Journalist Osama Salah Abdel Maqsoud was assaulted by Police Corporals in Giza, who beat him up, illegally detained him for two days, before stealing his money and dumping him back in the street.
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Tag: journalists
‘I hate soldiers. I hate to see a man with a bayonet fixed on his rifle, who can order me off the street’
John Reed, “The Worst Thing in Europe,” The Masses, March 1915:
I hate soldiers. I hate to see a man with a bayonet fixed on his rifle, who can order me off the street. I hate to belong to an organization that is proud of obeying a caste of superior beings, that is proud of killing free ideas, so that it may the more efficiently kill human beings in cold blood. They will tell you that a conscript army is Democratic, because everybody has to serve; but they won’t tell you that military service plants in your blood the germ of blind obedience, of blind irresponsibility, that it produces one class of Commanders in your state and your industries; and accustoms you to do what they tell you even in time of peace.
Press rallies in support of persecuted colleague
Michaela Singer reports:
Standing on the steps of the Journalists’ Syndicate, press and activists — led by the Head of the Freedom Committee Muhammad Abdel Qoddous — voiced Monday their support for Al-Fajr journalist Kamal Murad, who was assaulted and arrested by police last month.
Activists leading the demonstration called for the cessation of police attacks on journalists and immediate government intervention into Murad’s case, stating that, “aggression on a Fajr journalist is aggression on all journalists” and “police attacks of journalists is nothing but a settling of scores.”
They also called on the Ministry of Interior to clarify the laws that govern press freedoms stating that the constitution permits freedom of opinion and press.
Murad, 28, was reportedly assaulted by police as he took pictures of the eviction of Ezbet El-Muharram farmers in Rahmaniya on June 17.
Although attacks against journalists are not uncommon in Egypt, Murad believes he was victimized by police after they discovered his identity as the journalist is known for his coverage of the Emad El-Kabir rape case. El-Kabir was raped and tortured by police while being held in custody.
Murad told Daily News Egypt that he witnessed police and land gangs force farmers to sign leases prior to their immediate eviction. They then humiliated male farmers by forcing them to strip to their underclothes, while the women were dragged along dirt tracks.
“I was taking pictures of gang leader Abu Khiyar and police drinking tea together, and being served kebabs while they watched their colleagues terrorize the farmers. When they saw me, they assaulted me before taking my [camera’s] memory card.”
Murad was forced into police truck, known as the box, for three hours, where he was denied water, before taking him to a police station.
“When I got to the police station they made a report against me, fabricated entirely by investigation officer Amro Allam. He claimed that it was I who had assaulted police officers and agitated farmers against police. I asked to see the head of the station, but was told there was none.”
By the way, Officer Muhammad Bassiouny, who’s involved in the assault and listed as number 4 in the above photo, is the same pig who assaulted me and stole my camera while I was photographing the police plainclothes thugs kidnapping voters in front an electoral station in Damanhour during the November 2005 elections.