The Ministry of Immigration and Egyptian Expatriates' Affairs said on Sunday that the decision in the case of Egyptian engineer Ali Abul Qasim, who has been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia, is still under consideration by a higher court, and all reports about a suspension of the case, or a retrial, are inaccurate. Ali Abul Qasim, who had worked in Saudi Arabia since 2007, was sentenced to death in 2017 in a first degree decision, after conviction on charges of smuggling and trafficking drugs. The ministry denied allegations circulating on social media platforms that the Egyptian state had ignored the case. According to the statement, Egyptian state bodies have spared no effort in this case and in all other cases related to death sentences abroad. It said that the justice ministry, the foreign ministry, the general prosecution and the Egyptian Engineers Syndicate have been involved in Abul Qasim's case for two years. The immigration minister contacted the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Cairo and the Egyptian embassy in Riyadh to make sure of the delivery of all the papers pertaining to the case, which prove the innocence of the engineer, to the Saudi side, the statement added. According Abul Qasim's wife Ibtesam Salama, the Egyptian was arrested because he received equipment coming from Egypt which the Saudi authorities discovered had drugs hidden inside it. A previous ministry statement on the case said it was making all efforts to prove his innocence, as the Egyptian police had arrested the gang who were behind the drugs and confessed through investigations that Abul Qasim had nothing to do with the crime. In the Sunday statement, the ministry called on citizens not to succumb to these rumours and to understand that criminal cases are always subject to each state's law, noting that the ministry is certain of the fairness of the Saudi justice system.
