“Are we coming from Israel?!” shouted the Mahalla prisoners from their court cage before the start of the trial session, last Saturday. “Prisoners of War receive better treatment than us.” Addressing the police officers and informers, some of whom were involved in their torture, in the court room: “You are shewayet kafara (a bunch of infidels)! You don’t feel what we are going through!”
Putting aside the fact that it’s a kangaroo court to start with, surreal accusations against persons who were not even present in Mahalla during the events, etc.. the court itself is a circus: People standing on the chairs, the prisoners shouting from the cage every now and then, the troops moving nervously up and down the room, the Bashas and their walkie-talkies, and chaos, just the usual chaos of anything organized by the state…
Last Saturday, after noise from the court cage, flamboyant defense lawyer Ahmad Hegazi started shouting back at the prisoners trying to restore order, but suddenly got all hyped up himself, so he jumped on the bench and went giving a theatrical speech denouncing Hosni Mubarak and his son Gamal.
Judge Muhammad Sameer usually whispers, and you can’t hear what he’s saying. And the room noise doesn’t help. Every now and then, he’d call for silence, like a school principal. Silence would fall for minutes, but then ascends back crescendo-style. At some point, he asked for a microphone, so some court official brought him that speakerphone below..It for sure felt like school playground.
The Mahalla prisoners shouting, “We are innocent! We are innocent by God!” as Judge Muhammad Sameer asked them if they pleaded innocent or guilty when the accusations were re-read in court, Saturday 6 September.
