Nagaa Hammadi trial postponed THE TRIAL of three men accused of killing six Copts and a Muslim guard in the drive-by shooting in Nagaa Hammadi on Christmas Eve last year has been pushed to 20 March after chaos ruled the courtroom on 13 February. The decision came only 35 minutes into the first hearing at the emergency State Security Court in Qena, southern Egypt, when a heated exchange between the defence team and the victims' lawyers forced a delay in the proceedings. The shootings also left nine injured. The prosecutor called for the maximum sentence for the three defendants -- Mohamed El-Kamouni, Qurashi Ali and Hendawi El-Sayed, all of whom pleaded not guilty. Former head of the Lawyers' Syndicate Sameh Ashour, one of the victims' lawyers, told the press that his defence team had agreed to the prosecution's decision to seek the maximum sentence, which calls for the death penalty. "We are seeking fair retribution for the lives of innocent victims," said Ashour. Tension was at its highest in the court when lawyer Naguib Ghobrial requested the court call upon People's Assembly Speaker Ahmed Fathi Sorour to testify. "I called for Sorour's testimony because he previously stated that he knows the person who incited the shootings, which means that the parliament speaker has information related to the trial," Ghobrial said. "I presented the court with original newspaper articles and copies of Sorour's comments which prove he has information which the court has a right to know," added Ghobrial, who filed the official request to the prosecutor-general. El-Kamouni, Ali and El-Sayed were escorted into the courtroom handcuffed and sporting white prison uniforms. An emergency State Security Court is an exceptional tribunal created under the emergency law to hear certain offences pursuant to the decision of the public prosecution office. Under this court, the victims' lawyers are unable to file for financial compensation for the victims' families. Instead, a new case must be filed in a civil court. Outside the courtroom, lawyers and the media were surrounded by heavy security, blocking the courthouse with barricades and armoured vehicles, and preventing would-be attendants from entering. Stabbing in Milan MORE than 100 youths demonstrated in Italy following the stabbing of a 19-year-old Egyptian in Milan on 13 February. The killing of Ahmed Abdel-Aziz was blamed on Peruvian and Ecuadorian immigrants, reportedly after an altercation on a bus. Rioters, many of them Egyptian, struck in the vicinity of the attack, overturning cars and vandalising shops belonging to South Americans. News reports said that four out of 26 Egyptians suspected of taking part in the rampage are in police custody while the rest have been released. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry stated in a press release that it was following up the situation with Italian police. Italian police are still looking for the killer. The Milan incident was the second major episode of violence in Italy involving immigrants this year. In early January, at least 70 people were injured in racial unrest in Rosarno, in southern Italy. Roberto Calderoli, a minister of the anti-immigration Northern League, said the incident "confirmed that we are paying for a mistaken ideology of the past... the policy of open doors for all." Calderoli, calling for "zero tolerance" towards illegal immigrants, warned of a situation similar to the unrest that has plagued French suburbs for years. Twelve die in hospital TWELVE patients died at Zagazig University Hospital this week after doctors refused to work without nurses who were on strike. The nurses have been demanding full health insurance. They also demanded the board of directors of the hospital be fired. None of the hospital's clinics were operating because of the strike. The dead included three newborns and nine patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Demonstrators requested the presence of the university's president in order to discuss their demands which included paying them their bonuses and exempting those who have been working for more than 15 years as well as those suffering from chronic illnesses from night shifts. Vice-President of Zagazig University Ahmed El-Refai told the demonstrators that Minister of Higher Education and of State for Scientific Research Hani Hilal had agreed to apply the cadre system on condition the minister of finance approves they receive LE4 million. Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Saad El-Esh denied the deaths were due to the strike. "The emergency section and the ICU were closed in order not to increase the number of deaths." Protests, protests HUNDREDS of workers at the Tanta Flax and Oil Company entered their tenth day of demonstrations demanding better working conditions. The 350 workers are on strike, seeking an annual pay raise of seven per cent and an increase of meal allowance from LE32 to LE90, in parity with workers in the public sector, and the reinstatement of nine workers who they say were unfairly dismissed. The men, who have been sleeping under donated blankets on the pavement opposite the Cabinet, are staging the protest as part of a long battle with Saudi investor Abdullah El-Kahki who bought the former public sector company in 2005. Some 50 women and children joined the 300 men who are demanding that the company either be run properly or that it be shut down after which they would receive their financial entitlements. Another demonstration involving 150 imams was staged in front of the Ministry of Endowments requesting a cadre and the creation of a syndicate to defend their rights. They described their protest as legitimate and were after improving their life. Near them, 40 workers affiliated to the prosecutor-general chanted slogans requesting the government pass a law affiliating them to the Ministry of Justice. Privatising health insurance was the target of demonstrations by several parties -- the Committee for the Defence of Rights; the Kifaya movement; political parties belonging to the Democratic Front, Tagammu, Karama and Wasat (under creation); and the Pension Union. Protesters requested an increase in the health sectors budget to raise salaries of doctors, nurses and health workers. And 15 physically challenged demonstrators sought to create their own syndicate. They also requested kiosks and apartments, in addition to setting up small businesses to improve their income. Membership lost MP HANI Sorour, involved in a contaminated blood bag scandal three years ago, has lost his membership in the People's Assembly. An assembly session was convened earlier this week to discuss his dismissal following the scandal which erupted in 2007 when two employees at the Ministry of Health found 263,000 contaminated blood bags in the storage room of the Ministry of Health and Population. The bags were infected with bacteria and fungi likely to harm patients if they had been given transfusions. Sorour, CEO of the company Hayedelena for Advanced Medical Industries (HAMIC), along with his sister Nivan Sorour, deputy CEO of HAMIC, and five employees from the Health Ministry were cleared of the charges. But in April 2008 Prosecutor-General Abdel-Maguid Mahmoud repealed the verdict issued by the Cairo Criminal Court that cleared those accused due to what Mahmoud deemed mistakes in the application of the legalities of the trial and the testimony of witnesses. Accordingly, Sorour, Nivan and the five employees were sentenced to jail for three years. Sorour was found guilty in absentia and is still at large.
