CAIRO: In 2005, police assistant Mohamed Abdel Ghafar won a lawsuit against the Ministry of Interior after he was fired from his job at Al-Montaza police station in Alexandria. Three years later and Abdel Ghafar still waits the implementation of the court ruling.
“I already won the case in 2005, however nothing happened and until this moment I have not been reinstated, Abdel Ghafar told Daily News Egypt.
According to Abdel Ghafar, he was fired from his job “for not going to work for a few days. Yet he had provided all the medical documents proving that he was in good health and that he is capable of working, all to no avail.
One of his sons explained that although his father has “the usual health problems he had undergone all the tests required to determine that he is physically and psychologically fit for work. “They did all the tests as if he is a new applicant, even the security checks, his son said.
The son added that the initial dismissal was attributed to “health problems but they later found out that the official explanation recorded as “inappropriate conduct.
According to Ahmed Al-Bahnasawy, editor of the Muslim Brotherhood daily newsletter which first reported the issue, Abdel Ghafar was fired following of a fall out with a political figure he was guarding. Abdel Ghafar’s son didn’t deny the incident but said such quarrels were common in this line of work.
According to his son, Abdel Ghafar received a notification of the dismissal at home. “This didn’t follow standard procedure which stipulates the approval of the interior minister.
“I have been working in the police force from 1970 to 1999 . Twenty-nine years serving the country and this is what I get at the end, said Abdel Ghafar, who had been trying to get back to work since 1999 and has tried all the possible means but eventually had to resort to court.
For financial reasons, the family couldn’t do much. When the financial resources became available, however, they were able to hire a lawyer.
The son explained that their father was the only bread winner in the family.
Because Abdel Ghafar was asked to leave his job, he now receives a LE 200 monthly pension. If he had continued working until he reached the regular retirement age, he would have been getting four times that amount.
“I am tired and sick and I cannot concentrate, Abdel Ghafar said. “And I have seven kids all enrolled in schools, what can I do? he added.
Abdel Ghafar won the first case, which reversed the decision to fire him, in 2003. Two years later, he won another case reinstating him at his old job.
According to Al-Bahnasawy, after filing a complaint to the Minister of Interior Abdel Ghafar was taken into custody from his house in Menufiya to the police station where he was jailed for four days and was allegedly tortured.
His son, however, denied such reports, saying “nothing of the sort happened.
Abdel Ghafar sent letters to both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior with all “the documents that prove his case, yet they all fell on deaf ears.
He now awaits an Administrative Court ruling to reverse the Minister of Interior’s decision to fire him from his job.
