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| Chancellor Hakim Mounir Salib |
I read his obituary, written
in less than two lines, after he died, so I respected the man and honored him more
than before.
The story says Anwar Sadat wanted to refer the case of the popular
uprising that took place on January 18 and 19, 1977 to him thinking the man
would abstain from clashing with the ruling regime for he is Coptic – meaning
Christian – and so he would rule in favor of the president. Sadat was right about one thing; the man was a
Christian Egyptian, meaning Coptic as we – Egyptians – all are. The rest of Sadat’s expectations was wrong for “he has failed who invents [such falsehood][1]” as Lord said. When the
man heard of Sadat’s full expectations he swore by his sanctities – atop of
them were his conscience and honor – that he would never judge but with law and
nothing but the law. Once the verdict was announced, Sadat hurried to
appeal and ordered it being transferred to another jurisdiction. Afterwards,
Sadat was killed by the Islamist devil he himself summoned and was not able to
dismiss. Although 30 years have passed, the case is still in court to date!
He is the Egyptian to the bones, Chancellor Hakeem Mounir
Salib, head of the Supreme State Security Court. Salib was accompanied by
Chancellor Ali Abdel-hakeem Omara on his right and Chancellor Ahmed Muhammed
Bakkar on the left.
Pleading before this honorable bunch were a group of
elite lawyers including Dr. Esmat Saif-aldawla, Mr. Adel Amin, Muhammed Momtaz
Nassar, Essam Aleslamboli, Sameh Ashour, Abdelraouf Ali, Salah Abdel-magiud,
Dr. Yehia Algamal, Muhammed Fahim Amin, Ahmed Nabil Alhelali, Abdullah
Alzoghbi, Muhammed Abulfadl Algezawi, Muhammed Sabri Mubdi, Khalil Abdel-kareem,
Dr. Galal Ragab, Maher Muhammed Ali, and Dr. Abdelhaleem Mandoor. Meantime,
those standing behind bars in court exceeded hundred and seventy five
defendants, including me bearing no. 162 and Ahmed Fouad Negm[2] bearing no. 158.
Before narrating what I literally excerpt from the
verdict statement issued by the late honorable judge, I’d like to mention I
constantly revise some of the Egyptian jurisdiction literary-fluent Arabic
including that of the prosecution. Atop of these literary statements what came
in the Egyptian prosecution statement written by Chancellor Muhammed Bek Nour
in 1924 acquitting Dr. Taha Hussien, dean of the Arabic literature, of the
accusations leveled at him by some people who accused him of blasphemy upon
publishing his book “on pre-Islamic poetry”. The then-prosecution head,
Muhammed Nour, discussed all that was mentioned in the book presenting points
of view opposing that of Taha Hussien, to the extent you may believe he is
heading the department of Arabic language and civilization in the most prestigious
universities and not the public prosecution.
The late honorable man,
Hakeem Salib, tackled incidents of January 18 and 19, 1977 with careful study
and investigation before the court discussed evidences against defendants.
Here to the verdict statement: “but the court, while
tackling these incidents with due inspection and investigation for finding the
cause and truth lying behind, has to say in the beginning that an economic
crisis was taking the grip of the Egyptian nation at that time; the crisis that
extended to all aspects of life and human necessities for the Egyptian people
who were struggling hard trying to provide their food while fighting the
soaring prices with their fixed incomes. This suffering affected people’s daily
life in a very cruel way; they were exhausted and worn-out in moving from one place
to another due to transportation problem while struggling every day, hour, and
moment with lack of services not to mention the deterioration inflicted with
such services. Above all this came the housing crisis, despair gripped people’s
hearts especially young men for they may not afford having a proper house; the necessity
that is essential for building a family and future life.
In the middle of this
crunching crisis, Egyptians used to hear government officials and politicians
promising prosperity and solutions capable of putting an end to their
sufferings and turning their life-to-come into an easy charmed one. While
living in dreams broadcasted day and night in media outlets, people were suddenly
shocked by government decisions raising prices of many essential goods
affecting their daily provisions without prior preparation or warning. We can
imagine the growing frustration that gripped those people’s hearts, the
feelings they had before and the despair that washed over them after these
decisions. How can these people, with most of them low-income,
balance between fixed incomes and such madly exorbitant prices?
A huge gap between the collapsing hopes and the bitter
reality tore Egyptians’ hearts and souls. These furious emotions had to find a
way out and so people, pouring in masses, took to the streets and squares.
These demonstrations were collective and purely spontaneous. The masses huddled
together roaring, clamoring, and declaring their fury and anger upon the
decisions that killed hopes and destroyed the high expectations.
Security forces tried to quell protests and regain
control but failed amid this growing anger and great pains. In the middle of
this raging sea, vandals found a way to fulfill their evil instincts; they went
burning, vandalizing, destroying, and looting money feeling safe from harm
among such roaring masses. People went mad as hell when central security men
stood in their way armed with clubs, shields, and tear-gas canisters. Things
went out of control and chaos prevailed. Nothing could be done to stop riots
and regain control and security but imposing curfew and having the armed forces
men deployed in the streets. Only then, and with great effort, security was
restored.
The court, as
ascertained by the knowledge residing in the breast of its judges, undoubtedly
believes the economic decisions of raising prices were the direct and sole
motive behind the serious incidents that took place on January 18 and 19, 1977.
Those incidents are linked to the decisions like the result is linked to the causes”.
I excerpted a small part of Chancellor
Hakeem Salib’s statement, the man who will stay alive and well-remembered in
the nation’s conscience. “As for the foam, it vanishes,
[being] cast off[3]”…What
the hell of foam we used to have that topped our political and cultural life,
but it soon vanished.
This article was published in Almasry
alyoum newspaper on January 27, 2016.
To see the original Arabic version, go
to:
#almasry_alyoum#ahmed_elgammal#mounir_hakeem_salib#1977_uprising#Egypt#egyptian_prosecution#taha_hussien#sadat#coptic_egypt#jan_18_19_1977
[2] Ahmed
Fouad Negm :(Arabic: أحمد فؤاد نجم), (22 May 1929 – 3 December 2013), popularly known as el-Fagommi (Arabic: الفاجومي), was
an Egyptian vernacular poet. Negm is well known for his work with Egyptian
composer Sheikh Imam, as
well as his patriotic and revolutionary Egyptian
Arabic poetry. Negm has been
regarded as "a bit of a folk hero in Egypt. (Source: Wikipedia)
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