Ahmad Abdullah Okaz/Saudi Gazette CAIRO — The children of a Saudi man sentenced to death by an Egyptian court in 2010 for allegedly attempting to smuggle 23 kilograms of cocaine inside his vehicle into Egypt are praying for their father's release. Lafi Al-Shammary was arrested at the beginning of 2009 and is currently incarcerated in an Egyptian prison. A team of lawyers appointed by the Saudi Embassy in Cairo succeeded in revoking the death sentence. It is expected that Al-Shammary will stand trial again before the Al-Ismaliya Court of Appeals on Feb. 26. Al-Shammary's three children have been living in Al-Jouf with their grandfather over the past four years. His brother said Al-Shammary's children did not understand why he was in prison. He also said Al-Shammary's eldest son, who is 10, saw his father being beaten up by an Egyptian officer at Nuwaibeh Port in Egypt where he was arrested. The brother said he hoped the Saudi Embassy would succeed in revoking the death sentence and transferred his brother to a Saudi prison. Al-Shammary was arrested after customs officers found 23 kilograms of cocaine stashed in his car. He was traveling with his wife and children at the time. He was put on death row immediately before a team of lawyers appointed by the Saudi Embassy in Egypt proved to the court that Al-Shammary bought his four-wheel-drive vehicle where the cocaine was stashed eight days before entering Egypt. The team submitted a statement to the court showing that Al-Shammary did not know about the cocaine hidden in the car and had not been in Egypt since 1995, a fact that demonstrated to the court that he did not come to the country to smuggle cocaine.
