CAIRO: Hany Surur, owner of the company implicated in the infected blood bags schandal, his sister and five other suspects are to stay in prison until the next court session on Nov. 11, the Cairo Criminal Court ruled Saturday.
According to an article published in the independent daily Al-Masry Al Youm, the court rejected 13 requests form the defense team.
Bahaa El Din Abu Shakra, one of Surur’s lawyers, told Daily News Egypt that the defense team is preparing a request to the court demanding to reschedule on a date sooner than Nov. 11.
“We will present this request to the court because Hany Surur has undergone a serious heart surgery and his health conditions are critical. Also, Dr Fathiya, the quality control manager of the company who has been also accused in the case, suffers from cancer . Their health conditions are critical and it would be hard for them to stay all this period in prison, said Abu Shakra.
He added that the court rejected the major requests of the defense team that included the request to translate the American constitution for medicine, which sets the criteria relating to blood bags.
“The court has total freedom to reject our demands. But we still have the right to present the requests in front of the cassation court, which will decide to either approve or reject our demands, said Abu Shakra.
The lawyer claims such requests would prove the blood bags in question were compatible with international standards.
“From my perspective as a member of the defense team, I cannot see anything but an acquittal in the case . We will work on proving this in the coming sessions, but I am sure that there is no evidence that proves the detainees are guilty by any measure, he added.
Ministry of Health employee Sohier El Sharkawi was the first to bring the public’s attention to the case. Last January, she claimed to have found 200,000 contaminated bags used to package donated blood in the ministry s storage. The bags, she alleged, were infected with bacteria and fungi likely to cause cancer and hepatitis.
