A quiet session:Chief Judge Adel Abdel Salam Gomaa (C)talking to lawyers for the Hizbollah-linked cell during a court session in New Cairo yesterday.The hearings will resume on December 23.
LAWYERS for 26 men accused of plotting attacks in Egypt and spying on behalf of the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hizbollah were allowed to defend their clients,after they were reconciled with a chief judge,who deferred the case until December 23,an Egyptian Bar Association official said yesterday."Lawyer Mohamed Selim el-Awa and other defence team members expressed their full respect of the court and Egyptian judiciary
while the court 's chief judge Adel Abdel-Salam Gomaa said he greatly respected all Egyptian lawyers,"Abdel Salam Rizq,the chief of the Freedoms' Committee of the Bar Association added. Rizq,who attended the reconciliation session,said the court had approved the lawyers'demand to delay the hearings'due to the fact that one of the defendants, who studies at a faculty of medicine,had an examination '."The hearings will resume on December 26,"Rizq said. Judge Gomaa had accepted withdrawal of the lawyers during a recent hearing session,requesting the Bar Association to appoint 19 other lawyers to attend the trial.Two Lebanese nationals,five Palestinians,a Sudanese man and 18 Egyptians are on trial.
