Rights watchdogs denounce Taba bombings trial

Posted on By 3arabawy

Great news to all those concerned with police brutality and justice in Egypt.

The Taba bombings trial–which witnessed harsh sentences of executions and prison terms based on confessions extracted from the suspects under torture–is coming under strong criticism from rights watchdogs inside Egypt and abroad.

Human Rights Watch denounced the trial in a statement:

Serious allegations of torture and forced confessions, as well as prolonged incommunicado detention and lack of consultation with counsel, raise significant doubts about the fairness of the trial, which Human Rights Watch monitored.

More importantly, the African Commission on Human Rights asked the Egyptian government to freeze the execution sentences:

Sentences of death were passed on the three defendants by the Egyptian State Security Emergency Court on 30 November. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and INTERIGHTS, the International Center for the Legal Protection of Human Rights, brought a complaint to the African Commission arguing a number of violations of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, to which Egypt is a signatory. These include torture in detention, failure to meet fair trial standards and the absence of a right of appeal from a sentence of death.
The Commission has not yet ruled on the substance of the case, but has requested the Egyptian authorities to stay execution pending an urgent consideration of the complaint at its next session in the spring, 2007.

I’ve just spoken now with the mother of Osama al-Nakhlawi, one of the defendants sentenced to death. She did not know anything about the African Commission’s statement, so she was EUPHORIC… and is hoping Mubarak will not sign those death sentences. She also complained bitterly about denial of visits to her son for two months now. “I just want to see him,” she told me over the phone. “They will kill him, and I want to see him for the last time before they do that. This is tyranny. This is injustice. May God destroy their (police) homes as they destroyed ours.”

Amen.

Kefaya demonstrates against Mubarak

Posted on By 3arabawy

Kefaya’s demo that was scheduled to happen in front of the Public Prosecutor’s office on Monday, was moved due to security siege to the Lawyers’ Syndicate and the Press Syndicate.

Around 100 assembled in front of the Lawyers’ Syndicate, while 300 others managed to gather in front of the Press Syndicate.

Demonstrators chanted against Mubarak, corruption, and police torture. Activists also extended their solidarity to the Lebanese opposition fighting a US-client government in Beirut. “Hosni Mubarak and Sanioura–Bush is the original, they are the photocopies,” went the chants. The Mahalla textile strikers got also a lion-share of chants in support of their struggle against their corrupt neo-liberal management.

Protesters clashed on several occasions with the Central Security Forces troops that surrounded the Press Syndicate, leading to minor injuries. Photos below, taken by Nasser Nouri:

  • Kefaya held an anti-Mubarak rally in front of the Press Syndicate and the Lawyers' Syndicate on 12 Dec 2006, Photo by Nasser Nouri
  • Kefaya held an anti-Mubarak rally in front of the Press Syndicate and the Lawyers' Syndicate on 12 Dec 2006, Photo by Nasser Nouri
  • Kefaya held an anti-Mubarak rally in front of the Press Syndicate and the Lawyers' Syndicate on 12 Dec 2006, Photo by Nasser Nouri
  • Kefaya held an anti-Mubarak rally in front of the Press Syndicate and the Lawyers' Syndicate on 12 Dec 2006, Photo by Nasser Nouri
  • Kefaya held an anti-Mubarak rally in front of the Press Syndicate and the Lawyers' Syndicate on 12 Dec 2006, Photo by Nasser Nouri
  • Kefaya held an anti-Mubarak rally in front of the Press Syndicate and the Lawyers' Syndicate on 12 Dec 2006, Photo by Nasser Nouri
  • Kefaya held an anti-Mubarak rally in front of the Press Syndicate and the Lawyers' Syndicate on 12 Dec 2006, Photo by Nasser Nouri
  • Kefaya held an anti-Mubarak rally in front of the Press Syndicate and the Lawyers' Syndicate on 12 Dec 2006, Photo by Nasser Nouri

The Revolutionary Socialists distributed leaflets during the demo, calling for wider mobilization within the factories, university campuses, professional syndicates to achieve the radical political change Egypt needs–rather than focusing the struggle on narrow, superficial constitutional amendments within the parliament.

The Revolutionary Socialists, Photo by Alexandra Sandels, Cairo, Press Syndicate, 12 Dec 06

I left the scene of the protests by 4:05pm. By then, 400 demonstrators at the Press Syndicate were chanting, demanding the execution of President Hosni Mubarak on charges of treason and mass torture.