Artist Hany Shaker, head of the Musicians' Syndicate, responded to those calling for the inclusion of festival singers following the decision to prohibit 19 of them from performing. He stated that the banned individuals committed crimes, with some forging educational certificates, others evading military service, and some even falsifying their voices to obtain performance permits.
During a phone call on the program "Akhir Al-Nahar" broadcast on the "Al-Nahar" channel, Shaker mentioned that Hamou Bika failed an exam twice, noting that after his first failure, a teacher was brought in to correct his pronunciation, but he only attended once. He added, "We obtained a two-year prison sentence against him, and before execution, I withdrew, so he wouldn't be harmed. We brought him a teacher to correct his pronunciation, but he only went once and then evaded, saying he didn't understand."
Shaker revealed an incident of voice forgery, stating, "One of them created a program on his phone with my voice, called Advisor Alaa Amer, and said to him, 'O Mansour, I won’t tell you to let him work during Eid so he doesn’t lose his livelihood until we return.' Half an hour later, he called him with his voice and said, 'The pasha spoke to you and advised you to let him work during Eid?'" He pointed out that he filed a complaint against this.
Hany Shaker explained that the issue with festival singer Hassan Shakosh was that he made an unforgivable mistake; he incited the audience to insult a colleague and speak inappropriately. He added, "Hassan Shakosh committed an indecent act in public, indicating that there are lawsuits filed against him."
He continued, "He goes on stage and makes the audience curse his colleague, and in the end, the video disrespects the respectable percussionists, calling them sons of dancers, publicly insulting your colleague... Honestly, if it were in another environment, that wouldn’t happen." Shaker sent a message to Hassan Shakosh, saying: "You killed art that day, Shakosh; God gave you a blessing that you didn’t preserve."
