Former Cultural Palaces Director Mustafa Elwi and seven other top officials in the Ministry of Culture were each sentenced on Monday to 10 years' hard labour and given a LE10,000 fine for their responsibility in the Beni Suef theatrical conflagration, Nevine El-Aref reports The sentence came after the judge found them guilty of negligence in the application of fire codes and safety precautions at the Cultural Palace Theatre in the Upper Egyptian city of Beni Suef. The fire led to the death of 50 actors, students, journalists and theatre critics, and left 60 injured. The conflagration also led to public losses that cost the government about LE74,000. Elwi and the other defendants can appeal against the verdict. The judgment came after a year of extended criminal and administrative investigations in the aftermath of the fire at the Beni Suef Cultural Palace gallery, which occurred during a performance at the 15th Amateur Theatre Festival last September. The initial cause of the tragedy was thought to be candles used on the set of that evening's play, while the fire was fuelled by the materials used on the set, mostly painted paper and wood. When the fire broke out spectators, actors and theatre critics stampeded towards the doors, but the main door was locked and many people were trapped inside. Some found their way out through a small exit at the other end of the hall. When the deadly blaze was extinguished, nothing was left of the interior except ash. The cultural centre was on the fifth day of a nine-day event featuring performances from around the country. Up to 200 people were watching a theatre troupe from nearby Fayoum performing a play entitled "Grab Your Dreams" when the fire broke out at about 11:45pm. Perhaps to downplay the true dimensions of the tragedy, security officials had claimed that about 1,000 people were in the audience at the time, even though the venue appeared too small to hold that number of people. The play was set in a zoo, and the stage was made to look like a cave inside an animal cage. The ceiling, floor and walls were covered with paper bags painted to look like stone, and on centre stage was a paper mountain. Survivors testified that there were candles all over the set. It has proved very hard to determine who was responsible for the disaster. The tragedy has led to a fierce campaign directed at the Ministry of Culture, which is accused of negligence, especially in regard to its fire-prevention department. Writers, artists and intellectuals -- both individually and in groups -- have been speaking out vehemently against the ministry; and the nascent Writers and Artists for Change group, a peaceful political force, even filed an official appeal for investigation with the general prosecutor's office, pointing out that in the light of the very low budgets allocated by the ministry to such performances the theatre organisers could only afford an easily combustible set. Critics say that in view of this the ministry should make an effort to install proper anti-fire equipment. Effective alarm and sprinkling equipment might have contained the fire and limited the scope of the disaster, they claim. Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni dismissed the accusations levelled at him as unfounded, describing himself as the one with the most to lose. "The critics, students and actors who died formed part of the cultural wealth of the country, and they helped boost awareness of the arts," Hosni has said. In the wake of the tragedy Hosni tendered his resignation to President Hosni Mubarak, however the president rejected the resignation in response to pleas by some 400 high-profile intellectuals and it was decreed that Hosni should continue his duties.
