By Mariz Tadros Until recently newspaper coverage of the northern coast was restricted to colourful features or else glossy advertisements for luxury villas overlooking the Mediterranean. In recent weeks, though, this carefully constructed image has been shattered by gruesome accounts of accidents and crimes committed by young and not so-young vacationers at the nation's smartest sea-side resorts. The most shocking incident was the death of university student Ahmed Abdel-Naim in early August at Marina, the luxurious sea-side playground of the rich. As he swam in a man-made lake, Abdel-Naim was hit by a jet-ski. As the driver fled to the shore, Abdel-Naim was helped out of the water by onlookers. The student was rushed to more than one medical centre along the coast and eventually arrived at a hospital in Alexandria where he died from head injuries. First reports of the incident were confused. One version of events had it that the student had swum across the line of buoys separating a section of the lake, devoted exclusively to swimmers, from the water sports area. Another version questioned whether the buoys provided a clear enough marker between the two sections. A few days ago, though, the case took an unexpected twist that may explain earlier, conflicting accounts of how the accident occurred. After the arrest of the jet-ski driver several pieces of the puzzle fell in place. Prosecutor Bahaeddin El-Morri, of Alexandria's Dekheila district, told Al-Ahram Weekly that new evidence as well as the driver's confession had established several facts -- "the deceased young man had not crossed to the other side... he was hit in the area designated for swimming only... the marking was very conspicuous". Two life-guards who witnessed the accident and who initially gave false testimony have been arrested and face charges of obstructing justice, added El-Morri. The driver, currently detained on charges of homicide, confessed that he was coerced to refrain from owning up because the jet-ski owner did not want his name to be associated with the accident. The owner, it emerged, is wealthy businessman Mohamed Abul-Enein, a member of the People's Assembly who currently enjoys parliamentary immunity. El-Morri said that it has not yet been decided whether the Justice Ministry will seek to have his immunity dropped. "We cannot look into that until we finish the investigation and right now a lot remains to be done", he explained. According to the confession of the driver, he had started the jet-ski and Abul-Enein had started water-skiing when a woman standing on the lake-side called him. Abul-Enein let go of the handles which became entangled in the buoys separating the water sports area from the swimmers' section. As a result, the jet-ski crossed over to the swimmers' area. Abdel-Naim, who had dived below the water, re-surfaced to have his head hit the jet-ski bottom. He died eight hours later. Abul-Enein, whose seven-year-old son was on the jet-ski when the accident took place, told the Weekly that he would make no statements to the press until the investigation was complete. But he vowed a public statement afterwards. The deceased's parents are angry that Abul-Enein did not inform police he owned the jet-ski. They believe that their son might still have been alive had Abul-Enein taken action to move him to a place where the necessary emergency medical services were available. "I would have hoped that he would have rushed to help get him to hospital rather than to leave him to bleed for several hours before being transferred to a medical centre," said Mohamed Abdel-Naim, the student's father. Marina's board of trustees have reacted to the accident by banning jet-skis and motorbikes from the resort in a belated attempt to satisfy those who have complained about increasingly chaotic conditions caused by the irresponsible use by young people of motorbikes, jeeps and water sports equipment, resulting in many hit-and-run accidents. "This, and other incidents that have taken place in the same summer resort, reveal the contempt the children of rich and powerful parents display for the law," says columnist Salama Ahmed Salama. (see Close up) Fadya Abu-Shehba, a specialist at the National Centre for Sociological and Criminological Research, blamed the summer's accidents and mishaps on parents who provide their offspring with too much pocket-money. "A lot of research on youth and violence focuses on problems of poverty, deprivation and unemployment," she said. "But young people with too much money are capable of even greater wrong-doing. They are given complete freedom... are never disciplined and feel they can assert their supremacy over all others." Related: The Marina syndrome
