Tag: detainees

University Professors Club support strike action; Students demand release of their professors

Posted on By 3arabawy

Sarah Carr reports:

University professors will launch strike action on March 23 if their demands for improved pay and conditions are not met.
In November the Teaching Staff of Egyptian Universities Club — a group which represents the interests of teaching staff in the absence of an official union — began a signature campaign expressing support for a committee empowered to negotiate with the government.
During its fifth annual meeting, held last Friday, the Club voted for strike action.

And in other news:

Over 1,000 students demonstrated at Cairo University Monday demanding the release of eight university professors who will hear the verdict of their military tribunals today.

Solidarity from the US with Khaled Hamza

Posted on By 3arabawy

Yaman blogs about my friend Khaled Hamza‘s arrest. Abu Aardvark also posted in solidarity.

And here’s a Reuters report:

The editor of an Egyptian Web site run by the opposition Muslim Brotherhood has been remanded in custody for 15 days after two recent meetings with foreign human rights activists, the Brotherhood said on Thursday.
Khaled Hamza, the editor of IkhanWeb.com, the English Web site of the Islamist group, was arrested in the street in northeast Cairo on Wednesday, the Web site said.He had just had a meeting with Violette Daguerre, the president of the France-based Arab Commission for Human Rights, the Web site said.
Abdel Monem Mahmoud, an editor at IkhwanWeb, said Hazma had also given information about human rights in Egypt to U.S. peace activist Cindy Sheehan, who visited the country last week in solidarity with Brotherhood leaders facing military trial.
During his interrogation at Interior Ministry headquarters in Cairo, police officers told Hamza they would not stay silent for long about the many human rights delegations visiting Egypt in connection with the military trial, Mahmoud said, quoting Hamza in a telephone call on Wednesday.
Interior Ministry spokesmen were not available to comment.

I hope other international bloggers would follow suit. Spread the word! Freedom for Khaled! Freedom for all political detainees in Mubarak’s Gulag!

Down with the Dictator!

FREE KHALED

Posted on By 3arabawy

That’s horrible news. Khaled Hamza, the editor of the Ikhwan Web, the English website of the Muslim Brothers, has been arrested by Mubarak’s Gestapo in Nasr City.

Khaled is one of the most impressive MB activists I’ve come across, and a strong proponent of reaching out to the secular forces in the country as well as encouraging the current wave of blogging by the young MB activists.

My unconditional solidarity goes to Khaled and all the MB detainees. I hope he would be released as soon as possible. My thoughts go out to his wife and children.

UPDATE: Here’s a report in English from Ikhwan Web:

An Egyptian state security force, backed by a huge number of special forces, arrested Khaled Hamza, the manager of the Cairo office of Ikhwanweb, the Muslim Brotherhood”s official English web site. Hamza was arrested in a street in the eastern Cairo district of Nasr City, two minutes after meeting Violit Dagher, the chairperson of the Paris-based Arab Commission for Human Rights. Dr. Dagher is currently in Cairo to continue her campaign protesting against sending Muslim Brotherhood (MB) leaders to the military tribunal.
Doing a huge part of the file of the case of the MB leaders standing before the military tribunal, Ikhwanweb”s Cairo office has recently witnessed huge activities. To give the true picture of the case of the detained MB leaders, topped by engineer Khairat Al-Shater the second deputy chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood along with 39 MB leaders are tried, the Cairo office carried out a huge media coverage and activities which helped international, regional and local human rights organizations and activists get acquainted with the case as a whole.
Engineer Hamza played an essential role in showing this military trial to the international public opinion wit his articles and reports which were published in several international periodicals.
Hamza”s detention comes only a few days before the military tribunal holds its sentencing session to issue a ruling on the yearlong case. His detention aims to silence independent media voices from exposing the tyrannical and repressive practices of the regime, observers said.

UPDATE: Just spoke with Moneim. Khaled was taken to Mubarak’s State Security Police’s notorious HQ in Lazoughly for interrogation, then later transferred to the Prosecutor’s office who sentenced him to 15 days in the Tora Prison. We still don’t know which part of the Gulag he was taken to, but Moneim thinks it’s Mazra’et Tora.