Tag: left

Updates on the detainees: Sharqawi released; Mahalla labor activists ‘disappear’

Posted on By 3arabawy

Blogger Muhammad el-Sharqawi has been released around noon today.

I couldn’t get thru to him or his fiancé Naira, but I spoke with Amr Gharbeia and Malek Moustafa few mins ago, and they both confirmed it. According to them, Sharqawi was not abused in custody this time, but his health is in a poor state since he had been on a hunger strike since Thursday. He spent the night in Qasr el-Nil Police Station and was then taken to the Qasr el-Nil Prosecutor’s Office, where he was interrogated on charges related to Magdi el-Shafie’s “Metro”. Sharqawi was allowed to go home sometime around noon, but the interrogation is not over yet, and it seems the (Mubarak’s book-burning) govt wanna push for a trial in court.

More worryingly is the news about the Mahalla detainees… The confirmed names of those who “disappeared” in State Security custody in Mahalla, according to Socialist sources in Cairo, are: Ghazl el-Mahalla labor activists Kamal el-Fayoumi, blogger Kareem el-Beheiri, Tarek Amin el-Senoussi and Abdel Halim Ahmad as well as others from outside the company: Mostafa Elzoghby Ibrahim, Ibrahim Abdallah, Mahmoud Ahmad. There are unconfirmed reports these detainees, whose release had been ordered earlier by the Prosecutor, are now transferred to Bourg el-Arab Prison (Alexandria). But no one could confirm this from the Socialist and legal sources in Cairo I phoned. If this is true, then this means the Interior Ministry has issued them detention decrees.

I received this message from a Turkish activist who saw Kareem el-Beheiri ten mins before his arrest on the 7th of April:

I am Cigdem Cidamlı from Turkey and I was in Mahalla on 6th April as a representative of Turkish workers movement and Hayat TV together with … and Kareem. Actually Kareem was arrested just 10 minutes after we left the hotel we stayed together at late evening. We had to return back to Turkey on 7th and after our program about Mahalla on Hayat TV various solidarity actions and statements are issued by Turkish labor circles. Below is the statement of Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (80 thousand membership) about Mahalla workers.
In solidarity,
Cigdem Cidamli
Stop The Repression of the Egyptian Workers Movement
In response to a call for a strike on April 6th by the workers in the Mahalla textile complex, the biggest factory in Egypt, the Mubarek regime decided to occupy El Mahalla complex with security forces, abduct strike committee leaders Kamal El Faioumy and Tarek Amin and arrest political
activists of every political tendency in Cairo and other cities. Not able to suppress the protests, the Mubarak security forces used rubber bullets, tear gas and live ammunition against the Mahalla people who decided to protest on the streets of the city and in different villages, leaving at least two dead and hundreds injured and around 800 arrested.
We send our solidarity to the Egyptian workers and their supporters. We call on the Egyptian dictatorship to release the 800 detained yesterday including more than 150 political activists (socialist, liberals and Islamists), more than 600 protesters from Mahalla (mainly women and children) and Mahalla strike committee leaders.
Tayfun GORGUN
GENERAL SECRETARY OF DISK

I received also photos of the solidarity protest that took place in front of the Egyptian Embassy in Paris… Click below…

An open letter in support of Mahalla’s workers and community members

Posted on By 3arabawy

If you are in the Bay Area, please join us today 10am in front of the Egyptian Consulate in San Francisco, to protest the Dictator Mubarak’s atrocities in Mahalla… The consulate is located: 3001 Pacific Avenue (at Baker St.)

To: Abderahman Salaheldin
Consul-General of Egypt in San Francisco
We, the undersigned, are writing to express our grave concern over the recent events centered in Mahalla, Egypt.
In response to their desperate situations, workers and community members have protested to demand better living and working conditions.
We are writing to protest the severe repression of these demonstrations, including the occupation of Mahalla, mass arrests and detention of workers and community members across Egypt, and the shooting and killing of at least two people. Reports of ill treatment and torture of detainees are very disturbing and raise concerns about the violation of basic human rights. Also of great concern is the arrest and detention of foreign and Egyptian journalists.
In order to prevent any further loss of life, and to begin to address the legitimate demands of the Mahalla workers and those who have responded to their actions across Egypt, the Mubarak government must stop this violent repression immediately.
Along with thousands of supporters across the world, we call for immediate release and amnesty for all detainees, and investigations and justice for those injured and killed during the demonstrations and subsequent repression.
Sincerely,

Individual Signatories:
Chen, Jia Ching… University of California, Berkeley
Clinton, Maggie… GSOC-UAW Local 2110, New York City
Damluji, Mona… University of California, Berkeley
Dayaneni, Gopal… Movement Generation, Oakland
Gonzales, AM …Planning for Elders, San Francisco
Goodwin, Owen… Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Oakland
Lin, Thung-Hung… Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Liu, Shaw San… Chinese Progressive Association, San Francisco
Poblet, Maria… St Peter’s Housing Committee, San Francisco
Ryan, Shawna… San Francisco City College
El-Hamalawy, Hossam… University of California, Berkeley
England, Jenna… University of California, Berkeley

Organizational Signatories:
Arab Resource and Organizing Center, San Francisco
Chinese Progressive Association, San Francisco
POWER, San Francisco
SOUL, Oakland
ISO, Oakland

Khaled Hamza released

Posted on By 3arabawy

Khaled Hamza called me five mins ago. He’s free.

Khaled was released from State Security Police HQ in Lazoughly around 11pm. He estimates there are still at least 300 MB detainees left behind in Mubarak’s prisons, besides those who were sentenced by the kangaroo military tribunal.

“What I’ve seen inside prison and how the detainees are treated, makes me more certain we are up against a government of gangsters and monsters,” Khaled said, calling on leftist activists to unite with the MBs against the dictatorial regime.