The Search for Honor

For 2 weeks now the Egyptian society has nothing to speak about except the crime of the 6^th October up till now. It was a huge crime from its brutal details “The way of killing” to the elements that made it a hot meal for tabloid and national press alike “Two young girls, celeb mom ,sudden marriage certificate”. For two weeks the public in Egypt were misled by the media through contradicting and false reports. I was among the public who were misled and God knows that I did not want to talk about it because I felt that it was getting in to more tabloid route and one crime like Suzanne Tamim’s was enough to be covered in my blog. But I had to comment on it after 48 hours of the crime when I was so angry on how the media officially labeled it as the Laila Ghofran’s daughter crime despite it did not need this celeb connection for its horror, I mean what if late Heba El-Akkad was a daughter of a simple Egyptian woman not even a foreigner!!?? Will it be first page news!!?? But unfortunately some people misunderstood what I said and thought that I were staining the honour of late girls and hurting the feelings of the their families ‘I criticized their parents and I do not regret it’ because I mentioned or rather quoted what was mentioned in the early press reports of that wild night in that apartment. Through out the week it turned out there was no wild night nor drugs or alcohol. I apologize if my words were misunderstood, I do not say this because of those hideous rude comments I received including the prayers to God that I would be defamed.

The Press now in Egypt is under the fire of defaming these two girls. I do not know deliberately or not, but I know that the Press is not free in this country and all the early reports were sharing the same details were coming from the interior ministry. I do not blame the press and the media in Egypt for defaming the girls’ reputation as much as I blame the interior ministry; in fact I blame it more. In all civilized countries the interior ministry issues press releases with all the details about the crime and it holds press conferences for huge crimes like this, I mean until the medical examiner’s final report we did not know for sure how old Nadine was “23 or 18 yrs”!!

I believe this confusion and contradiction in details were deliberate from the regime, the people had nothing to speak about except this crime that was more enlarged at the same time there were other stuff not less important if more important “with my all complete due respect to the girls and their families” that were marginalized or rather totally were ignored for instance:

• Suzanne Tamim trial official updates. “Yes there is official publication ban but the court’s orders after each session should be published”
• The case of the Egyptian doctors in Saudi Arabia.
• The escape of Youssef Abdel Rahman “the former aide of ex-agriculture minister and NDP vice head Youssef Wali”, Youssef was convicted in the infamous trial of Carcinogenic pesticides and was sentenced 10 years in jail last November and suddenly he disappeared. *
• The escape of Syrian Billionaire Adel Aga’a with hundreds of millions of dollars from Egypt !!??

It is not coincidence at all for someone who watches the media and it is not the first time something like this happens in Egypt, the examples are too many to remember or mention here. If you want a proof on this deliberate leaks, check out last week edition from Akhabr Al Hawadeth, from where a Chief in editor working in a newspaper owned by the state gets the photo of Nadine’s body in the crime scene itself !!??

Anyhow we thought that the media circus would be over with the arrest of the suspect of murder the interior ministry announced. Unfortunately the arrest of the suspect put more oil on the fire. The 19 years old blacksmith did not fit the profile of the vicious murderer the public imagined to be according to crime facts “nothing was stolen and brutal murder” , that profile of some rich VIP offspring that wanted to kill 18 years old Nadine in the first place . It even became more embarrassing to the interior ministry when Laila Ghofran spoke to the Moroccan media and accused them of covering up the real murderer. The interior ministry past record of lying and fabricating charges is hunting it. May be he is the real murderer, it can be true but the public does not buy this story anymore. I swear all the people I have met through the week up till now do not believe the official story.

Anyhow it is not the first time the interior ministry faces something like this , they know very well people do not trust them .

What it makes me sad is how the media cared more abut the lives of those two girls and whether they were virgins or not as if that was the issue!!?? Yes the crime details gave it the impression that it was for something personal, the murderer knew the victims mainly Nadine as she took most of the terrible stabs still that does not mean it is a crime of passion. Sometimes horrible personal crimes happen because the victim accidently said something to the victimizer made him/her angry so much, you are dealing with a sick person who kills by the end of the day!!

And we found ourselves in front an unneeded debate whether Nadine was a virgin or not, whether she was naughty girl or not!!?? Many people did not pay attention to other more important details than this point. Thankfully the report of the medical examiner came out this weekend to save the girl’s honour and proves her virginity. I do not know but this is not our case, our case is whether this blacksmith killed those girls or not!!??

You know I paid more attention to the mistakes of the interior ministry that after 24 hours or even more 48 hours the police let the family of Nadine come and clean the house where they found under the bed of Nadine a very important piece of evidence that Police did not find !!?? That evidence was a piece of metal used to open some window, Nadine father assumed or believed it was used to open the window where the thief came from it “He believed from day one it was theft”. Strangely the 19 years old blacksmith did not use it, and then to whom it belonged!!??

This is from the things that caught my attention up till now and it shows that the Police should look after its honour. The interior ministry now is in very critical position, more bad publicity not even inside Egypt but also outside it. The police should search and defend their honour in the same way the father of Nadine defended his late daughter’s honour.

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*It is worth to say that the judge of the carcinogenic pesticides is the same judge of Suzanne Tamim’s trial

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