Saudi Court orders retrial of Egyptian engineer facing death sentence

CAIRO – 16 January 2020: Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court has ordered the retrial of the Egyptian engineer Ali Abul Qasim, who was sentenced to death on charges of smuggling drugs to the Kingdom.

The Supreme Court’s decision approved a request by the Saudi Public prosecution to re-consider the case, in which Abul Qasim is facing charges of trafficking and smuggling drugs into Saudi Arabia.

A statement by the Egyptian Public Prosecutor’s Office said that the Egyptian top prosecutor phoned his Saudi counterpart to praise the efforts by the Saudi public prosecution, adding that he looks forward to continue the joint fruitful cooperation between both sides in order to achieve justice in matters of common concern.

The Egyptian Public Prosecutor had met with his Saudi counterpart last November in Riyadh, and during the meeting, they reviewed the means of judicial cooperation between the two brotherly countries. Both prosecutors also discussed what the Egyptian prosecution’s investigations into the felony had revealed in relation to the incident of arresting the Egyptian engineer.

The case went viral on social media, with many calling to save the engineer before the death sentence is carried out, calling for the intervention of the concerned Egyptian authorities.

In October, Minister of Immigration Nabila Makram revealed that the Ministry of Justice and the Office of International Cooperation in the Attorney General's Office have been contacted to quickly send a request to the Saudi authorities to re-investigate based on the Egyptian judicial position on the case, especially with the existence of Arab judicial cooperation agreements that allow the exchange of information.

The minister also went personally to the Office of the Attorney General to follow up the delivery of all the papers pertaining to the case, which prove the innocence of the engineer to the Saudi side.

According to the Egyptian officials,the Egyptian witnesses' testimony proves that the allegation, which claims that the equipment imported by Abul Qasim's company contains a drug shipment, is not based on evidence.

On the other hand, activists launched the hashtag"Save Engineer Ali Abul Qasim," which ranked second among the highest circulated hashtags on Twitter, calling President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to quickly intervene to stop the death sentence against the Egyptian engineer.

Ali Abul Qasim has been working in Saudi Arabia since 2007 and was sentenced to death in 2017 on charges of smuggling drugs to Saudi Arabia.