Tragedy without clues

Tragedy without clues
The state of forensic medicine in Egypt is under investigation after facing the test of sifting through more than 300 charred bodies in last month's train fire. Dena Rashed examines the evidence
In the wake of the fatal train fire a fortnight ago, there was a compelling need to identify the bodies of the victims. No easy task: most of the corpses were so charred that even the victims' nearest and dearest could not recognise the dead. Families fought over blackened fragments of human remains. Others wandered the halls of the morgue in despair.
Medical science, it seemed, was failing us -- and before long, the role of forensic medicine was being vigorously debated in the press. Could DNA testing have put an end to the bereaved families' misery?
No one at the national Forensic Medicine Department, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Justice, would comment to the press about the usefulness of DNA testing in situations such as these. Before the accident, however, officials had been more open about the subject.
In an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly several weeks before the train fire, Chief Medical Examiner and Coroner Dr Fakhri Saleh -- who also heads the Medico-Legal Administration -- explained that while DNA tests were occasionally used to in criminal investigation in Egypt, their use had been limited because of certain constraints.
"It's easy to buy the necessary equipment for DNA tests if the money is available. But training the staff on how to use it is very costly, and that's where the difficulty lies," he said.
DNA testing was introduced in Egypt only in 1996, according to Saleh.
Nadia Kotb, head of the forensic department at Cairo University, confirmed the grim diagnosis. "We do not have experts who are well acquainted with DNA testing," she told the Weekly.
The nightmare faced by the men and women forced to identify their loved ones in the ill-equipped Zienhom Morgue will continue to haunt public consciousness, but meanwhile specialists in the field are debating the current condition and future of their profession.
The main focus of the debate is Egypt's Forensic Medicine Department. It was established in 1882, making it one of the oldest in the world. Over the years, the department has boasted a series of landmarks in research. It has also been crucial in helping to solve many famous criminal investigations.
In past years, however, the department's legacy has come under scrutiny especially with the proliferation of private-sector forensic laboratories. When the Weekly spoke to her, Kotb was defensive about this. "Most of those who work in those laboratories are mere technicians," she claimed, adding that while some of these labs tout ISO certificates it is unclear how exactly these were obtained.
Kotb did, however, admit that the private firms have emerged largely as a result of inherent deficiencies in the public sector. "In any part of the world, a second opinion is needed when it comes to forensic medicine. If the two then disagree, a third opinion would then be definitive," she said. In Egypt, though, getting a second opinion is still the exception and not the rule. "In the courts here, if the judge is not convinced by the report of the forensic medicine department, the court may then ask for another opinion," she added.
She believes that this system pushes people to use the private forensic consultancy services.
The Forensic Medicine Department examines about 18,000 cases annually, according to Saleh. "So basically there is no comparison between the private consultant offices and the department in terms of the number of cases," he said. "Private consultant offices only examine 100 to 200 cases per year."
It is a heavy workload for the department to bear. Saleh pointed out that the role of forensic medicine went way beyond mere corpses: "There has always been a misconception concerning the role of the forensic medicine department, where people think it is only concerned with examining dead bodies," he protested. Other roles include sections of the department that examine people to pronounce them dead. Others cover injuries, rape, battery and paternity tests. The laboratory forensic medicine section analyses bloodstains, saliva, sweat and any other evidence that can lead to solving criminal cases. The chemical laboratories section examines toxicants, narcotics and drugs. There is also a sector that is concerned with the examination of weapons, photography, and X-rays. "Then comes the counterfeits and forgery department, which has the largest number of cases," Saleh added.
Abdel-Fattah Ryad is one of Egypt's longest-serving experts in the field of forensic medicine. An ex-police officer, Ryad founded a private forensic consultancy in the early 1970s, with offices in the high-income district of Heliopolis.
"The presence of the private consultancies is very healthy for the Egyptian system. It avoids the monopoly on opinion" he argued. "Anyone who is not convinced by the forensic medicine department's report is allowed by law to ask for the opinion of a private consultant."
He believes that mistakes can be made in reports from the government's department because of the heavy case- load.
Ryad, who specialises in forensic counterfeit and forgery, sees his service as vital to people of all classes. "My client could be a simple lady, for example someone who has been paying a certain amount of money every month for a refrigerator. The vendor might, for example, have forged a document asking her to pay more money. If she was going to jail for that, she could come to my office and I would help her," Ryad said. "You cannot imagine the number of forgery and counterfeit cases that take place in one year," he added.
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