Thousands of Ghazl el-Mahalla strikers demonstrated following breaking their fast with the dusk prayers, demanding the release of their five detained comrades, reports Kareem el-Beheiri.
Tag: detainees
Three Egyptian journalists jailed
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.
Release the Mahalla Five! فلنتضامن مع معتقلي المحلة.. يسقط مبارك
I’ve spoken with a Socialist activist in Mahalla…
Five strike leaders are now in Mubarak’s police custody, locked up in Abu Ali Police Station in Mahalla, after the State Security Prosecutor ordered them imprisoned for four days pending investigation into charges levelled against them by the state-owned company management, that include sabotage, inciting riots, and causing the company losses that amount to LE10 million!!
The five are: Muhammad el-Attar, Faisal Laqousha, Wael Habib, Magdi Sherif, Gamal el-Saadawi.
I asked the Socialist activist what was the impact of the arrests on the strikers, and he assured me this got the workers into a more militant mood. “They are now saying even if they win their demands, they are not disbanding their strike without the release of their colleagues,” he said. “Now the release of the detained leaders has topped all other demands. The government may also be trying to reach a settlement with the strikers in the absence of those leaders, as an attempt to sideline them. In my view, this will probably fire back, because now the state has turned these detainees into heroes.”
Down with Mubarak’s Police.