Telephones Equipment Company workers in Helwan end strike

Posted on By 3arabawy

I received news that a strike had started in the Telephones Equipment Company in Helwan yesterday evening and ended today.

The company, which produces phone sets, was privatized either five or six years ago (My source was not sure about the exact date). The total labor force is more than 1000, I was told. It includes three groups of workers: Those who originally worked at the factory before it was privatized; those who were hired after the privatization; and those who are working without contracts as they haven’t been instated yet.

The ones who went on strike was the second group only, numbering 316 workers, demanding their five (or six)-year unpaid raises and bonuses. The strike ended today after the management promised to look into the strikers’ demands, but nothing concrete has been agreed up on, as far as I understand.

Egyptian Police officer jailed for refusing to protect Israeli embassy

Posted on By 3arabawy

الصورة من جريدة الوفد

Outrageous!!!

Police officer jailed for refusing to protect Israelis
CAIRO, Feb 25 (Reuters) – An Egyptian police tribunal on Sunday sentenced a police officer to six months in jail for refusing orders to go on guard duty at the Israeli embassy in Cairo, police sources said.
Muhammad Khalaf Hassan Ibrahim, a sergeant in his late 30s, had been in hospital on hunger strike in protest at his detention but he was able to attend the court session on Sunday.
The Egyptian police force is run on military lines and, as with military courts run by the armed forces, there is no appeal against the verdicts of the police tribunal.
Egypt in 1979 became the first Arab state to make peace with Israel, but many Egyptians still regard the Jewish state as an enemy because the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict has not been resolved.
In a similar case in Britain last year, the police force excused a Muslim firearms office from guard duty at the Israeli embassy. But it said it took the decision because of a possible safety risk and not because of the man’s personal views.
Ibrahim’s lawyer was not immediately available to explain his client’s refusal to protect the Israeli embassy.

Trials Day

Posted on By 3arabawy

It was my first time to go to the New Cairo Court House Compound, in el-Tagammu el-Khames, on the outskirts of my neighborhood Nasr City, east of Cairo, to cover the trial of Muhammad el-Attar, the alleged Egyptian Canadian spy, coincidentally at the same time when Khairat el-Shatter and other MB leaders were appealing against the govt freeze on their funds. Central Security Forces were deployed in the morning, awaiting the arrival of the MB detainees, besieging the gates of the court house compound.

  • Central Security Forces deployed in front of the court house compound gates, awaiting the arrival of the MB detainees. New Cairo, 24 February 2007.
  • Central Security Forces deployed in front of the court house compound gates, awaiting the arrival of the MB detainees. New Cairo, 24 February 2007.
  • Central Security Forces deployed in front of the court house compound gates, awaiting the arrival of the MB detainees. New Cairo, 24 February 2007.
  • Central Security Forces deployed in front of the court house compound gates, awaiting the arrival of the MB detainees. New Cairo, 24 February 2007.
  • Central Security Forces deployed in front of the court house compound gates, awaiting the arrival of the MB detainees. New Cairo, 24 February 2007.
  • Central Security Forces deployed in front of the court house compound gates, awaiting the arrival of the MB detainees. New Cairo, 24 February 2007.
  • Central Security Forces deployed in front of the court house compound gates, awaiting the arrival of the MB detainees. New Cairo, 24 February 2007.
  • Central Security Forces deployed in front of the court house compound gates, awaiting the arrival of the MB detainees. New Cairo, 24 February 2007.
  • Central Security Forces deployed in front of the court house compound gates, awaiting the arrival of the MB detainees. New Cairo, 24 February 2007.
  • Central Security Forces deployed in front of the court house compound gates, awaiting the arrival of the MB detainees. New Cairo, 24 February 2007.

As with all trials I had attended (I never covered a military trial before though), the High State Security court was similar to a circus, with many standing on the bench seats, shouting every now and then, the TV cameramen pushing and shoving to get a good view, the judges whispering to themselves, to the lawyers and the prosecutors without us being able to hear a word.

Muhammad el-Attar denied the prosecutor’s charges, and shouted from his cage saying he was innocent, and that he “was pressured by the Mukhabarat into confessing” he was spying for the Israelis. “The charges are fabricated,” he said. The Judge did not give him the chance to speak, saying Muhammad should speak to his lawyer first, and then the lawyer would say whatever Muhammad wanted to convey to the court.

And speaking of the lawyer–the defendant’s former lawyer Ragab el-Assal, who withdrew few days before the start of the trial, showed up today to announce his resignation from the case officially in front of the judge. Another lawyer stepped in for Muhammad’s defence by the name Ibrahim Bassiouny. I asked Bassiouny outside the court later how he was assigned to the case, he said he was assigned today by “coincidence” as he had gone to the court for another case, when Muhammad’s family bumped into him and asked him whether he wanted to take up the case, after the Lawyers’ Syndicate, he said, failed to provide one.

Earlier, an army of TV crews and photographers had assembled outside the compound waiting for the prison truck that held the alleged spy into court. Hardly no one managed to see him, since the police, acting all cheeky, took the guy inside the court building via a garage tunnel.

Muhammad’s trial was postponed to Wednesday. So the new lawyer has to read the entire case file, prepare his defense in four days.

We were on the first floor. Every now and then, we could hear strong chants. The chants were coming from the ground floor, where the trial of the MB leaders was in process. The appeal was adjourned, also to Wednesday.