages. He told us, that they had offered to pay back the 27 thousand Egyptian pounds, but the family's lawyer said that the three involved customers would not settle with that amount any more.
So in short, if we should trust the family's version of the incidents it goes as follow:
- Anton is innocent in stealing the money from the three customers. He was tricked by Salah from Morocco and is thus a victim of a crime as well and not the one committing it.
It is right that Anton threatened Muhammed, but he only did it to protect his family and after Muhammed had made threats first. - Anton is being held in prison and his case postponed for this long because he is a Christian working with designing web pages.
- The witnesses are lying and bribed by Muhammed who wants to see Anton suffer as much as possible.
- The case is not about money since they turned down the family's offer to pay back the money, it is thus sectarian.
After hearing the story we were curious about some elements of it. When asking whether Anton had any receipts from the bank concerning making the transaction to Salah in Morocco, the family said that they were in possession of no receipt. The transaction can thus not be proved. This makes Anton guilty of foolishness but not guilty of the crime. When asking if the three customers were in possession of any receipt proving that they paid the 27 thousand pounds to Anton, the family told us they had none either. If that is true, then there is no proof of Anton ever receiving the money and he cannot get convicted of that crime. If there is no case against him why should he then be held in custody for six month?
About the accusations of the conflict being sectarian it might as well be, that Muhammed and the two other customers found that Anton is now in a weak position and that they might be able to get more money out of the family with the possibility that Anton might go to jail for good. Concerning the accusation of Mr. Saad that they are doing this because they do not want a Christian to design web pages Cornelis told that this is pure nonsense because there exists a huge number of Christian web-designers in Egypt already. It is unfortunately quiet common that accusation like these a dragged into play making more damage than good. Christians in Egypt often use accusations against Muslims to gain sympathy from foreign Christians, in this case from Cornelis and I, wanting to prove that Christians are persecuted in Egypt. We told Mr. Saad, that if he wants to help Anton he should drop empty words and focus on proving his innocence by presenting real evidence.
Disputes with word exchange as heard of in this case are common in Egypt and are not reason for imprisonment, especially not for a period of this extend. We thus wondered what might be behind the dragging on of this case for so long? It is not uncommon that people are treated unfair and unequal in court in Egypt, but a case concerning 27 thousand pounds and some heated threats are not enough to trigger such reactions. First of all we therefore wanted to know more about the lawyer of the family and where the family gets information from. We were told that everything goes through their lawyer. Cornelis decided to contact Raed Sharqawi who knows the laws in Egypt and has connections to find out more about the case.
Raed made some phone calls and contacted us again later with some stunning new information. He informed us, that a person can be detained only for four days without facing charges. When the charges are put the prosecutor can detain the prosecuted for 15 days. This period can be further prolonged for 15 days, but then evidence must be shown or the prosecuted is released. This means that there must have been a verdict of a kind in this case. And there was. The young man had been to court several months ago, but the judge had declared himself unable to judge the case. This happens only if the judge is related to any of the parties involved or if he hands over the case to the court of national security. This is only done in severe cases and thus does not apply to the rest of the story. So what is Anton really accused of having done? The fact that Anton already had been to court indicates thus far that the lawyer of the family has not been truly honest in this case, since he claims that there has been no trial. This sadly displays a not rather uncommon phenomenon in Egypt, this being lawyers exploiting people who are not aware of how the legal system works. There is a big chance that the lawyer in this case has told the family, that there has been no trial in order to get more money out of the family. Then what about the rest of the things that the lawyer has been telling the family? Is Anton being detained illegal so far? Does the case of the web pages have anything to do with the real reason of him being detained? And if yes, have the customers really turned down the offer of the family paying back the lost money? Was such an offer really given by the lawyer or are they just more empty words?
One thing that is for sure is that the long detention of the young man does applies to the “Law of Emergency” in Egypt, stating that a person can be detained without charges for a long extended period, if the charges concern national security. If this is the case it is clear that this has nothing to do with the 27 thousand Egyptian pounds or the threats made in the heat of the moment, but contains something far more serious. Raed further informed us, that documents state that Anton is detained in the prison of “Bab al-Khalq”, which is a state prison for people accused of threatening national security. Normally trials are public, but not in cases of national security. This explains why the lawyer has been able to keep it a secret for the family that he has been convicted already. They simply did not know that there had been a trial because their lawyer did not tell them.
What Anton exactly is accused of and what he might have done remains unclear. We can not reach any more information when the national security forces are involved, but it is clear that the detaining of Anton has nothing to do with money or threats written in a chat. This has to do with something far more serious. Anton is young and dealing with content of web pages can be dangerous in Egypt if you are not fully aware of what you are doing. It is possible that he has violated the law of national security somehow without knowing it. Whether this is the case or not is not for us to decide, but to bring light to some of the major issues in concern of general flaws in such cases is something we can do.
It is most likely that the family, except from the story of the persecution of Christian web-designers, has told the truth as it has been presented to them. The main problem seems to reach back to the lawyer of the family not telling the truth about the case and prosecution of Anton to gain more money from the family. Something like that is not just a bad thing in concern of families being exploited, but also in concern of spreading rumours like the state detaining people illegal. It also contributes to rumours of sectarian elements. Stories made up just to put accusations against accusations should be avoided with all means as they do not contribute to anything but moving further away from the truth. Things are seldom black or white. To state this it must be mentioned, that the lawyer of the family is Christian. In this case it was thus a Christian lying to and stealing from Christians and not Muslims. The story makes up a good example about being critical of judging to fast in such cases. From the beginning of our meeting and till the end the case had developed into a totally different case, showing that truth can be well hidden, especially in a country like Egypt.
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