Below are two reports concerning the trial of Mootaz Attia Mohammed Hasan, known in Australia as Abu Quassey, which resumed in Egypt yesterday:
PEOPLE SMUGGLER FACES LIFE news24.com (South Africa) 25 October 2003 Cairo - Egypt's prosecution called Saturday for an alleged people smuggler, accused of organising a voyage in which 353 asylum seekers drowned near Australia, to be sentenced to life in prison, court sources said. Mootaz Muhammad Hasan, 37, has been on trial at a high state security court in Cairo since September 27 in connection with the deaths of the asylum seekers in October 2001. He is charged with "causing death by mistake" and of "aiding and abetting the entry of aliens without effective travel documents," sources close to the case have said. Verdicts in the court set up under emergency laws cannot be appealed, though Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak must approve them. Hasan is accused of persuading the mostly Iraqi, Afghan and Pakistani asylum seekers to pay $1 000 dollars each for a passage to Australia and jobs when they got there. Their old, rickety boat went down in strong winds, killing 353 people. But Hasan is pleading innocent. Defence lawyers argued that he was nothing more than an interpreter for the real mastermind of the people smuggling - Khaled Sherif, an Iraqi, who was arrested in Sweden and since extradited to Australia. Hasan was arrested in Indonesia last year and served time in jail there on visa violations, but Australia failed in an attempt to win his extradition as Indonesia has no laws against people smuggling. He was instead deported to Egypt in April and Australia has vowed to pursue legal action against him. The verdict will be delivered on December 27, a judiciary source said. X-URL: http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11- 1447_1435845,00.html ---------------- (translated by online software at atarjim.ajeeb.com ) 27 DECEMBER - THE JUDGEMENT IN THE EGYPTIAN CASE ACCUSED OF THE KILLING OF 350 INDONESIANS Al Gomhuria 26 October 2003 Books - Mohammad is inclinations: Abdine 's misdemeanors court decided the reservation of the case accused in it the Egyptian emigrant is Mu'tazz Atiya Mohammad with the accusation of the manslaughter to 350 Indonesia.. For the judgement by session 27 Decembers the next. Held the session with the presidency of consultant Essam is expelled with Rami Bashir 's arrival a chief prosecutor Abdine and the honesty of Khaled Amr 's secret. At the beginning of the session the court faced the accused with the accusations of the manslaughter. And smuggling the victim on them and others to Australia.. Then he denied the accusation. And Rami Bashir the chief prosecutor said that the accused its catch took place in Indonesia for its involvement in smuggling the persons to Australia. And that it persisted in that. And in the afflicted trip 350 persons met their death a drowning. And 51 persons survived. And he offered the chief prosecutor to the trial six big files contain thousands of papers around the investigations into the case and that happened in Indonesia and the sayings of survivors and witnesses. And the chief prosecutor added that the arrest of the accused partner took place and Khaled Sharif Daoud claims an Iraqi. Its catch took place in Sweden. And he recognized in the investigations that with it the Australian authorities carried out that the ship was worn and the rescue jackets by it not sufficient. For image of this article in Arabic see here: http://sievx.com/images/QuasseyEgypt/20031026AlGomhuria.jpg X-URL: http://www.algomhuria.net.eg/algomhuria/today/accedents/detail05.asp translated by online software at: http://atarjim.ajeeb.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This list is hosted by http://sievx.com SIEVX-NEWS is a low-traffic list for disseminating news about the SIEVX Affair. To unsubscribe: send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe sievx-news' in the body. All other requests/comments to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
