Tag: detainees

HRW denounces MB military tribunals

Posted on By 3arabawy

Human Rights watch blasted Mubarak’s regime’s plans to try Khairat el-Shatter and his colleagues in military courts, in a statement today. The NYC-based rights watchdog insisted the Egyptian government “should release the hundreds of members of the Muslim Brotherhood detained solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association.”

UPDATE: Socialists as well as other political activists have started collecting signatures from public figures, intellectuals and political celebrities from all tendencies, denouncing the military tribunals and expressing solidarity with the MB detainees. I’ve received the petition, and the names that signed already, but will postpone publishing it till the campaign organizers give me the greenlight, with more names being collected.

Mubarak’s vendetta against MB

Posted on By 3arabawy

A report by Aziz el-Kaissouni:

Egypt crackdown is political revenge-Brotherhood MPs
CAIRO, Feb 10 (Reuters) – The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s parliamentary bloc on Saturday slammed an escalating government crackdown on the group as a political revenge for the gains it made during the last parliamentary elections in 2005.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak referred 40 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s strongest opposition group, to military court Monday, the first military trial of Brotherhood members since 2001.
Sobhi Saleh Moussa, a Brotherhood parliament member said the referrals were politically motivated, coming as they did after a civilian court had ordered 16 of the Islamists released.
“After the (ruling National Democratic) party’s failure to make any gains in popularity … they punished us,” Moussa, who is also part of the defence team for the defendants, told reporters at a news conference.
“We’re paying the bill for the elections, as is the (Palestinian) Hamas government,” he added, speaking on behalf of the Brotherhood’s parliamentary bloc.
The Islamist Hamas group swept to power in Palestinian elections in January 2006, dislodging the secular Fatah group that had long dominated Palestinian politics, and prompting Western states to impose crippling economic sanctions on the Palestinian government.
The Brotherhood won nearly one-fifth of seats in the lower house of the parliament in 2005, its members running as independents to bypass a 53-year-old ban on the group.
The government widened its crackdown on the Brotherhood after a protest by Islamist students at al-Azhar University in which Brotherhood students appeared wearing militia-style uniforms.
More than 270 Brotherhood members have been jailed in the current crackdown. The group’s finances have also been targeted, with authorities detaining key financiers, freezing assets, and raiding businesses.
Moussa and other Brotherhood parliamentarians condemned the referral to military courts, whose rulings cannot be appealed, saying that Egypt’s largest opposition group had initiated legal proceedings to declare such tribunals unconstitutional in 1995, but that the constitutional court had not yet ruled in the case.

Military Tribunals for MB activists!!

Posted on By 3arabawy

In an escalation that reminds us of the dark days of the 1990s in Egypt, when crackdown on dissent was at its height, Khairat el-Shatter and other senior MB leaders will be tried in front of military tribunals.

I still do not have more details. But this is a very dangerous escalation. Civilians tried in front of military tribunals? Today it’s the MB; Tomorrow who’s next?

Solidarity with the MB detainees is a MUST. Those who think secular leftists and liberals are immune from this are mistaken. Our turn is coming if we do not stand up to these kangaroo trials now.

UPDATE: Here’s a Reuters report by journalist and university mate Aziz…

Egypt refers Brotherhood official to military court
By Abdel Latief Wahba and Aziz El-Kaissouni
CAIRO, Feb 6 (Reuters) – Egypt ordered one of the leaders of the banned Muslim Brotherhood on Tuesday to face charges in a military tribunal.
The step was Egypt’s most serious attempt to stop the Brotherhood from advancing further in mainstream politics. The country’s strongest opposition group operates openly despite being officially banned.
“A decree was issued today to transfer the crimes … which Muhammad Khairat Saad Abdel Latif el-Shatir and others are charged with to military court,” a government statement said.
Shatir, the Muslim Brotherhood’s second deputy leader, has been in custody since Dec. 14 when he was detained by police following a protest by Islamist students at al-Azhar University that infuriated the government.
The protest, in which a group of Brotherhood students appeared wearing militia-style uniforms, prompted state media to say the Brotherhood was forming a militia. The Brotherhood denies those accusations.
“We consider this decree extremely unjust,” deputy Brotherhood leader Muhammad Habib said. “It increases complications and tensions, particularly in these circumstances in which Egypt is … boiling on a general societal level.”
The Brotherhood holds about a fifth of the seats in parliament through members elected as independents.
CRACKDOWN
Political analysts have said authorities capitalised on the Azhar protest to intensify a crackdown on the group. Some also point to comments by President Hosni Mubarak that the group poses a threat to Egypt’s security as an indication the government was preparing for a wider assault.
Ahmad Seif al-Islam Hamad, a constitutional lawyer, told Reuters that under emergency law only President Hosni Mubarak could order a civilian to stand trial before a military tribunal.
More than 270 Brotherhood members have been jailed in the crackdown. The group’s finances have also been targeted, with authorities detaining key financiers including Shatir, freezing assets and raiding businesses.
Last week a Cairo court ordered Shatir and 15 other Islamists released, ruling there were insufficient grounds to keep him in custody while an investigation into money-laundering charges continued.
But that court ruling was never implemented. Prosecutors instead ordered Shatir to be kept in jail under emergency laws that allow police to detain suspects without charge.
The emergency laws, in place since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981, also allow the government to try civilians before military tribunals.
Rights groups and opposition figures say the government uses such laws to settle political scores and stifle freedom.