Lawyer and president of the Zamalek Club Mortada Mansour volunteered to defend Naira Ashraf, the student of Mansoura University who was murdered by her colleague.
This comes after Farid al-Deeb, the cassation lawyer, announced his readiness to defend the accused, Mohamed Adel, who was sentenced to death by the Mansoura Criminal Court. Deeb volunteered to write the cassation memorandum against the death sentence.
Mansour told Al-Masry Al-Youm: “Naira Ashraf, a student from Mansoura, was slaughtered twice. The first time was on the street in front of her university campus and the citizens, and the second time when some individuals tarnished her reputation (after her death).”
Some are collecting money from citizens under the pretext of defending the killer of
Ashraf, Mansour said, announcing that he will plead for her in the case without any financial reward.
Deeb told Al-Masry Al-Youm that “the death sentence against (Adel) must be unanimously agreed on by the court, and if I am assigned to write a cassation memorandum against the ruling issued, I will take care of that, without considering that it is a public opinion case.”
“In the event that I am assigned to write a memorandum of cassation after the ruling is issued, I will not hesitate to perform my duty to assign all defenses and reasons and submit it to the Court of Cassation within the legal deadlines,” he added.
The Public Prosecution ordered that Adel be referred to the Criminal Court to be tried on charges of the premeditated murder of Ashraf.
The prosecution stated that the accused had the intention and determination to kill the victim, followed her until Mansoura University, and surprised her with a knife and stabbed her several times.
Death sentence
The Mansoura Criminal Court on June 28 sentenced the murderer of Naira Ashraf to death by hanging.
It referred the death sentence of the defendant to Egypt’s Grand Mufti Shawky Allam for approval.
The court set the session for July 6 to read the final verdict, during which it sentenced him to death.
The defendant admitted to committing the crime, claiming he was harassed many times by the victim who he says threatened him and sent thugs after him.
He claimed he brought a knife with him on the day of the crime to defend himself, and attacked the victim after she insulted him in public.
The Public Prosecutor referred the defendant Adel to trial before to the Criminal Court over charges of premeditated murder of Ashraf.
The referral decision came 48 hours after the incident.
The Public Prosecution had established evidence before the accused from the testimony of 25 witnesses, including students, university security personnel, and shop workers in the vicinity of the incident.
The victim’s family and friends also testified that the defendant used to harass and threaten the victim with harm because she refused to marry him after he proposed to her, and he tried more than once to force her to do so, which led them to report him to the police.
The prosecution confirmed that the accused, a few days before the incident, sought to communicate with the victim to find out the timing of the bus that she used to ride to the university, but she refused to answer him, all confirming the accused’s determination to kill the victim.
The Public Prosecution also established evidence against the accused by examining her mobile phone, which contained several messages she received from the accused, including threats of murder kill. Prosecutors used surveillance cameras seized at the crime scene to establish evidence against the accused.
Adly Hussein
For his part, Counselor Adly Hussein, the former governor of Qaliubiya, said that he had nothing to do with the case of Ashraf.
Hussein added, in a telephone call with Al-Masry Al-Youm: “It caught my attention that false news was published on one of the news websites, which claimed that I had a role as a mediator in accepting lawyer Farid al-Deeb’s pleading for the accused, Mohamed Adel in the case.”
He continued, “I confirm that I have absolutely no connection to the case, and I am taking necessary legal measures against the website because I am not connected to this issue.”
