In another case on 2 August 1832 a court martial was convened to try two officers from the 7th and 8th Infantry Regiments which were fighting in Syria at that time. The first case concerned a certain adjutant-major of the 8th Regiment, Mehmed Efendi by name, who had deserted from his regiment during battle. Although the law stipulated that in such cases the offender should be executed, the court martial ordered Mehmed Efendi to be sent to the Liman for life. The second case concerned another officer, Raşid Ağa, a second lieutenant of the 7th Regiment, who had deserted for the third time. The court martial changed the original sentence stated in the law (execution) to lashing and a three-month imprisonment. Seeing that there was a discrepancy in the application of the law, since the offense in both cases was the same (desertion) whereas two different sentences were passed on the same day, Mehmed Ali sent a strongly worded letter to Mahmud Bey, the Director of the War Department, ordering him to tell the members of the court martial to follow the letter of the law. At the same time, however, he said that these two officers should be sent to the Liman for life, although he acknowledged that the law said that they should be executed. A dead man was of no use to the Pasha, whereas a trained officer on whose education and training the Pasha had spent valuable money could, if sentenced to hard labor in the Liman for life, at least be of some value in the form of productive hard work.

XREF: Connects to the earlier highlight at loc 911 about time and financial constraints forcing the Pasha to deviate from his own laws, and loc 628 on crime-punishment linkage. Builds on: "Time and financial constraints forced the Pasha to deviate from his own laws."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 920