Talaat Sadat sentenced to one year in prison

Posted on By 3arabawy

A military court sentenced today MP Talaat el-Sadat (nephew of Egypt’s late dictator Anwar el-Sadat) to one year in prison with hard labor, for “defaming” Egypt’s army in a TV interview where he claimed his uncle was killed in a conspiracy involving the Egyptian army, and foreign intelligence services.

Eight rights group had denounced the trial saying it’s violating the right to free speech.

UPDATE: Here’s an AP report:

Nephew of late Egyptian leader Sadat gets 1-year sentence for defaming armed forces
By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD
CAIRO _ The nephew of the late President Anwar Sadat was sentenced to a year in prison Tuesday for defaming Egypt’s armed forces, less than a month after he gave an interview accusing Egyptian generals of masterminding his uncle’s assassination.
The unusually rapid prosecution effectively terminates Talaat Sadat’s role in parliament as an outspoken government critic.
Sadat, 52, who had accused the government of prosecuting him for political reasons, was taken into custody immediately after the verdict, said his aide, Mohsen Eid, and court officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press.
Media were not allowed into the courtroom and Egyptian newspapers have been instructed not to report his trial, which has come under criticism from the State Department as harmful to freedom of expression.
There is no appeal against military court verdicts. Sadat’s only option is to appeal to President Hosni Mubarak.
Sadat is the second prominent political opponent of the government to be sentenced to prison within 12 months. Last December, Ayman Nour, the leading challenger in last year’s presidential elections, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for forgery after a trial that was internationally regarded as failing to meet standards of due process.
Within minutes of the sentencing, Sadat’s supporters shouted outside the court: “This is injustice!” “This is unlawful!”
Sadat had pleaded innocent to charges of “spreading false rumors and insulting the armed forces.”
In an interview broadcast on Oct. 4, Sadat said there had been an international conspiracy to assassinate his uncle, and the conspirators included some of Anwar Sadat’s personal guards, Egyptian generals, as well as the U.S. and Israel. He did not name the generals.
“No one from the special personal protection group of the late president fired a single shot during the killing, and not one of them has been put on trial,” Sadat told the Saudi TV channel Orbit.
The day after the broadcast, Sadat was stripped of his parliamentary immunity and his trial began Oct. 11.
Anwar Sadat was shot dead by Islamic militants in the Egyptian army during a military parade in Cairo on Oct. 6, 1981. The soldiers were opposed to Sadat’s landmark peace treaty with Israel of 1979.

Clashes in Ain Shams University

Posted on By 3arabawy

Bloody clashes have been going on for the third day on the row at Ain Shams University campus in Abbassiya, as student union elections approach.

Pro-government students assaulted Muslim Brotherhood activists at the Faculty of Education at Ain Shams University, and tore down their electoral posters. The MB mobilized demos to denounce the attacks, but they were only met by violence.

Pro-government students, armed with sticks and knives, viciously attacked the Brothers, and brought into campus truckloads of Baltaggiya (criminal thugs), who have spread terror on campus.

  • Pro-government students and criminal thugs assaulted MB students in Ain Shams University's Faculty of Education, in a campaign of campus terror before student union elections (Photo ​ courtesy of​ MB students)
  • Pro-government students and criminal thugs assaulted MB students in Ain Shams University's Faculty of Education, in a campaign of campus terror before student union elections (Photo ​ courtesy of​ MB students)
  • Pro-government students and criminal thugs assaulted MB students in Ain Shams University's Faculty of Education, in a campaign of campus terror before student union elections (Photo ​ courtesy of​ MB students)
  • Pro-government students and criminal thugs assaulted MB students in Ain Shams University's Faculty of Education, in a campaign of campus terror before student union elections (Photo ​ courtesy of​ MB students)
  • Pro-government students and criminal thugs assaulted MB students in Ain Shams University's Faculty of Education, in a campaign of campus terror before student union elections (Photo ​ courtesy of​ MB students)
  • Pro-government students and criminal thugs assaulted MB students in Ain Shams University's Faculty of Education, in a campaign of campus terror before student union elections (Photo ​ courtesy of​ MB students)
  • Pro-government students and criminal thugs assaulted MB students in Ain Shams University's Faculty of Education, in a campaign of campus terror before student union elections (Photo ​ courtesy of​ MB students)
  • Pro-government students and criminal thugs assaulted MB students in Ain Shams University's Faculty of Education, in a campaign of campus terror before student union elections (Photo ​ courtesy of​ MB students)

And where was the University’s Security, which Minister of Education Dr. Hani Helal described in today’s Al-Masry Al-Youm as “without it, we would have been screwed”? (I’m not joking. That’s the quote.) NO WHERE! The security did not intervene to stop the assaults, and actually aided them. Under their watchful eyes that those herds of Baltaggiya were allowed into campus.

I’ve spoken with Emad Mubarak, the director of the Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression, who follows abuses against students closely, and he said this year the government is not taking it lightly at all with the SU elections. “Already the intimidations started before Eid,” he said. “Posters were torn down several times before, but for two days this bloodshed has went out of control. Three students at least have been hospitalized with serious injuries. This exposes what sort of lies the minister of education is spreading in the press about freedoms on campuses.”

UPDATE: Protests at Helwan University after security banned MB candidates from running.

A new ‘reform’ surprise gift from Mubarak

Posted on By 3arabawy

In a move that marks (for the millionth time) the randomness of this whole “democratic reform,” Mubarak has “surprised” us with a new announcement, stating he’s amending Article 76 of the constitution, that was tailored by his legislators last year. There was absolutely nothing mentioned about such amendment during the last NDP’s congress. Note also that the long-awaited Counterterrorism Law, that is to replace the notorious Emergency Law we’ve been living under since the start of Mubarak’s reign, will not be presented to the parliament in this coming session.

Here’s an AP report by Nadia Abou El-Magd:

Egypt to amend constitution article criticized as opening way for succession of Mubarak’s son
CAIRO _ Egypt will amend its constitution to make it easier for candidates to run as president, the parliament speaker said Monday, stating the reform would include changes to an article criticized as opening the way for President Hosni Mubarak’s son to succeed him.
Changing article 76 of the constitution is one of the political reforms Mubarak plans to undertake next year, Parliament Speaker Fathi Sorour told the official Middle East News Agency.
“Next year will witness the most extensive amendments to the constitution since 1971,” Sorour told MENA. He did not give specific details about the reforms, but said the controversial article would be among those up for change.
Presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad said in a statement that the president “won’t oppose considering an amendment to article 76, in order to increase the chances of (political) parties to participate in presidential elections.”
The article was rewritten last year to allow multi-candidate presidential elections. But opposition contends that instead it deliberately made it impossible for anyone to compete against the ruling party in the next presidential elections.
Article 76 provides that independent candidates must obtain 250 recommendations from members of parliament or city councils before they can enter the race. Because most political offices are held by Mubarak’s NDP, opposition parties fear they won’t be able to field any presidential candidate.
The article also rules that only political parties representing at least five percent of Parliament can put forward a presidential candidate. No political party achieved this in last year’s legislative elections.
The ruling National Democratic Party previously refused to amend the article, and Egypt’s opposition said this demonstrated that Mubarak’s party was planning to clear the path for the president’s son, Gamal Mubarak, to take power.
Gamal Mubarak, 42, has risen rapidly through the ranks of his father’s party in recent years and is now deputy secretary general. Despite his denials, many believe he is being groomed to succeed Mubarak, who is 78 and has been in power for over two decades.
Opposition figures on Monday said they feared the announced reforms were purely cosmetic, and only geared at winning public adherence ahead of the next presidential elections, due in 2011.
“The new proposed amendment is still part of scenario of (Mubarak’s son) inheriting power,” said Hesham el-Bastawisy, a High Court judge and a vocal critic of the earlier constitutional amendment.
The head of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s main opposition force, said he didn’t expect the constitutional change to make it easier for his group to field a presidential candidate.
Technically illegal as a political party, the Muslim Brotherhood has 88 lawmakers in Parliament, where they sit as independents.
“The real competition is between the independents, who are mainly the Brotherhood, and the NDP, not between authorized political parties and the ruling party,” Mohammed Saad el-Katatny told The Associated Press.
Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif said earlier this year the government was studying measures to ban independents and outlawed groups from running in any election.