Egypt will not convey to Israel the report of an inquiry commission that investigated the murder of seven Israeli tourists at Ras Burka in eastern Sinai last October 1, the Egyptian Charge d’ Affaires in Tel Aviv, Mohammed Bassiouni, said today. He said the full verdict of the court which convicted and sentenced Suleiman Khater, an Egyptian soldier, for the killings, would be made available to the Israeli Ambassador in Cairo, Moshe Sasson.
The Egyptian diplomat, speaking on Israel’s Arabic Service television program, maintained that international law did not require that the findings of the inquiry commission be given to Israel.
His remarks stirred a furor in Likud and other rightwing parties and may further aggravate the tense relations between the Labor Party and its Likud partners in the unity coalition government.
Delivery to Israel of the commission’s findings was one of the conditions demanded by the Inner Cabinet (five Labor and five Likud Ministers) when it agreed on January 13 to submit the Taba border dispute with Egypt to international arbitration–demanded by Cairo–as part of a package deal for the normalization of relations between Israel and Egypt.
Aides to Premier Shimon Peres, who is presently in London, told reporters earlier this week that they expected the Egyptians to turn over the inquiry commission’s report very soon. Differences may now arise between Labor and Likud over whether the court verdict can be considered a full report within the meaning of the Inner Cabinet’s decision.
Israel has insisted on the report of the inquiry commission because, among other reasons, Israeli pathologists maintain that the lives of five of the tourists could have been saved had they received prompt medical attention. There was a delay of many hours before the wounded were attended to and, according to relatives of the victims, the delay was willful. Four of the seven dead were children.
Bassiouni’s statement today confirmed earlier reports circulating here that the Egyptians had no intention of giving Israel the report of the investigation. The Tehiya Party has introduced a motion of non-confidence in the Knesset.
Khater, a 25-year-old law student doing his required military service, was sentenced to life imprisonment for machinegunning the Israeli tourists. A week after his sentencing, he was found hanged in his room at a military hospital near Cairo, an apparent suicide.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
