CAIRO: The South Cairo Criminal Court is expected to rule on Thursday on two of the most high profile cases; the baby purchase plot and the contaminated Hidelina blood bags. Earlier this year, seven Egyptians and four American women were accused of allegedly trying to sell four babies and issuing fake birth certificates and passports. Eight of them were arrested and three remain at large. The court is also expected to issue its verdict in the contaminated Hidelina blood bags case, where seven officials from the company and the Ministry of Health are accused of being involved in importing and selling over 200,000 blood bags that are not manufactured according to the ministry's standards. The blood bags were ripe with bacteria and fungi that, some doctors said, can cause cancer and hepatitis. The court has been hearing the prosecution's and defense lawyers' statements since last June. The court examined seven reports submitted by various authorities. All of them stated that the blood bag samples they had examined violated 14 local and international medical manufacturing standards. The prosecution demanded the maximum punishment for the factory owner Hani Sorour, former MP affiliated with the National Democratic Party who was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in January 2007; Dr Helmi Salah Al-Din, general manager of the blood unit at the Ministry of Health; Dr Mohamed Wagdan, chairman of the technical center in Hidelina; Nivan Sorour, Sorour's sister and board member in Hidelina; as well as three other company employees, Wafaa Abdel Rahim, Ashraf Ishaq and Fathia Ahmed Abdel Rahim. On Nov.7, the Cairo Appeals Court overturned a previous Criminal Court ruling exonerating those implicated in the Hidelina case and ordered a retrial upon a request from Prosecutor General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud. The court case dates back to 2007 when an employee at the health ministry, Soheir El Sharkawi, blew the whistle on 200,000 defective blood bags in the ministry's storage procured from Hidelina. Investigations also found violations in the license granted to Hidelina to provide the bags. However, the Ministry of Health insisted that no harm had resulted from the blood bags which contained what they labeled "industrial defects.
