JEDDAH, 27 January 2008 — An Egyptian court postponed yesterday a hearing involving a Saudi woman driver who struck a taxi resulting in the death of two people, the lawyer representing the woman told Arab News yesterday. The hearing was rescheduled because the plaintiffs in the case failed to submit relevant documents in time.
The plaintiffs requested two additional weeks to submit the paper work, but the defendant’s lawyer, Mustaf Al-Ashgar, expressed concern that the hearing would be delayed again. The court responded to this concern by extending the deadline to Feb. 23.
“The court granted additional days to the plaintiff’s request to avoid another delay,” said Al-Ashgar.
Sarah Fahd, a 27-year-old mother, is accused of manslaughter for the car accident on Jan. 4 on Talat Harb Street in downtown Cairo that took the lives of an Azerbaijani passenger and Muhammad Hassan Sayed, the cab driver. Two other people were also injured in the crash, including a man who was rendered a quadriplegic after the accident.
Fahd paid 200,000 Egyptian pounds to each of the families of the deceased and EP100,000 was paid to the paralyzed accident victim. She also paid EP50,000 to the other injured accident survivor and EP150,000 as compensation for the demolished taxi. The total reparations came to EP700,000, or SR500,000. Fahd made the payments voluntarily.
“She did it out of good will,” said Al-Ashgar.
In similar cases, the lawyer said, Egyptian law mandates compensation of EP70,000 for each deceased accident victim.
The families of the deceased and the injured men reportedly dropped their charges against Fahd, but the court still needs to review the case and received inheritance and guardianship papers from the families of the deceased as an administrative procedure.
The Kasr Al-Nile Court has released Fahd on EP10,000 bail and barred her from leaving the country pending release by the court. Al-Ashgar wouldn’t comment on further details of the case.
Fahd’s case received wide coverage in the Egyptian media. Some accused her of driving while intoxicated, a charge that was dismissed after drug and alcohol tests came up negative. She was also accused of driving at high speeds through a residential area. One report falsely claimed the woman’s Christian lover was the owner of the vehicle. The extensive inaccurate coverage raised public anger against her, said her lawyer, who pointed out that the police report didn’t accuse her of any reckless driving or other wrongdoings.
“I did not flee the scene nor did I refuse to cooperate,” Fahd told Arab News yesterday over the phone from Cairo. “I don’t know why the accident escalated the way it did. I want it to end so I can go on with my life.”
