MB blogger still detained, despite court release orders

Posted on By 3arabawy

Sarah Carr reports:

Mamdouh El-Mounir, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, who has spent over three months in detention in violation of court release orders, was issued another detention order on Saturday.
El-Mounir, MB member from the Delta town of Mahalla, is currently being held in the Wady El-Natroun prison.
On Monday July 21 the emergency state security public prosecution office in Tanta ordered that El-Mounir be released.
This is the second court order for the release of El-Mounir.
Rather than being released he was taken to the state security investigations office in Tanta where he remained until last Saturday, when he was informed that a detention order had again been issued against him.
Lawyer Zakaria Fathy told Daily News Egypt that El-Mounir was arrested on April 8 against the background of the violent clashes between local residents and security bodies which took place in the town on April 6.
“El-Mounir disappeared after his arrest for 16 days until he appeared in court in Mahalla on April 24,” Fathy said.
An administrative detention order was issued against El-Mounir in April despite the fact that the Tanta court ordered his release.
Egyptian rights groups say that the system of administrative detention instituted under the emergency law has created a parallel system of justice outside the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts.
They allege that tens of thousands of Egyptians are being held in administrative detention, sometimes for years, and frequently in violation of release orders issued by courts.
Fathy alleges that El-Mounir was tortured while in the custody of state security investigations.
“He had been severely tortured in the state security investigations office in Mahalla during the 16 days he had disappeared, including through the use of electric shocks,” he told Daily News Egypt.
Hundreds of Mahalla residents were arrested during, or after the clashes which occurred on the April 6 and several of those detained have alleged that they were tortured at the hands of state security investigations officers.
Muhammad Maree, who was interpreting for US student/journalist James Buck when he was arrested in Mahalla on April 10 and disappeared for 19 days after his removal from the Mahalla police station in which he was initially held.
He alleges that he was physically abused, threatened that he would be killed and kept in solitary confinement in the Mahalla state security investigations office during the 19 days in which he was missing.
Marei was detained for 90 days under a detention order until his release without charge this month.
Some of a group of 49 Mahalla residents facing trial on what lawyers say are trumped-up charges related to the events of the April 6, also allege that they were tortured while in police custody in Mahalla.

Prosecutor appeals ferry ruling as uproar continues

Posted on By 3arabawy

From the Daily News Egypt:

The families of Al-Salam 98 ferry victims received Sunday’s court ruling acquitting the owner and other defendants with outrage that was echoed throughout Egypt.
“This is the most depressing and darkest ruling in Egypt’s history since the Denshway Trial,” scriptwriter Wahid Hamed told a local paper, in reference to the 1906 death sentence six Egyptian farmers received for chasing a British soldier, who later died of sunstroke.
Mamdouh Ismail, the owner of the ferry that sank in February 2006 in the Red Sea killing 1,034 people, was acquitted by the Safaga Misdemeanors Court. His son and three Al-Salam executives were also acquitted. Ismail, his son and one of the executive have since fled the country.
Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud issued a statement after the decision saying he would appeal the ruling, and called for a retrial.
Mahmoud said he wanted a retrial because of “violations in documented records, corruption in investigation, shortcomings in validating and arbitrary conclusions,” Egypt’s official MENA news agency reported.
The Al-Salam 98 sank after a fire broke out in its vehicle bay while they were traveling from Saudi Arabia to Egypt. Most of the victims were Egyptian workers returning home.
Only Salaheddin Gomaa, captain of another ferry, the Saint Catherine, was sentenced to six months in jail for failing to come to the assistance of the ferry. The court found that Gomaa had failed to show “compassion” and “did not do his duty by failing to go to the rescue of victims.” He was also fined LE 10,000.
Local and pan-Arab TV stations showed footage of victims’ relatives crying and beating their chests in grief after hearing the ruling.
“My brother, my brother,” one woman screamed after the verdict, according to footage aired on Al Jazeera television which also showed security men scuffling with relatives and another woman being manhandled.
Dozens of relatives, many carrying photographs of their dead loved ones, were crammed into the court building, although the heavy security presence prevented them from entering the courtroom itself.
Others wailed in grief on the steps outside. “God help us, 1,034 people are dead!” shouted one man.
Most of the victims were from poor families in southern Egypt, and the court scenes were reminiscent of the emotional outpourings in the days following the sinking as anxious relatives waited in vain for bodies to be recovered.