CAIRO: Lawyers for 14 of the 26 defendants accused in the Zeitoun jewelry murder and alleged terrorist activities said they are being prevented from attending case hearings and are being kept in the dark regarding the whereabouts of their clients. According to a statement by the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, 14 people were arrested in two villages in Mansoura on July 2, two of which were named by State Security as part of a terrorist cell responsible for the murder of four Coptic jewelers in the district of Zeitoun in May 2008. By accusing them of the Zeitoun murders, State Security Prosecution "was plugging a gap that was causing the interior ministry embarrassment due to their inability to locate the perpetrators all this time, the statement read. The defense team asserts that the arrests and subsequent detainment are unconstitutional under the emergency law, which is still in effect. This is because the emergency law does not have a clause that circumvents Articles 41, 44 and 45 of the Egyptian constitution, which govern methods of arrest. According to these articles, search and arrest warrants can only be issued by a judge, and the warrant used to detain the accused was reportedly not issued by a judge. The proposed anti-terror law presented in the constitutional amendments of 2007 contains a clause that does not bind it to the articles, and under it, this method of arrest would be legal. Ahmed Seif El-Islam, head of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, said, "The case is more dangerous than 26 defendants who will be denied a fair trial. It highlights how Egyptians will be herded into a legal territory where security branches have an absolute power protected by constitutional disfigurement. State Security announced July 9 that 25 Egyptians and one Palestinian had formed a terrorist cell which was responsible for the murder of the Coptic jeweler and was planning other attacks, including bombing the Suez Canal. Two of the 14 arrested in Mansoura were named as part of the cell: Mohamed Fahim Hussain, identified as the ringleader, and Mohamed Hussain Ahmed Hussain. According to their lawyers, who presented medical reports to journalists at a press conference Thursday, the former is a paraplegic and the latter suffers from chronic active hepatitis. Lawyer Mohamed Shabana, who was present during the arrests, said, "I accuse the [State Security] officers who made the arrests of kidnapping, detaining the defendants in an unknown location and torture. .When I submit a request to the Prosecutor General I expect him to investigate, I want to know where the detainees are. "Every question I asked the State Security Prosecution about their whereabouts or the charges leveled against them, I was told 'It is not your right to know,' he added. Despite numerous attempts to locate the detainees, the defense team, which comprises 22 lawyers, has not been able to meet with their clients or be present during the prosecution's investigations, except in one instance by chance. Numerous requests submitted to the Prosecutor General, State Council, Minister of Interior and the President to locate the whereabouts of the detainees have gone unanswered. The lawyers said they were once prevented from entering the Prosecutor General's office for five hours by a security cordon outside. They were told by members of the Prosecutor General's office that the detainees have not been presented to the prosecution and that the office is not being given any information about the location of the detainees or the charges leveled against them. "Who controls this case, the Prosecutor General or State Security? The Prosecutor General does not know where the defendants are, Seif El-Islam said. The defense team only learned that the detainees might be subject to a hearing at the prosecution's office after State Security sent out a request for lawyers to represent the detainees, even though the defense team had informed the relevant authorities that they were representing the detainees. This was the one time three of the lawyers managed to sit in on a hearing. Although the prosecution had told them none of the defendants were present, they witnessed a detainee being brought into the building blindfolded and handcuffed, according to Sayed Fathi, one of the lawyers who was present. The lawyers said that the defendant, a university student, seemed extremely disoriented and told them he had been tortured while in State Security custody and had been subjected to electric shocks to his ears, nipples, penis and testicles while tied naked and splayed to a bed. Shabana said the torture meted out on the detainees was leading them to confess to any charges that may be leveled against them. "And you are told you are living in an era of freedom, of democracy and human rights, he said.
