Decapitation in the Delta: Shebeen el-Kom Criminal Court has sentenced a driver to life imprisonment, having found him guilty of murdering a little boy. He cut the boy's head off, because he was angry with his father for spreading nasty rumours about his wife's behaviour. The two families were neighbours and related to each other. It was nearly two years ago, in October 2008, as reported in this column at the time, that villagers living in Denshawai near el- Shohada, el-Menoufia Governorate found the headless body of a boy in a sack, floating in the canal that runs through their village. The victim was identified as Mohamed Shaaban (four) and the driver, his father's paternal cousin, Khalifa Abdel-Fattah (43), was arrested on suspicion of murdering him. Khalifa admitted luring little Mohamed away from where he was playing outside his home with the offer of some sweets and then decapitating him. Hazem held the key: Police in Giza have arrested a young man on suspicion of burgling the flat of a teacher. The teenage suspect, who works in a shop that sells cleaning products, stole LE43,000 and jewellery worth LE60,000 from his victim. The teacher was named as Hazem Ragab and the thief as Moustafa Fawzi (17), a neighbour of him. When he was caught, detectives found LE10,000 about Moustafa's person. Hazem owns a carpentry workshop in the block of flats where he and Moustafa live. After iftar, Moustafa popped into the workshop to see Hazem's son. When the teacher and his son went off to say the Taraweeh (the extra night prayers, an optional addition in the holy fasting month of Ramadan), Hazem asked Moustafa to keep an eye on the workshop. While they were away at the mosque, he spotted the keys to their flat that Hazem had left on the workbench. Moustafa slipped upstairs, let himself in and stole the cash and valuables, before returning to the workshop as if nothing had happened. Red Sea rage: A butcher was stabbed to death and five other men injured in a violent argument in what is known as the Old Vegetable Market in Hurghada on the Red Sea. Police have arrested 80 people involved in the disturbance, in which knives and daggers were used. The clash pitted the butcher, his workers and his relatives against some street vendors who'd decided to sell their wares on the pavement outside his butcher's shop. The deceased was named as Nabil Salah Oweis (48), who died when tempers flared just before iftar. Many traders in the market said that this would never have happened if there were a greater police presence there. They have asked Red Sea Governor General Magdi el- Qabeesi to do something about this. Although so many arrests have been made, detectives are still trying to find their number one suspect in the death of Salah, who got fed up with the street vendors when he told them to move on but they wouldn't. The vendors became violent and one of them, the number one suspect, a 36-yearold ex-convict called Hani Mahmoud, fatally knifed Salah in the stomach. They also trashed his butcher's shop and that of one of his relatives.
