CAIRO: Civil rights lawyer volunteering for the prosecution in former interior minister Habib El-Adly’s trial, said he had not examined a letter sent by the Egyptian intelligence regarding footage of Tahrir Square taken during the January 25 protests before it was leaked on Twitter on Thursday.
Egyptian intelligence had allegedly sent a letter to the assistant prosecutor general stating that it possesses tapes that include footage of Tahrir Square between Feb. 1-3.
Lawyer Samir Helmy told Daily News Egypt that this letter wasn’t included in the case documents. He added that the lawyers couldn’t examine the tapes included in the evidence or make copies without getting further clearance from the court.
"In the next session we will ask the court for permission to review the tapes and make copies," Helmy said.
The letter also said that the footage taken from Jan. 25 to Jan. 31 was erased when other footage was taped over it.
The Egyptian intelligence justified this by stating that the surveillance system, installed in 1995, couldn’t automatically record footage and needed to be operated manually. The footage was shot with a camera fixed on the Egyptian museum.
The letter was signed by the Secretary General of Egyptian Intelligence, Raafat Shehata, and sent to assistant prosecutor general, Adnan Fangary.
However the authenticity of the letter couldn’t be verified until press time.
Essam El-Batawy, lawyer representing El-Adly, previously told Daily News Egypt that the tapes included footage from Feb. 1-8.
He added that the tapes show footage of attackers in civilian clothes targeting protesters in Tahrir Square, referring to the infamous "Battle of the Camel" of Feb. 2, when pro–Mubarak protesters raided the square on camel and horse-back, trampling the protesters.
Martyrs’ families
Meanwhile, less than 10 members of some of the martyrs’ families protested in front of the Ministry of Justice on Thursday, demanding that their lawyers receive permits to attend the trial of ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
"We want our lawyers to be able to attend the trial and plead our case in front of the court which is the least of our rights," Sanaa El-Sayed, 42, and mother of martyr Moaz Allah told DNE.
"I want justice," she added.
Others demanded that they be allowed to attend the court session and see Mubarak behind bars.
"I saw the court room on TV, it was empty, why won’t they let us in?" Badreyya Mostafa, 61, and mother of 32-year-old martyr Mostafa Shaker asked.
The new legal team, which was set up earlier this week to represent the martyrs’ families, threatened to boycott the trial if the court refused to allow them to attend the coming session.
"We might even escalate the situation and hold a nationwide strike in courts around Egypt," lawyer Abdel Moneim Maqsoud said.
The new legal team was formed due to the "weak performance" of lawyers representing the civil rights complainants in the first hearing on Aug. 3
Maqsoud said that the court presented no justification for denying them permits.
Mubarak, El-Adly and six of his aides stood trial on Aug. 3 charged with killing protesters during the January 25 uprising.
El-Adly’s case was adjourned till Aug. 14 while Mubarak’s case was adjourned to Aug. 15.
On another note, state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper quoted a high ranking source on Thursday, denying AFP reports that Minister of Defense Field Marshal Hussein Tantawy participated in the decision to cut off cell phone and internet services during the first days of the January 25 revolt.
The source stressed that Tantawy condemned and refused cutting off the communications’ service and the internet, adding that the military had no knowledge of the decision beforehand and was negatively affected by it.
Al-Ahram added that Mubarak’s lawyer Farid El-Deeb denied claims that Mubarak’s defense team made such accusations against Tantawy.
The source stated that the former minister of communications Tarek Kamel called Tantawy during the uprising, to take his advice regarding reactivating the communications’ service which was cut off at the time.
Tantawy allegedly responded saying, “Tell whoever ordered you to cut off communications to order you to [reactivate it].”
Last May, the administrative court fined Mubarak LE 200 million, former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif LE 40 million, El-Adly LE 300 million, for cutting off mobile and internet services during the first days of the uprising.
