Arab West Report Egyptian press summaries and media research for dialogue

The defendants fear that the trial of their case will be overshadowed by the heated atmosphere after the incidents in Qena on Coptic Christmas Eve.

 

Lawyers Mamdūh Ismā‘īl and Muhsin Bahnas filed a motion to the State Security Criminal Court which states that the schedule of the al-Zaytūn cell’s trial on February 14 [the day after the start of the trial of the suspects in Naj‘ Hammādī attacks] will harm their case. The cases are related as both involve charges of killing Christians.  

 

The defendants fear that the heated atmosphere following the Naj‘ Hammādi incidents will influence the course of justice, especially since the suspects in the so-called al-Zaytūn cell are facing charges that the defense think are fabricated, especially the charge of killing a Christian jeweler. [Reviewer: In 2008, men broke into a Coptic jeweler’s shop in the district of al-Zaytūn in Cairo. They shot the owner of the shop and other people who were in before they escaped].

 

The defense of the accused in the al-Zaytūn cell has asked the court to postpone the hearing of their clients’ case in order to keep the peace following the tense situation which accompanied the Naj‘ Hammādī incidents. The defendants suspect that the aim of the schedule was to incite the public opinion and to influence the course of justice.

 

Lawyer Mamdūh Ismā‘īl condemned the deliberate leak of special investigation details in the case of the al-Zaytūn cell, and subsequent the publication by some newspapers of those details over the past few days, as an attempt to aggravate public opinion and to sway the outcome of the trial. He pointed out that at the even though details from the special investigations had been leaked, members of the defense team are still unable to access various documents related to the case.