CAIRO: An Egyptian court sentenced five foreigners to death by hanging yesterday for smuggling drugs, an official said. British citizen Charles Raymond Ferndale, 74, and three citizens of the Seychelles were held in a cage inside the courtroom in the popular tourist destination of Hurghada on the Red Sea coast as the verdict was read out.
The fifth defendant, a Pakistani, escaped during the arrest and was sentenced in absentia.
The convicted men were arrested in 2011 in possession of three tonnes of hashish on board a ship off Egypt’s eastern coast, according to the court official.
The British foreign office said it was “extremely concerned” at the sentence.
“We are opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances. Our consular team in Cairo are in contact with the British prisoner and we will do our utmost to prevent this execution,” a spokesman said.
The court also fined the defendants a total of 94m Egyptian pounds ($13.46m). The convicted men can appeal the verdict. Death penalties in Egypt are rarely carried out.
CAIRO: A Cairo court yesterday sentenced an Egyptian opposition youth activist to six months in prison for insulting President Mohammed Mursi.
Ahmed Duma, who was tried for calling Mursi “a criminal and murderer” during a television broadcast, was also ordered to pay a fine of 200 Egyptian pounds (¤22).
The activist blogger can be released on bail of £5,000 (¤550) pending a decision by an appeals court. Duma is the first anti-Mursi activist to be sentenced to a jail term, according to human rights groups.
Dozens of Duma supporters gathered outside the courthouse during the hearing, chanting slogans against the president and the powerful Muslim Brotherhood from which he came.
His trial took place after a complaint by a member of the president’s Freedom and Justice Party, who said that he felt personally insulted by what Duma had said about Mursi.
The official Mena news agency said Duma was accused of spreading “false information and rumours in a television programme” and for describing Mursi as a “criminal and murderer who escaped justice”.
Duma said his remarks were “political criticism” and were not intended to insult the president, Mena reported.
Mursi, elected in June last year, has been accused of suppressing or seeking to suppress opponents and journalists who criticise him by accusing them of defamation.
RIYADH: The first sports complex for women in Saudi Arabia has opened in the east of the kingdom, the daily newspaper Al Watan reported yesterday.
The paper said businesswomen and women personalities attended the inauguration of the centre in Al Khobar province after it was given the go-ahead by the authorities.
Saudi Arabia, which applies a strict interpretation of Islamic or sharia law, bans men and women mixing in public and access for women in public areas.
Al Watan said the complex, where women can engage in sports such as karate, practise yoga or attend fitness classes, is the country’s first sporting centre for women.
The centre’s director, Hanaa Al Zuhair, said Saudi women who trained abroad — including a karate black belt — have been recruited to run courses at the centre. Before the centre opened, women’s sport in the kingdom had been virtually non-existent, although some young girls do take part in sporting activities at private schools under certain conditions.Agencies
