Fatemah Farag searches out the ghosts that may be lurking behind the sequence of events that led to Mamdouh Hamza's incarceration in the UK "The case of Mamdouh Hamza encapsulates everything that is wrong with our political system," said a senior political analyst, who preferred anonymity. "It reflects the system's lack of transparency, the unlimited power of ministers, and the inability to hold them accountable." Arrested upon his arrival in London on 12 July, Hamza -- who as the head of Hamza Associates, one of the largest engineering consultancy firms in the Middle East, was the consultant for such mega projects as the award-winning Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the lifting stations at Toshka and the design of Sharq Al-Tafreea Canal-- was charged with four counts of soliciting to murder. According to this week's local press, Scotland Yard claims that Hamza solicited the services of an unspecified number of Egyptians residing in Britain to assassinate four Egyptian public figures. The alleged price tag was $100,000 per hit. However, when the would-be hit men asked Hamza for a $5,000 down payment, he refused. The name that allegedly topped the hit list was that of Housing Minister Mohammed Ibrahim Suleiman. If this supposed scenario seems to be wrought with logical problems, it is utterly ludicrous as far as those who know Hamza personally, or know of him professionally, are concerned. An internationally recognised engineer, millionaire, social commentator and community activist, Hamza does not exactly fit the profile of a Mafia boss. If anything, said an old acquaintance of his, "Hamza is not a good social networker. He is outspoken and sometimes rash." The only explanation, then, for those who know Hamza, is that he must have been lured into saying something out of the ordinary, and then entrapped for it. The case has triggered a flurry of speculation in Egypt, where Hamza has been hailed by most of the media -- whether state- owned, opposition or independent -- as a model citizen and an outstanding public figure. Some pundits have suggested that Housing Minister Suleiman himself may have had some role in Hamza's entrapment, a charge which the minister has vehemently denied. The animosity between the two men is a matter of public record. According to a close associate of Hamza's, who once attempted to mediate between the two men, "he and Suleiman both came back to Egypt at about the same time after studying abroad. Hamza was by far the more brilliant, and Suleiman was always full of animosity towards him. From then on, whenever possible -- which was often -- he would be out to get him." In several previous interviews with the Weekly, conducted over the past three years, Hamza would constantly return to the theme of Suleiman's harassment of him, saying the housing minister was pushing him out of the market. Hamza's associate, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that all of the mega projects for which Hamza is best known were managed by foreign firms who chose their local partners, and "who invariably chose Hamza on the grounds of his superior work. And yet at the Ministry of Housing, one of the most important sources of work for contractors in Egypt, he was a persona non grata." An example, often recounted in journalistic circles, of this unfair dealing, involved Hamza offering to provide, gratis, the designs for a housing complex for journalists being built by their syndicate in the Tagammu Al-Khamis area just outside Cairo. Supposedly, when Hamza's plans were taken to the minister for the required licenses, he refused to process the papers unless Hamza was removed from the project. In London, Hamza's lawyers are refusing to make public statements. The court will be providing them with the evidence against their client on 18 August; the trial is scheduled to begin on 1 September. In Cairo, meanwhile, the press is having a field day. Al-Wafd, the daily mouthpiece of the liberal Wafd Party, suggested that Hamza Associates was involved in military construction deals in Iran (an allegation denied by the company), which angered the Americans, who then entrapped him in London. Other media outlets seem to have jumped at the opportunity of Hamza's arrest to begin investigating alleged corruption at the housing ministry itself. A short list of accusations compiled by Abdullah El-Sinawy, editor-in-chief of the Nasserist weekly Al-Arabi, listed billions of pounds worth of projects subcontracted by the ministry to a contracting company owned by Suleiman's brother-in-law. The company allegedly only gained prominence after Suleiman became minister in 1993. (see p. 10) A 284-page tome called The Housing Minister's Black Book, meanwhile, detailing Suleiman's alleged corruption and nepotism -- complete with documented evidence and records of court cases -- was widely circulated last week. In the introduction, the author, Mohamed Saad Khattab, writes, "I am calling for a public hearing to hold this minister to account for all he has done against [the Egyptian] people over the course of the past 11 years... He has ruined hundreds of contractors and shot down dozens of serious companies." Regardless of whether or not Suleiman will be investigated and held to account, Hamza will continue to face charges in London. And while the local press has accused the British government of unfairly treating Hamza, as far as the British government is concerned, this is a purely police matter. According to Caroline Alcock, second secretary at the British Embassy in Cairo, "the British government does not have a position on what is essentially a police matter so far." Alcock said the procedures Hamza has been subjected to are "not unusual. Twice weekly visits are the norm, and more are in the pipeline. We have also managed to arrange an additional visit to be undertaken by Ambassador Mohamed Shaker [of the prestigious Foreign Relations Council, of which Hamza is a member] next week," she said. In a phone interview with the Weekly, Hamza's wife Omayma Hatem said she was still hoping to get her husband out on bail before the trial begins. Towards this goal, his lawyers are collecting testimonies regarding Hamza's character and standing from top public figures. Hatem has been allowed to visit her husband twice since his incarceration and describes his prison as a "horrible place". According to Adel Hammouda, editor-in- chief of Sawt Al-Umma, the Belmarsh Prison where Hamza is being held is "Britain's Guantanamo, where those accused of terrorism are held without trial". Hatem said that while the facility is a maximum-security prison, Hamza is being held in a minimum-security area. "It is really very distressing," she said. Her husband has reportedly lost his characteristic portliness. "He has lost so much weight in such a short time," said Hatem "I fear for his health." The British Embassy's Alcock, however, said a doctor had seen Hamza, and that his health was "fine". Those who know Hamza well point out that confinement, for a man of his boundless energy, can only be an especially harsh experience. In a column by Hamza published in the Weekly last December on the deterioration of the country's capabilities, Hamza wrote, "our lack of fair competition in the domestic scene has sent to the top a group of incompetents who supervise our descent. As a community, we have failed to encourage talent or reward achievement. Why?" A quote by Ahmed El-Rifaei, honourary president of the Judges Club, used by Khattab in his Black Book seems particularly poignant in that respect: "corruption and corrupters are a part of dictatorship. Everyone has authority as a result of his position. So we find in every apparatus of the state a small dictator who exercises corruption." But this time, some argue, the perpetrator may have gone too far.
