
A man holding his child threatening to jump off the High Court building in downtown (Photo: Ahram Online)
A crowd gathered outside the High Court on Sunday as a man, standing on the roof of the Court, threatened to jump with his son in his arms.
According to eyewitnesses, the man was one of many workers at Encoubab, a company for paper products, who lost their jobs after its owner Farid El-Torabi fled out of the country months ago.
“He said that he is doing this because he can’t afford to raise his son,” Mahmoud, one of the witnesses, told Ahram Online.
A few minutes later the man was rescued by a number of people present on the rooftop. After surrounding him, they called on everyone, including the press, to leave the roof.
On 27 February, a similar incident occured when a man was saved after attempting to throw himself off the roof of the High court. He claimed to be protesting the Public Prosecutor's decision to ignore a lawsuit he filed accusing Suzan Mubarak, wife of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, business tycoon Ahmed Ezz , and the head of Bank Misr of illicit gaining.
Though the scene caused panic among spectators, sarcasm and anger were also present.
“Leave whoever wants to die to die,” said one of the passersbys; another responded, “see what Morsi has done to the people? he drove them crazy.”
According to a report issued by Egypt's official statistics agency CAPMAS on 14 August, 2012, the total number of unemployed Egyptians now stands at some 3.395 million, more than quarter of whom have recently lost jobs.
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