CAIRO: Will the Al-Zaitoun massacre be another John Doe case? This is the question asked by everyone keen to know how such a well-planned crime was committed. It is a crime that still preoccupies the public, especially since all indications exclude a terrorist action or sectarian unrest. Security forces are straining every nerve to solve the case, in which four people were killed in an attack on a jewelry shop in May. But so far finding the perpetrators has proved impossible, although police often announce they are close to catching them. They have combed the area where the incident took place, as well as the various places linked to the victims themselves. Some suspects have been arrested and extensive interrogations have been conducted with the victims' relatives. But despite extensive investigations into the relationships between the victims and the injured, the police have so far drawn a blank. The Al-Zaitoun massacre, however, is not the first, and may not be the last case of its kind; there are a great many serious crimes the perpetrators of which have never been identified. The Maadi serial killer, for example, emerged at the beginning of last year. At the time, he committed several similar attacks in the same place and in the same manner against Maadi girls. The crimes have stopped, but the killer is still on the loose. In January 2006 there was the Beni Mazar massacre in which an alleged mentally disturbed villager was charged with committing the crime unconsciously, despite the professional manner in which the crime was committed and the absence of evidence against him. He was acquitted later the same year, and the real perpetrator has never been caught. The acquitted man is still away from his home, fearing revenge from those villagers who still believed him guilty. The disappearance of Reda Helal, the renowned Al-Ahram journalist, is still a mystery. On Aug 11, 2003 the he vanished without a trace and his whereabouts is still unknown. A year earlier there was the ill-fated train accident in which thousands of innocent people were burnt to death when a fire broke out on the high-speed train carrying thousands of passengers away on holiday. A number of railway officials have been made scapegoats. Like the Beni Mazar suspect, they were acquitted. There are many such crimes, and they often spring to mind when one is confronted with a new John Doe case, such as the Al-Zaitoun massacre. Chairman of the Alexandria Criminal Court Justice Ashraf Al-Baroudi told Daily News Egypt that a John Doe case does not mean a crime has not taken place, but that the perpetrator has never been caught, forcing the Public Prosecutor's Office to shelf the case until the perpetrator is uncovered in the process of investigations. A security source said the prosecution resorts to the term "unknown in the absence of any lead or hope that the real perpetrator will be caught. Assistant Security Chief Samir Mamoun indicated that every case has its own particular distinguishing circumstances. He pointed out that no crime would be regarded as a John Doe case unless investigators felt certain that the available evidence was sure to lead nowhere. He noted that some cases are closed due to their being relatively minor, like the arrest of someone for possession of a single bullet. He added that everyone tries their utmost to solve public opinion cases, but sometimes you are really faced with the perfect crime. Justice Farid Nasr said that the increase in the number of such unsolved cases reflects the public's dissatisfaction with the outcome of the investigations. He added that security bodies often hand down their rulings before the end of the investigation, especially if the case has caused an uproar in public opinion. "You may be surprised that the Public Prosecutor's Office upheld the decision of the security authorities, as in the cases of sectarian sedition in Alexandria and Beni Mazar. Such decisions usually raise citizens' suspicions, he said.
