The ruling was passed by judges Salah Rushdi, Said el-Saiad and Badr Mohamad el-Sobki, and secretariat Mohamed Gabr and Magdi Gabriel against Michael Adel Naguib and Michael Mossad Shaker (known commonly as Midhat Shaker) for possessing a machine gun stolen from the armed forces on October 9, 2011.
None of the military leaders of the army units that committed the massacre were ever brought to trial despite evidence from two videos showing two armored vehicles running over the protesters.
Ramy Kamel, coordinator of Maspero Youth Union, expressed his astonishment over the judicial rule taken against two Copts.
He told MCN, “There is a problem with how Egyptian institutions view minorities, especially Copts. Egypt’s judiciary, as an Egyptian institution, suffers from the same problem regardless of its military or civilian nature.”
Kamel added that Egyptian authorities, for their part, reward violence, or acts of massacre, against civilians, noting the appointment of Major General Hamdy Badeen, former leader of the military police, as military attaché in Egypt’s embassy in China.
Kamel asked whether the authorities will punish those responsible for the death of 24 Copts during the Maspero demonstrations.
Lawyer Ayman Naguib said that the rule against Michael Adel was shocking and unexpected, adding that the documents of the case lacked evidence to prove his involvement in the theft. He said that they would submit an appeal against the rule.
Naguib told MCN that the prosecution offered reports that confirmed that a number of CDs proved involvement of the defendant in stealing weapons during Maspero incident, while professors in Helwan University said that the defendant was not among 29 defendants during the incident.
He added that the leader of the armored vehicle changed his testimony during the investigation, saying that Adel has not stolen the weapons, while a large number of young men involved in this crime. Also the testimony of the driver of the armored vehicle was contradicted as he accused Adel of stealing the weapons through hiding them in newsprint, while he stressed that he is not sure whether he was carrying weapons.
He added that the other defendant Michel Saad was sentenced in absentia, adding that he would work to take the measures to determine another session of retrial.
Kamal Zakher, coordinator of the Coptic secular current, called on human rights activists to examine the reasons behind the three-year imprisonment ruled against two Copts and challenge the ruling.
________________________________________________
Edited from: http://www.mcndirect.com/showsubject.aspx?id=42130#.URA1gaX3B9I, http://www.mcndirect.com/showsubject.aspx?id=42100