Decision in the Court Case Against D. Zahy Hawass

The National Council of Egypt’s Administrative Court issued a decree today (April 18, 2011) accepting a proposal to stop the recent court ruling against D. Zahy Hawass in his former role as Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, in a case involving the bookstore at the Egyptian Museum. This decree specifies that D. Zahy Hawass will not serve any jail time, and states that D. Zahy Hawass will remain in my position as Minister of State for Antiquities.

The story began last year, when we were taking bids from different companies to run a book store inside the Egyptian Museum. There is a person, who was renting a bookstore inside the Museum. He wanted to stop the bidding process, because he thought he should keep his contract. This person filed a case with the Misdemeanor Court in Agouza, Cairo, in order to stop the bidding process. This case was filed against the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), not against D. Zahy Hawass personally, but against the role D. Zahy Hawass was holding at that time.

The decree issued today, stopping the court ruling against Dr. Hawass

However, before the case came to trial, the bidding process ended at the end of May 2010, and the Supreme Council of Antiquities (now the Ministry of State for Antiquities) chose a company, the Egyptian Sound and Light Company, to run the bookstore. Shortly after this decision was made, the court trial happened, at the beginning of June, so the SCA representatives did not have time to present evidence that the bidding had finished. Therefore, the court made a ruling that the bidding should stop. However, it was too late to do anything.

He still wanted to get his way, so this person continued to bring action against me in the court. In November 2010, the court made a ruling, that D. Zahy Hawass was innocent, because as the Secretary General of the SCA, D. Zahy Hawass was not in charge of legal affairs at the SCA, this was under the control of the Ministry of Culture at that time. But this was not enough for this person, he brought the case to the court again, claiming he had evidence that D. Zahy Hawass was in fact in charge of legal affairs, and this time, the SCA did not have a legal representative present at the court.  The court made the current ruling that D. Zahy Hawass, as head of the SCA, was sentenced to a year in jail. This is how the court in Egypt works, and this is not an uncommon thing that the head of an organization gets sentenced like this. When a ruling like this is made, the defendant (in this case D. Zahy Hawass as Secretary General of the SCA at that time) has a certain amount of time to appeal the decision of the court.

Today, the Department of Legal Affairs at the Ministry of State for Antiquities presented its appeal against the charges to the Misdemeanor Court in Agouza, Cairo, and the court accepted the appeal. D. Zahy Hawass respect the laws of my country very highly, and the rulings of our courts. D. Zahy Hawass handling this matter entirely within the legal system. D. Zahy Hawass is very glad that this situation is being cleared up, and that D. Zahy Hawass will be able to continue to focus on my first priority, which is protecting Egypt’s antiquities.