By Heba Fahmy
The theft of Van Gogh’s “Poppy Flowers” from Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo left the world shocked and the Ministry of Culture red-faced.
The masterpiece was cut out from its frame with a box cutter in broad daylight on Aug. 21.
Poor security measures were blamed for the theft of the $50-million-plus painting. Investigations revealed that the number of security guards in the museum was reduced from 30 to nine. Most days the number was further reduced so that there was only one guard on duty.
Only seven of 43 surveillance cameras in the museum were functioning and none of the alarms went off during the theft, shedding light on the poor state of security at Egyptian museums.
The museum didn’t keep any records of its visitors and the metal detector wasn’t working during the theft.
The circumstances surrounding the theft caused a scandal for the Ministry of Culture and started media spat between Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni and Deputy Minister and Head of the Fine Arts section Mohsen Shaalan, who accused Hosni of using him as a “scapegoat.”
The Dokki Misdemeanors Court tried 11 museum officials and employees including Shaalan and found them guilty of gross negligence and harming state property in the Van Gogh theft.
The defendants received the maximum sentences of three years in prison and LE 10,000 bail to be released until the appeal.
The defendants appealed the verdict and the hearing is scheduled for Jan. 6, 2011.
During the trial, the defense team called for the release of the detainees on grounds that there was no criminal offense in their charge sheet, merely administrative offenses, and criticized the fact that the defendants were referred to a criminal court not an administrative one, based on their charges.
Some of the lawyers called for the interrogation of Hosni, while others called for filing charges against him on allegations that he was well aware of the deteriorating situation of the museum and decided to ignore it.
Hosni gave a voluntary testimony to the prosecutor and dismissed his subordinates’ accusations before the trial started in September.
He said in his testimony that he had delegated full financial and administrative responsibility of the Mahmoud Khalil Museum to Shaalan, according to a 2006 decree and denied ever knowing the museum’s poor state of security.
Ministry officials have not announced any information regarding any progress in the search for the masterpiece or the thieves who stole it.
Talaat Moustafa trial
The trial drama of real-estate mogul Hisham Talaat Moustafa that gripped the Arab world since 2008 continued in 2010 as the court sentenced Moustafa to 15 years in prison for inciting the murder of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim before hearing the lawyers’ pleas or the rest of the witnesses’ testimonies.
Moustafa was found guilty of paying retired Egyptian police officer, Mohsen Al-Sukkari, $2 million to kill 30-year-old Tamim in Dubai in July 2008.
Al-Sukkari was sentenced to 25 years in prison for carrying out the murder. He was also sentenced to three more years for using an unregistered weapon.
Al-Sukkari is accused of brutally killing Tamim, who was stabbed several times and had her throat slit, at the behest of Moustafa, who was romantically involved with the singer.
“Some witnesses gave their testimonies and we were waiting for the rest of them to testify after the judge adjourned the session. About five minutes later we were surprised to find him pronouncing the verdicts,” lawyer Atef El-Menawy, representing Al-Sukkari, told Daily News Egypt following the trial in September.
“Lawyers were not [even] given the chance to make their pleas … I’m 72 years old and throughout my long career as a lawyer I have never witnessed such an incident,” El-Menawy added.
In May 2009, Moustafa and Al-Sukkari were found guilty of the murder of Tamim and were sentenced to death by hanging in the initial trial.
However, a higher cassation court overturned the death verdict, ordering a retrial in March 2010 due to legal errors in the first trial.
“At this stage, thank God Moustafa escaped a life sentence and execution,” Moustafa’s lawyer Farid El-Deeb told Daily News Egypt in September. “But I still can’t understand the logic behind the court’s decision to [give a verdict] before listening to the lawyers’ pleas.”
“Based on legal rules, the verdict is considered invalid [for being given suddenly]. So I will object to the procedural invalidity,” El-Deeb added.
The defense team contested the verdict before a higher cassation court and is awaiting the court hearing.
Moustafa, the billionaire and former MP and chairman of the construction giant Talaat Moustafa Group, was arrested in September 2008 after his parliamentary immunity was lifted. He was also a member of the policies secretariat of the National Democratic Party.
Mohsen Shaalan speaks to the press during one of the hearings of the Van Gogh trials. (Daily News Egypt Photo/Heba Fahmy)
A Compo Picture of Hisham Talaat Moustafa and Mohsen Al-Sukkari. (AFP Photo)
