DESPITE the naming of the first elected president and the endorsement of a new constitution, Egypt is still living through a state of revolution that seems to be lasting for some more months or even years to come. It is not only the unstable political and economic conditions that the country continues to experience, which prompts the enduring state of revolution, but also the many remaining unclosed and critical files. The uppermost file is that pertaining to the violent and deadly assaults carried out on the peaceful demonstrations during the 18 days of the revolution and the many successive events that took place in the country during the transitional rule of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). It is true that the international community has been observing the vicious perpetrated by the police forces, and then the military, against the protestors during last two years. However, not a single official or member of the police forces or military, except the former minister of the interior, Habib el-Adli, has received a court ruling and a prison sentence for the many crimes committed against the demonstrators, injuring thousands and killing hundreds of young people. The ruling military council and the new president have both also refrained from re-constructing the Ministry of the Interior and ridding it of its corrupt and compromised officers. Damaging evidence on the many crimes committed by some policemen against the revolutionaries has been concealed from the courts. This process has culminated in the issuance of court rulings clearing suspected police officers and policemen of these crimes and continuation of having victims without having named offenders. The last of those victims was the 20-year old Mohannad Samir, who was jailed for 11 months, found guilty of the charge of setting fire to the Scientific Institute of Egypt during the infamous ‘Cabinet street' clashes between the military police and peaceful demonstrators last year. They were protesting against the then SCAF rule and its new government under the leadership of Kamal el-Ganzouri. Despite his injury with a bullet in the knee, Mohannad was captured by the military police and held for long months as a suspect in the criminal act of arson at the historic institute. It was created by Napoleon Bonaparte during France's invasion of Egypt in the late 18th century. Ironically, Mohannad was an eyewitness of the murder of one of the martyrs, namely Rami el-Sharkawi, that day at the hands of men of the military junta. On seeing his close friend wounded in the knees, Rami rushed to Mohannad and hugged him to protect him against the rain of bullets fired by an officer with the aim of downing Mohannad but he murdered Rami instead. Despite his injury, Mohannad headed to the police station to report the murder of his friend at the hands of a military police officer. As opposed to being treated as an eye witness and sent to hospital for treatment he was jailed as a suspect in the crime of setting fire to the Institute, a charge of which the court found him innocent a few weeks ago. Instead of Mohannad being compensated for the prolonged injustice that suspended his academic career for one entire year and the authorities opening the case of the Cabinet street events' that claimed more than 15 lives, listening to Mohannad's testimony, the Egyptians woke up on December 29 to very different news. They heard of the injury of Mohannad, who had been hit by bullets in the left side of the head while joining the Tahrir protestors. It was at dawn when a car rushed into Tahrir Square with a gunman pointing at the youth who was sitting among a group of sit-in demonstrators outside their tenet in the centre of the square to wound him in the head to the astonishment and horror of his friends. Mohannad was transported to hospital struggling against death because of his sever injuries in the head that caused the eventual arrest of his heart before been revived by doctors in the intensive care unit. Despite his critical condition, the widowed mother of the 40-year-old continues to pray to God to save her elder son. She has asked all Egyptians to do likewise for the welfare of her family that lost their father some years ago and do not now wish to lose the elder son in this tragic way. Friends of Mohannad are sure that Mohannad was targeted by those seeking to silence him and close the case on the murder of peaceful demonstrators during the Cabinet street and many other clashes that took place in Egypt during the last two years with the aim of liquidating the revolution. Mohannad, who is struggling to survive this fatal injury will with his family, friends, and all other revolutionaries continue to believe that their revolution has not ended, which was intended to stop injustice and corruption in Egypt, fulfilling the martyrs' dream for a country where citizens can enjoy justice, dignity, equality and dignified living conditions.
