A Qatari emir is accused of killing innocent bystanders after taking part in an illegal car race, and then fleeing the country with the alleged help of the police. Magda El-Ghitany watches the government try to soothe a nation's humiliation The uproar over a Qatari emir who took part in an illegal road race near Cairo Airport that ended with five Egyptian bystanders dead, and nearly 20 injured, and the reckless driver ferreted back to his homeland seemingly scot-free continued this week -- as the tragic tale made its way from the opposition to the mainstream media, and the government seemed to bend over backwards to prove that it was doing all it could to right the grave wrong that had clearly been done. On Sunday, Prosecutor-General Maher Abdel-Wahed announced that Seoudi Bin Salman Al-Than, the Qatari emir accused of taking part in the race, had been arrested in Doha. On Tuesday, Al-Than confessed to the crime. The announcement did little to quell the negative feelings catalysed by reports that Egyptian policemen had helped the wealthy 18-year-old emir flee the scene and travel back to Qatar on a chartered flight shortly after the tragedy. Abdel-Wahed said that an Egyptian delegation went to Qatar on 5 October to follow up on the interrogation of Al-Than with the Qatari prosecutor-general. "Egypt demanded that [Al-Than's] trial be held in Egypt," Abdel-Wahed said. At the same time, the prosecutor-general also indicated that if the trial ended up taking place in a Qatari court, representatives from Egypt would be in attendance. An Egyptian, meanwhile, was also placed under arrest. Rami Hisham Serri allegedly organised the race, although Serri's father said his son was innocent, and only being used as a scapegoat in place of the "real criminal". Another suspect, a young man named El-Moataz Billah Abdel-Rahman who also took part in the race, escaped. On Tuesday, Abdel-Rahman turned himself in to police. At a press conference on Sunday, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit told Al-Ahram Weekly that the Qatari government is "fully cooperating with Egypt in pursuit of justice". Interior Minister Habib El-Adli also spoke up regarding the case, saying, "illegal, random car races should be strictly prohibited and abolished in order to ensure people's safety." The sudden and intense government response to the crisis only materialised in the wake of an extended silence. It was after some of the victims' families appeared on the popular TV programme "El-Beit Beitak", denouncing the "government's reckless attitude concerning this issue", that things began to move. "None of the government's representatives moved to pursue any action toward this crisis," Ahmed Abdel-Latif, father of one of the injured, told the TV show, which appears nightly on state-run Channel 2. He said he had also tried to pursue the matter with the Qatari chargé d'affaires, who "declined to cooperate, and said that the Qatari Embassy knew nothing, and had nothing to do with," the accident, even though eyewitnesses "said the suspect escaped using a car with Qatari diploatic license plates". Abdel-Latif was also critical of the way some of the victims who sought medical attention were treated. As he was speaking, Health Minister Awad Tageddin phoned in to the show and refuted the father's accusations. According to Abdel-Latif, ambulances only arrived at the scene 50 minutes after the accident, and hospitals refused to admit the injured until deposits were paid. Over the next few days, "El-Beit Beitak" made painstaking efforts to present the government's side of the story. In a clear attempt at damage control, the show began highlighting the efforts made by different ministries -- interior, health, and foreign affairs amongst them -- to absolve themselves of blame for what had occurred. One of the hosts, Tamer Amin, even accompanied the health minister on a tour of a hospital where some of the victims were being treated. He also tried to assure viewers that "Egyptian lives are not cheap." Still, the particulars of the incident made that task quite difficult: observers, for instance, continued to wonder why the police had allegedly blocked the airport road so that the race could occur. What appeared to be bothering people most, however, was that nothing seemed to be taking place to prevent a similar tragedy from ever happening again. Banker Hussein Mahmoud, who saw the incident take place, told the Weekly that the race lasted for at least an hour, all in the presence of the police. Mahmoud was on his way to the airport when he saw an "insane" car race taking place on the airport road, with dozens of people watching from the sidelines. "Almost an hour later, on my way back, I saw a lake of blood at the scene where the race had been taking place. There is no way," he said, "that a race like this could take place for an entire hour behind the police's back." The banker said he has also heard of similar races taking place near the entrance to the Cairo-Alexandria highway. "It doesn't surprise me that the government did not quickly take the necessary action regarding this horrible incident," said one angry commentator, who refused to provide the Weekly with his name. "Anyone can do anything to [Egyptians], and no one will lift a finger. Egyptians now have a permanent feeling that even if hundreds of us die, it doesn't make a difference to anyone. At the end of the day, in the government's eyes, there are too many of us anyway. If 10 or even 100 die, what difference does it make?" American University professor Galal Amin, a prominent economist, told the Weekly that, "corruption and breaking the law are now mainstream traits of the Egyptian state apparatus, as well as the society as a whole. This race crisis is a striking example." In fact, noted Amin, the crisis highlights the corruption of some Egyptian policemen, since "it would be impossible to claim that the race was not licensed, or that [the Qatari emir] ran away without the police's help." According to Amin, it is inconceivable that a similar incident could take place in any other Arab country. Prominent columnist Salama Ahmed Salama said it was a "pity that the state exerts its maximum efforts against student demonstrations, for instance, but has a hard time bringing justice to a case like this." Al-Ahram writer Sekina Fouad told the Weekly that the race scandal is only one incident among "many others in the chain of carelessness that Egyptians are constantly being exposed to." Fouad listed the recent "Beni Suef fire that killed 48", as well as the tragic Upper Egyptian train fire that killed hundreds three years ago as other clear examples of "the careless attitude with which Egyptians are treated". These and other incidents had the cumulative effect of "Egyptians experiencing almost constant humiliation in their homeland." According to Fouad, if the media had not put the race crisis in the spotlight, "none of the government officials would have bothered to react." The only real way to reverse the humiliation, she said, would be to implement the law without exceptions. On TV, the families of the victims appealed to President Hosni Mubarak to ensure justice was served, and the president ended up making a phone call to the El-Beit Beitak programme at the end of Saturday's episode. "Egypt will follow up on the Qatari interrogations very closely," Mubarak said. "All the [race's] victims are Egypt's sons. They are my sons. The suspect will be tried and justice will definitely prevail."
