Egyptian Wrestler Apologizes as Ministry Refers Case to Prosecutors

The Egyptian Ministry of Youth and Sports released a statement on 27 August announcing that it had referred the two cases involving national wrestlers who vanished from their delegations abroad to the public prosecutor’s office, saying that athletic achievement does not exempt anyone from accountability.

The ministry said the cases of Mohamed Mostafa Ali El-Shami, who disappeared during a layover in Rome after the Mediterranean Games in Taranto, Italy, and Ziad Hegazy, who went missing during the world junior wrestling championships in Slovakia, would be handled with ‘decisive action,’ and that legal and administrative responsibility would be determined for each.

“Achievement is credited to its champions, and shortcomings are the responsibility of officials,” the ministry stated, adding that medals should not become a shield that obscures wrongdoing, nor should individual incidents be allowed to define an entire delegation that produced results worth honoring.

The ministry described representing Egypt abroad as a responsibility as much as an honor, and noted that anyone holding an administrative role within a sports delegation bears that duty in full, from the start of competition until the last member of the delegation returns home.

On disappearing, El-Shami released a statement on Saturday, 28 August, explaining why he vanished from the team’s delegation and offered an emotional apology to his family and supporters.

In his statement, El-Shami apologized for the situation and said wrestling has been central to his life since he took up the sport at age seven, describing years spent chasing a dream of raising Egypt’s flag and achieving something he would be remembered for.

Despite his achievements, he had come to feel that the sport could no longer support him, secure his future, or shield his family from hardship.

“The path may have changed, and the dream may have been delayed, but the dream itself is still there,” he wrote, adding that he hopes to resume his career and once again compete under Egypt’s flag.

Following the two incidents, Egypt’s Olympic Committee suspended Ibrahim Adel Ibrahim Mostafa El-Attar, the head of the wrestling delegation, and referred him to its ethics committee after preliminary inquiries found negligence in monitoring one of the delegation’s members. According to the statement, El-Shami’s delegation leader was responsible for holding the group’s passports during transit but failed to do so. A coach later noticed El-Shami’s absence and tried unsuccessfully to catch up with him, ultimately missing the flight himself.

The ministry emphasized that the two episodes should not overshadow what it described as a strong showing by Egypt’s wrestling team at the Mediterranean Games. The athletes won seven medals. Samar Hamza and Mohamed Hassan won two gold medals, Mohamed Faraj and Abdel Rahman Haitham won two silver medals, and Mawada Badawy, Mostafa Hussein, and Shehab El-Din Abdel Raouf won three bronze medals. 

“Achievement does not excuse negligence,” the ministry said. “A medal does not exempt anyone from responsibility. Only the law determines where that responsibility begins and ends.”