On Monday, the Chamber of the Court of Cassation reserved the appeal submitted by the defendants, “Ayman Hajjaj” and Hassan A., accusing them of killing the journalist, “Shaima Jamal,” for the July 8 session to pronounce the ruling.
The court had previously unanimously ruled in its presence to punish the defendants, Ayman Abdel Fattah Hajjaj and Hussein Muhammad Al-Gharabli, with death by hanging, while they were charged with the first and third charges (premeditated murder).
The ruling was issued under the chairmanship of Counselor Bilal Muhammad Abdel Baqi, with the membership of Counselors Abdel Hamid Kamel and Ahmed Bahaa El Din Selim, and the secretariat of Muhammad Hashem and Saeed Barghash.
The Public Prosecutor had previously ordered the defendants to be referred to criminal trial, at the conclusion of the investigations initiated by the Public Prosecution, as the investigations showed that the first defendant, Ayman Hajjaj (husband of the victim, the media figure Shaima Gamal), intended to get rid of her, because of her threat to him to reveal their secrets, and his bargaining for secrecy with her request. Sums of money from him, so he offered the second accused, Hussein Al-Gharabli, to help him kill her, and the latter accepted in exchange for a sum of money that the first accused had promised him.
The investigations revealed that the defendants were determined and intended to take the life of the journalist, Shaima Gamal, and to do so, they developed a plan to rent a remote farm to kill her and hide her body in a grave they would dig.
The prosecution indicated that the defendants bought tools to dig the grave, and prepared a gun and a piece of cloth to kill the victim and paralyze her resistance, chains and iron shackles to transport the body to the grave after she was killed, and an incendiary substance to disfigure its features before burying it.
Investigations showed that on the day they had set to carry out their plan, the first accused lured her to the farm under the pretext of inspecting her to buy it, while the second accused was waiting for her as they had planned. When they got her there, the first accused surprised her by hitting her on the head with the handle of a pistol, causing her to lose her balance and drop her to the ground, crouching down and closing her hands on her. And with the cloth until he held her breath, while the second grabbed her to paralyze her resistance, intending to take her life until we were sure of her death, inflicting on her the injuries described in the autopsy report, which claimed her life. Then they bound her body with shackles and chains and placed it in the grave they had prepared, and poured the incendiary substance on it to distort its features.
