Category: Blog

25 senior MBs sentenced 3-10 years by kangaroo military tribunal

Posted on By 3arabawy

Depressing news. Read Issandr’s posting. Also, Amnesty denounced the trial in a statement.

Earlier, Ibrahim el-Hodeiby sent me an email:

Police officers and thugs harassed Muslim Brotherhood detainees’ families attempting to attend the final session of the military tribunal in the Haikstep military base today Tuesday.
Families went to Haikstep in the early morning to overcome expected police restrictions, but they went there to find thousands of police officers and soldiers, and hundreds of thugs. Police officers threatened that they will arrest family members if they do not leave, and threats were followed by brutal violence as several family members, including women and children were heavily beaten.
Of those beaten was Khadiga Malek, daughter of detainee Hassan Malek, while her uncle and two brothers Hamza and Ahmad were arrested.
Several journalists and reporters were also arrested and beaten up

My solidarity goes to the MB detainees. Down with Mubarak!

Pigs raid Sharqawi’s publishing house; confiscate books

Posted on By 3arabawy

Mubarak’s pigs raided the publishing house run by detained blogger Muhammad el-Sharqawi, around 3pm, according to a phone call I received from his fiance Naira el-Sheikh.

Plainclothes agents, claiming to be from the Vice Squad but showed no ID or official papers, stormed Malameh, located in Garden City in Downtown Cairo.

The police confiscated all the copies they found of Magdi el-Shafie’s novel “Metro,” and forced the publishing house accountant Ahmad Sameer to sign a pledge under threat to hand the police personally any returned copies from that novel. The pigs also took some more copies from other novels Sharqawi published.

المدون محمد الشرقاوي

Sharqawi remains in El-Marg Prison, since his arrest on 6 April from his house in Sheikh Zewayyed.

UPDATE: Omar Caesar has more details here.

Solidarity protest with Mahalla in San Francisco

Posted on By 3arabawy

Kindly circulate:

In the past weeks, labor and community action centered in the industrial city of Mahalla, Egypt have spread demands for better living and working conditions, and calls for an end to the Mubarak dictatorship to many other sites across the country. In the state repression that has followed, at least two people have been killed, and over 800 have been detained. A crackdown on local and foreign journalists has also ensued.
There will be a solidarity action at the Egyptian Consulate in San Francisco this Friday, April 18th, at 10am, 3001 Pacific Avenue (at Baker St.).
Please also take a moment to call, fax and/or email the consul to register your concerns. A sample letter and contact information is included below. This letter will be taken to the consulate on Friday. If you wish to be a co-signer, please forward your name and organizational affiliation to chenjching@gmail.com

Thank you!

———- SAMPLE LETTER —————————
Consulate General of Egypt in San Francsico
Tel. (415) 346-9700/ 346-9702 / 346-7352
Fax (415) 346-9480
egypt@egy2000.com
To: Abderahman Salaheldin
Consul-General of Egypt in San Francisco
As a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, I am writing to express my grave concern for the recent events centered on Mahalla, Egypt.
In response to their desperate situations, workers and community members have protested to demand their basic rights to livelihood and as workers.
I am writing to protest the severe repression of these demonstrations, including the occupation of Mahalla, mass arrests and detention of workers and community members, and the shooting and killing of at least four workers. The reports of ill treatment of detainees is very disturbing and a clear violation of basic human rights. Also of great concern is the arrest and detention of foreign and Egyptian journalists.
In order to prevent any further loss of life and to begin to address the legitimate demands of the Mahalla workers and those who have responded to their actions across Egypt, the Mubarak government must stop this repression immediately.
Along with thousands across the world, I call for the immediate release and amnesty for all detainees, investigations and justice for those injured and killed during the demonstrations.
Sincerely,