(Photo courtesy of Facebook)
The Administrative Judiciary Court ordered on Tuesday the state to fund the treatment of comatose protester Mo’awad Adel in the United Kingdom.
A pharmacy student, Adel has been in a coma for nearly 15 months after sustaining an injury while assisting injured demonstrators in a field hospital during the Mohamed Mahmoud Street clashes in November 2011.
Tuesday’s verdict binds the state to pay for Adel’s treatment and ease his travel arrangements. Mohamed Seliman, lawyer at the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) who represented Adel’s family, said that the verdict must be executed immediately.
“If the state has some respect for citizens’ dignity, it would carry out the verdict right away and allow Adel to pursue his treatment abroad as soon as possible,” Seliman said. “But then if the state had respect, it would not have forced us to seek a verdict in the first place.”
Adel’s mother was very grateful after the verdict was issued. “I pray that he gets well, I pray all the other injured protesters get better too,” she said.
The family delegated the ECESR to file a law suit against the president, the prime minister, the health minister, and the secretary general of the National Council for Assisting Families of those Killed or Injured during the Revolution. They are accused of failing to do their job in helping the injured and the families of those killed.
The cabinet had approved Adel’s treatment at the expense of the state worth £12,000 for a period of 15 days in the UK. The hospital that was going to offer Adel treatment refused to take him in and said his treatment would take months and the medical costs would not be less than £75,000.
Adel lies in a coma at Al-Qasr Al-Eini Hospital, suffering from quadriplegia and in critical condition. He was shot in the head during the Mohamed Mahmoud clashes in 2011 as he was running to help a protester who had fallen to the ground. Before Adel could reach him, the protester was shot in the head. Adel tried to carry him to an ambulance before also being shot twice in the head.
