Category: Blog

Mubarak’s vendetta against MB

Posted on By 3arabawy

A report by Aziz el-Kaissouni:

Egypt crackdown is political revenge-Brotherhood MPs
CAIRO, Feb 10 (Reuters) – The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s parliamentary bloc on Saturday slammed an escalating government crackdown on the group as a political revenge for the gains it made during the last parliamentary elections in 2005.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak referred 40 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s strongest opposition group, to military court Monday, the first military trial of Brotherhood members since 2001.
Sobhi Saleh Moussa, a Brotherhood parliament member said the referrals were politically motivated, coming as they did after a civilian court had ordered 16 of the Islamists released.
“After the (ruling National Democratic) party’s failure to make any gains in popularity … they punished us,” Moussa, who is also part of the defence team for the defendants, told reporters at a news conference.
“We’re paying the bill for the elections, as is the (Palestinian) Hamas government,” he added, speaking on behalf of the Brotherhood’s parliamentary bloc.
The Islamist Hamas group swept to power in Palestinian elections in January 2006, dislodging the secular Fatah group that had long dominated Palestinian politics, and prompting Western states to impose crippling economic sanctions on the Palestinian government.
The Brotherhood won nearly one-fifth of seats in the lower house of the parliament in 2005, its members running as independents to bypass a 53-year-old ban on the group.
The government widened its crackdown on the Brotherhood after a protest by Islamist students at al-Azhar University in which Brotherhood students appeared wearing militia-style uniforms.
More than 270 Brotherhood members have been jailed in the current crackdown. The group’s finances have also been targeted, with authorities detaining key financiers, freezing assets, and raiding businesses.
Moussa and other Brotherhood parliamentarians condemned the referral to military courts, whose rulings cannot be appealed, saying that Egypt’s largest opposition group had initiated legal proceedings to declare such tribunals unconstitutional in 1995, but that the constitutional court had not yet ruled in the case.

Hypocrisy Extravaganza

Posted on By 3arabawy

Disgusting!

The bureaucrats of the General Federation of Trade Unions and those of the General Union of Textile Workers are all over the state-owned press apologizing for the “naughty behavior” of the strikers, the loss in production, and promising Mubarak to increase the production to make up for the losses during strike days.

Abu Omar released?

Posted on By 3arabawy

I’m hearing news that Abu Omar, the cleric who was kidnapped by the CIA and rendered to Cairo where he was tortured, has been finally released, but under orders not to speak to the media.

UPDATE: Here’s a report by Aziz el-Kaissouni:

Egypt frees cleric at center of CIA kidnap case
By Aziz El-Kaissouni
CAIRO, Feb 11 (Reuters) – Egyptian authorities have released a Muslim cleric kidnapped in a suspected CIA operation in Italy and handed to Egypt, the cleric’s lawyer said on Sunday.
Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was grabbed off a Milan street in 2003 and flown to Egypt, where he said he had been tortured by Egyptian agents using electric shocks, beatings, rape threats and genital abuse.
Lawyer Montasser al-Zayat told Reuters Nasr had been released and was back with his family.
Zayat said a court had ordered Nasr to be freed, and the Ministry of Interior had complied. He added that the release was unsurprising as he saw no obvious reason why Nasr should remain in custody any longer.
“I expected that the justifications for his detention are done with. It’s no longer a secret,” Zayat said.
While Nasr was initially charged with membership of an illegal organization, the charges were ultimately dropped, and Nasr was briefly released in April 2004 before being detained without charge under Egypt’s emergency laws.
His lawyer had said he believed Nasr was re-arrested after ignoring warnings not to speak to anyone about the kidnapping and rendition.
Asked whether Nasr would remain silent as to what had happened to him during his time in detention, Zayat said Nasr had “(chosen) to live, and avoid the painful years he’s lived through … he wants to raise his children.”
Zayat had previously told Reuters state security prosecutors had denied him access to all of the case documents, including forensic reports which could have proven Nasr was tortured in detention. Nasr had also attempted suicide on three occasions, Zayat had said.
International rights groups say torture is systematic in Egyptian jails and police stations. Egypt says it does not condone torture, and that it only occurs in isolated instances.
Nasr’s release comes as an Italian judge was considering whether to indict 32 suspects, including Italy’s former spy chief and a group of Americans believed to be CIA agents, in connection with the kidnap.
If tried, the case would be the first criminal procedure over renditions, one of the most controversial aspects of U.S. President George W. Bush’s global “war on terror”.
Washington acknowledges secret transfers of terrorism suspects to third countries, but denies torturing suspects or handing them to countries that do.