Religious conflicts stir up court session

By Magdy Samaan

First Published: January 16, 2008

CAIRO: The court session of a convert filing a lawsuit against the Ministry of Interior for refusing to change his religion from Islam to Christianity on his national ID card, turned chaotic when 20 lawyers threatened and insulted the plaintiff’s lawyers Rawda Ahmad Saeed and Adel Rafie.
The police interfered to protect the plaintiff Mohamed Hegazy’s lawyers, who left the session before it came to an end. Hegazy was not present at the session and remains in hiding due to threats by some Muslim clerics who issued fatwas calling for his death.
“We escaped before they beat us,” said Saeed, who is also a member in the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRInfo).
Gamal Eid, also one of Hegazy’s lawyers, told Daily News Egypt that they would file a complaint against those lawyers at the public prosecutor’s office and the Lawyers’ Syndicate.
Eid revealed that Hegazy’s lawyers will ask the court to temporarily drop charges against the ministry due to the fact that some legal procedures were not followed by the case’s former lawyer Mamdouh Nakhla, who withdrew from the case.
Hegazy should have first made an official request at the civil registry to change his religious affiliation on the ID card. Should the registry refuse, he would then file a complaint at the police station, and obtain a certificate from the church stating that he has converted to Christianity.
Eid said that there have never been prior cases where the Interior Ministry has succumbed to such requests, “but we have to follow the legal procedures before filing a case.”
The case was postponed for the second time to Jan. 22 after the Administrative Court at the State Council adjourned it to Jan. 15 last November.
Another case scheduled in the same session was filed by lawyer Wahid Abdallah in solidarity with 20 lawyers against the Prime Minister, Interior Minister and Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam demanding punishment for apostasy which, they believe is stipulated by Sharia.
They base their case on Article 2 of the Egyptian constitution, which states that the principles of Islamic Sharia are the main source of legislation.
Islamist lawyers accused Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam as well as the government of not taking action against baptizing Muslims by the church.
Naguib Gobrail, head of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organization (EUHR) who joined the case against the 20 lawyers said “I won’t join Hegazy but I will join the government to defend the rights of people to [choose their faith] without being threatened. That is what the Egyptian constitution guarantees along with the international agreements that Egypt has signed.”