Tag: military tribunals

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.

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.