CAIRO: The Tanta Appeals Court commuted on Sunday the sentence handed down to two Tanta lawyers to two years and three months in prison. The lawyers were earlier handed down a five-year prison sentence for attacking the local prosecutor in Tanta city. Lawyers Ehab Saey El-Din and Moustafa Fatouh were handed the original sentence during a rushed trial earlier in June for the same charges of insulting and assaulting Basem Abu El-Rous, then local prosecutor in Tanta, the capital of Gharbeya governorate. The two lawyers were also charged with attacking some employees at Abul Rous' office and a number of policemen as well as causing damages to public assets, the office furniture. The lawyers have already spent three months in prison. “Such a harsh verdict shocked all lawyers [who expected that their colleagues would be acquitted],” lawyer Sayed El-Fiki from Gharbeya governorate told Daily News Egypt following the hearing. “The usual prosecutor here is to object to the verdict and call for another re-trial by a cassation court [by contesting the validity of the evidence],” El-Fiki added. The two lawyers claimed that they were attacked by Abu El-Rous and the security of his office first. A few days before Sunday's hearing, hundreds of lawyers resumed protests in the streets of Gharbeya. The Lawyers' Syndicate had previously ended its nationwide strike following the previous hearing on July 18 until a court verdict is announced. In response to the verdict, thousands of lawyers held several strikes and sit-ins nationwide, which led to a stand-off between lawyers on the one hand and judges and prosecutors on the other. The verdict was appealed and the two lawyers were granted a re-trial. In the latest appeals session, the defense team led by Lawyers' Syndicate Chairman Hamdy Khalifa, called for the temporary suspension of the verdict and the release of the two lawyers on bail until the investigation into their complaint against Abu El-Rous and the policemen was complete. The court disappointed many lawyers, though, by not responding to the defense team's request. The two defendants had earlier requested that an investigative judge, rather than a prosecutor, look into the incident based on Articles 50 and 64 of the Legal Profession Law. “The law dictates that if, for example, a lawyer [allegedly] attacks a prosecutor, the investigation cannot be carried out by a prosecutor,” syndicate board member Mohamed Abdel-Ghaffar previously told Daily News Egypt. However, according to Abdel-Ghaffar, also a defense team member, the prosecution proceeded with the case assuming the role of investigator and opponent at the same time. About two months after the incident, Public Prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud transferred Abu El-Rous to his hometown in Shebeen El-Koum, the capital of Menufiya governorate, a move perceived by many lawyers as an attempt to appease the local prosecutor. Meanwhile, Saey El-Din reportedly lost the ability to speak about three weeks ago while in custody. “The prison doctor examined my brother when he developed this state … and said that his case is psychosomatic [a psychological reaction to being kept in prison for so long],” Wael Saey El-Din previously told Daily News Egypt. The Lawyers' Syndicate is expected to escalate the case in reaction to Sunday's verdict.
