Mansoura-España updates

Posted on By 3arabawy

For the second time on the row, the Mansoura-España Garments Company managment postponed the general assembly of shareholders. The first should have taken place on 30 May, but it was postponed to 7 July, only to be postponed again till “the end of the month” as the workers were told.

The meeting is expected to determine whether the United Bank will continue running the factory, or sell it to another investor within the framework of the agreement reached which ended the two-month factory occupation.

The workers are also coming under pressure from Said el-Gohary, the head of the General Union of Textile Workers, not to lobby for the rest of their rights (the unpaid bonuses and grants from 1999 to 2006) and wait till the shareholders’ assembly takes place.

Argentine priest in Dirty War trial

Posted on By 3arabawy

Dirty War

From Al-Jazeera…

A Roman Catholic priest has gone on trial in Argentina charged with involvement in kidnappings, murder and torture while the country was under military rule from 1976 to 1983.
Heavy security surrounded the courthouse in La Plata as the trial got under way on Thursday, with defendant Christian Von Wernich wearing a bullet-proof vest.
The Roman Catholic priest is charged with participating in seven murders, 42 kidnappings, and 31 cases of torture while he was chaplain to the Buenos Aires police force.
He is accused of using his religious position to obtain confessions from prisoners who were held at secret detention centers.
The case has raised questions about the church’s role during Argentina’s so-called Dirty War and although Von Wernich is the first priest to face trial for crimes, about 20 others are alleged to have worked with the military government.
“Von Wernich would visit prisoners after horrific torture sessions and asked them to trust him, to give him information in exchange for an improvement in the conditions of their detention,” Carlos Zaidman, a survivor of one of the detention camps, said.