03:23 PM
Sunday 01 January 2023
Books – Saber Al-Mahlawi:
Photography – Nader Nabil:
Today, Sunday, the Giza Criminal Court, headed by Counselor Mohamed Awadallah, sentenced the accused in the case known in the media as the “European Countryside Massacre” to death by hanging after receiving the opinion of the Grand Mufti, and confiscating the seized weapon.
The Public Prosecution office earlier referred the accused of killing five, namely: a farmer, his two daughters, and two grandchildren, on a farm in the European Countryside village of Sheikh Zayed City, to criminal trial. For accusing him of intentionally killing the farmer, and this felony was associated with other felonies, namely the intentional killing of his two daughters and two grandchildren, and the attempt to indecently assault one of his two daughters, the victim.
In its pleading before the court in the previous session, the Public Prosecution demanded the execution of the accused, and recounted the full details of the crime, commenting, “The crime shakes the throne of the heavens and the earth.”
The defendant’s defense asked the court to use clemency with the accused because he was in a state of legitimate self-defense, stressing that he is requesting the application of Article 17 regarding extenuating circumstances to his client.
Mohamed Salah, a lawyer claiming civil rights for the victims of the “European countryside massacre”, said that the court had received the medical report issued by the Psychiatric and Mental Hospital.
The lawyer added, in press statements, that the psychiatric report of the accused confirmed his mental and psychological health during the commission of the incident, stressing that the report stated: “The accused is psychologically and mentally healthy.”
The Public Prosecution established evidence for the accused from his confession in the investigations, and the simulated imagery of how the crime was committed, and instructed him about the tape of the narcotic substance that he used to implement his plan of indecent assault, as well as the tools he used to insert the drug into the victims’ drink, and what resulted from it. The report of the chemical laboratory of the Forensic Medicine Authority examining the narcotic substance, the report of the anatomical description of the bodies of the five victims, as well as the results of the report of the General Department for Criminal Evidence Investigation by examining all the traces seized at the scene of the incident, and making the necessary reconciliations, in addition to the statements of nine witnesses in the investigations.