CAIRO: General Prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud referred eight government officials, including the deputy governor of Cairo, to a criminal court for involuntary manslaughter and injury to the residents of Duweiqa who were victim to a massive rockslide in September 2008. A source inside the prosecutor general's office said that interrogations of all parties involved suggest that these eight officials are responsible for the disaster. The officials are from the Manshiyet Nasser District Authority as well as the housing and property management departments in the district. Investigations revealed that they have failed to act on a number of official technical reports which called for the evacuation of all residents at the upper part of Duweiqa as well as the building of a fence around it as it is a sewage area. In addition, a committee of experts formed by the prosecution office attributed the rockslide to the geological nature of the area, which has many fractures, in addition to the dense population and the lack of a proper sewage system which led to water leakages and eventually resulted in the rockslide. MP Mahmoud Amer, member of the People's Assembly's security and national defense committee, told Daily News Egypt, "For them to remain silent despite the knowledge of the risks, they have been refraining from their duty which is a crime that people have paid the price for with their lives. "They should have reported to the security forces, the Ministry of Housing and the Governorate of Cairo, he added. In a press statement released by the Governorate of Cairo, Governor Abdel Azim Wazir said that he formed a technical committee of geographers from the General Authority for Mineral Resources to locate the sources of water leakages in Duweiqa and allocated all the necessary funds for the research. In addition, Mokhtar El-Hamalawy, deputy governor of Cairo for the eastern part, said that they are currently relocating residents from the endangered areas in Duweiqa and evacuating other areas as well, according to a press statement. "There is a lot of squatter settlements at the moment located at different parts around the country. No one knows if it's safe for people to live there, so putting those [officials] on trial will set an example for others to examine if these places are suitable for living and if not they have to relocate the residents elsewhere, Amer said. In September 2008, a massive rockslide in Duweiqa killed over 100 people and injured hundreds more. Duweiqa is currently undergoing renovations and around 25 acres of the surrounding area were evacuated.
