Accused train driver detained pending inquiry into Monday's rail disaster; Prosecutors hear witness accounts from survivors who say train had stopped in Minya for technical reasons The prosecutor's office in the Egyptian town of Badrashin in Giza has referred the driver of the train that derailed on Monday night to police detention for four days pending investigation into the accident, which resulted in the death of at least 19 passengers. Head of the Badrashin prosecutor's office Mohamed Shokeir formally accused the driver, Magdi Samuel, of "unintentional murder" leading to the death of 19 Central Security Forces conscripts and the injury of at least 120 other passengers. The 12-carriage train that had been en route to Cairo from Upper Egypt derailed near the town minutes before midnight on Monday, eventually hitting another train standing at the Badrashin station. Samuel, for his part, has denied the charges levelled against him, saying that a technical engineer had inspected the train before it had set out from Upper Egypt. The Badrashin prosecutor's office, meanwhile, has summoned several rail workers – the technical engineer responsible for inspecting the train, the supervisor of the Badrashin train station and a railway crossing worker – for questioning. Meanwhile, the prosecutor's office in South Giza is questioning the police officers responsible for transporting the conscripts from Upper Egypt to the Mubarak Central Security Camp in Cairo. Ahmed El-Bahrawy, attorney-general at the South Giza prosecutor's office, has tasked an engineering committee with investigating the accident site in hopes of finding clues to the cause of the disaster. El-Bahrawy, who has drawn up a team of 30 prosecutors to investigate the incident, reportedly ordered a second visit to the crash site on Tuesday. Earlier Tuesday, prosecutors heard witness accounts from survivors. Several passengers reportedly confirmed that the train had made a brief stop at the Minya train station – reportedly for technical reasons – before resuming its journey to Cairo. According to Al-Ahram's Arabic-language news website, the South Giza prosecutor's office is expected to summon maintenance workers at the Minya train station for questioning. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/62550.aspx
