Microbus drivers abused by police, threaten to strike

Posted on By 3arabawy

From the Daily Star Egypt…

Firmly stuck at the bottom of the pecking order, Egyptian microbus drivers are forced by the police to transport investigation teams to security missions on a daily basis.
In addition to the social stigma attached to being a microbus drivers in Egypt, drivers at the Ataba-Helwan (Downtown Cairo) line have been ousted from their bus station by the local authorities, who now have no alternative but to pick up patrons from Port Said Street.
Drivers are threatening to go on strike due to a hectic situation where they have no protection from police harassment or even space where they can pick up commuters.
“We now stand in the middle of the road, which makes us vulnerable to traffic police officers who confiscate licenses for any reason,” microbus owner, Muhammad Negima told Daily News Egypt.
When the buses were removed, street vendors invaded the space where only a week ago microbus drivers used to pick up patrons, turning it into a miniature market area.
“There are more than a 100 buses on this line, which means that it supports at least 300 families,” said Negima.
Most of the commuters are either lawyers from Helwan that come to Baab El Khalq court house or Helwan residents who sell merchandise in Ataba.
“This line in particular is a major transport artery because it moves thousands of people everyday,” Negima explained.
A similar scenario took place three years ago when the buses were removed from the area previously known as the Gaza market.
“We went on strike and they reacted by impounding a number of buses and detaining drivers. When they saw that things were getting out of hand, they provided us with space beneath the intersection of Azhar Bridge. This is the space they removed us from a week ago,” Negima said.
Negima also complains that on a daily basis, security personnel from the Gamalia police station force drivers to transport them on their raids, denying them a full working day’s income.

There’s nothing that describes the abuse faced by the Egyptian microbus drivers and Mubarak’s pigs more than the case of Emad Kabeer.

Three Egyptian journalists jailed

Posted on By 3arabawy

Mubarak’s crackdown on the free press continues:

A Egyptian court has sentenced three journalists to two years in jail for “damaging the image of justice”.
Anwar al-Hawari, the editor of Al-Wafd, a newspaper for the opposition party of the same name, was jailed for publishing “untrue information which damaged the reputation of the justice system and the justice ministry”, the court ruled.
The two other journalists were Mahmud Ghallab and Amir Othman.
The three did not attend the hearing and remain free on bail, pending an appeal.
A judicial source has said that they were also ordered to pay small fines.
The judge had accepted the case filed by several Egyptian lawyers after Al-Wafd had quoted Mamduh Mari, the justice minister, as saying that 90 per cent of Egyptian judges were incompetent.