CAIRO - Cairo police launched a large-scale hunt for a 'bearded' man, who is allegedly accused of pouring hot acid on a shop owner on Saturday for refusing to join the afternoon prayers in a mosque in the poor Cairo district of Manshiyat Nasser, security sources have said. Ahmed Sayyed Saeed was hospitalised after his body had been covered in burns that he sustained following a vicious acid attack by one of his neighbours, who is identified as Gendi A., and is known for his extremist views, the sources said. Saeed told police that he had a violent argument with Gendi over his refusal to stop smoking shisha and go to a nearby mosque to join the afternoon prayers with his fellow Muslims and attend a religious lecture given by a fundamentalist sheikh, they added. "Gendi, who is still at large, chided Saeed and throw acid at his face and body before running escaping the crime scene to an unknown location," the sources said, adding that they have reported the incident to the Cairo Prosecutor, who issued an arrest warrant against the suspect. Like scores of other acid attack victims in Cairo, a bed-ridden Saeed said that although he knows his attacker very well, the police have so far done nothing to bring him to justice. "After years of indifference to a rise in acid attacks across Egypt, which have disfigured both men and women, authorities should be drafting a legislation to restrict acid sales and punish perpetrators," Ekrami el-Sayyed, a Cairo-based lawyer, told The Egyptian Gazette over the phone when he was asked to comment on the Saeed case. El-Sayyed said there must be a law preventing the sales of acid, a chemical substance used to clean jewellry, unclog drains, and wash sanitary wares, to the public without permission. "Since there is no law to restrict acid sales to the public, thugs and outlaws buy it to intimidate and attack people," he said. He urged that the Government should draft up a legislation that would punish attackers with up to life in prison and require all acid sellers be licensed. Both acid sellers and buyers would need to carry identification proving their identity, Ekrami said. Strict laws on weapon sales made acid a cheap and readily available alternative, he said.
