A witness for the prosecution in the Port Said Stadium violence trial has said prosecutors dictated his own account to him during interrogation. In response to the claim, prosecutors have accused the witness of perjury and will file a lawsuit against him.
The Port Said Criminal Court, which is being held for security considerations at the Police Academy in Cairo, started in mid-April. The trial is for 70 defendants accused of involvement in the killing of 74 football fans in the rampage following a match in Port Said Stadium on 2 February between Ahly and the home team, Masry.
The witness, Mohamed Shaaban Ismail, a 19-year-old student, said in the trial that he saw Ahly fans rioting outside the stadium, holding stones, knives and other weapons, and chanting slogans against Port Said’s team. He also accused Port Said’s military commander of being passive toward this behavior, despite being present at the scene.
“The stadium’s gates were not secured, and I managed to enter without obtaining a ticket. Ahly fans shot fireworks at Masry supporters and pelted riot police forces with stones after the Masry team scored its first goal,” Ismail said. He added that he saw a police officer bleeding after the match, and that the man was taken to hospital.
When the judges presented Ismail with a different account he gave during interrogations, in which he said Masry fans attacked Ahly supporters, he said he only gave the testimony because the interrogator threatened to charge him with involvement in the crime if he did not cooperate.
Prosecutor Mahmoud al-Hefnawy objected to Ismail’s remarks and accused him of perjury. He announced that prosecutors would bring a lawsuit against him for libeling the prosecutions. Defense lawyers, on the other hand, accused the prosecution of intimidating a witness.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
