The number of Real Estate Tax Collectors, who have endorsed the call for establishing Egypt’s first independent trade union in half a century, has exceeded 25,000.
Year: 2008
Solidarity with Mahalla from Belfast
I received the following message from Jim Barbour, the Executive Council Member of the Fire Brigade Union:
We in Northern Ireland were very disturbed, and indeed angered, at news of this most recent round of attacks on workers in Egypt.
It is a tribute to workers in Egypt and especially those at Mahalla, that they continue to show such great courage, in the face of despicable attacks from management and ongoing state collusion.
We were especially concerned that Amal and Wedad were treated in such a cowardly manner. We hope that they are now safe and well.
We now make a point of raising the plight of Egyptian comrades, at every opportunity that arises.
Be assured of our continued support.
…
Yours in solidarity.
Jim Barbour
Off-duty officer detained for shooting man
From the Daily News Egypt:
Police officer Adel Al-Shahed of the Giza police station is being held pending investigation for fatally shooting a man while off-duty.
Al-Shahed was involved in an altercation near the Shooting Club in Mohandiseen last Friday, where shots fired from his gun resulted in the death of one man and the injury of another.
One man died as a result of two gunshot wounds and another, Bassem El Shewaify, was injured after being shot in the leg.
Details of what happened exactly remain unclear, but in an interview on Mehwar satellite channel’s “90 Minutes” talk show, the victim’s brother said the fight began when the policeman’s brother got into a fight with the victim’s brother.
When the policeman got involved on his brother’s behalf, he took out his gun and fired shots in the air. A chase ensued until the man fell to his death at the entrance to an underground parking lot on Nargis Street right off Thawra Street.
“I heard the gunshots and saw a large group of people down that road [Nargis Street]. Bassem El-Shewaify was shouting for people to get him an ambulance saying he had been shot in the leg. They were also holding the policeman down in an empty building across the road,” eyewitness Mostapha El Tayeb told Daily News Egypt.
There are contradictory statements over how the shots were fired, with the policeman claiming it was an accident and that he only fired in the air while others claim he fired directly at the man.
Porters, residents and builders on Nargis Street were reluctant to speak about the crime. Many claimed they were not there at the time and alleged that they had not seen anything.
The guard of the underground garage on whose entrance the man died said “I did not see or hear a thing.”
The Ministry of Interior sent a letter to the authorities investigating the case briefing them that the policeman was off-duty when this happened, and therefore had no legal justification to use his gun.
The ministry added that when a policeman is off-duty, he is considered a regular citizen and should be treated as such.
In other news, a security source told El-Badeel that the Interior Ministry is NOT going to hold any internal investigation into any of the recent incidents of police killings and will leave that matter to the state prosecutor.