Tag: pigs

Tens of Mahalla suspects to face trial in an Egyptian exceptional court

Posted on By 3arabawy

Sarah Carr reports:

The trial of 48 men and one woman accused of a range of criminal offences allegedly committed during the April 6 clashes will begin on Aug. 9, their lawyers told Daily News Egypt.
The group — five of whom are at large — will be tried in an exceptional court on what lawyers allege are spurious, trumped-up charges including “criminal damage to public and private property, assault of a public official, unlawful assembly of more than five people and illegal possession of weapons.”
The announcement by workers in the Ghazl El-Mahalla Spinning Mill that they would go on strike on April 6 had prompted calls by activists and political opposition groups for a nationwide general strike on the same day.
When the Ghazl El-Mahalla strike was aborted following intense intimidation by security bodies and worker disunity, hundreds of people in the Delta town of Mahalla, in which the factory is located, took to the streets shortly around 4 pm.
According to journalists and eyewitnesses, the crowds of people which converged on the main square were protesting rising food prices caused by soaring inflation.
While the government alleges that it was criminally-motivated thugs who were responsible for the ensuing violence that broke out on April 6 and 7, eyewitnesses say that heavy-handed policing by hundreds of security body troops who allegedly used live ammunition against crowds was the real cause of the violence.
A 15-year-old boy, Ali Mabrouk, was shot dead while standing in the third floor balcony of his home on the night of April 6.
His family told Daily News Egypt that central security force troops were underneath the house at the time of the shooting.
Hundreds of people — including children — were rounded up and arrested over the course of the two days.
According to defense lawyer Ahmad Ezzat of the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, some of the group of 49 who were either detained or remain in detention, have alleged that they were tortured.
The charges against the group — some carrying lengthy prison sentences — will be heard by an exceptional court established under the emergency law which lacks basic guarantees of due process.
Human Rights Watch in a statement issued on Friday called on Egyptian authorities to quash the transfer of the case to the Supreme State Security Court.
“The Supreme State Security Court was established under Egypt’s emergency law in 1980 and follows procedures that violate internationally recognized fair trial norms,” the statement reads.
“In violation of guarantees of the independence of the judiciary, two military judges may sit alongside the Security Court’s regular bench of three civilian judges,” it continues.
In addition to concerns about the trial process itself, lawyers and activists have expressed concern both about the police investigation process and the motives for bringing the charges.
In early June Egyptian daily El-Badeel published parts of the public prosecution office’s questioning of a state security officer involved in the case.
Muhammad Fathy Abdel-Rahman told the public prosecution office that he had relied on “80 or 90 sources” to gather evidence against those alleged to have committed crimes on April 6 and 7 in Mahalla.
Abdel-Rahman reportedly refused to divulge the name of these sources — some of whom are not police — in order to “protect their safety.”
He was also quoted as saying that not all the sources were actually present at the scene of the events.
Furthermore, Abdel-Rahman allegedly told the public prosecution office that he and other members of the police investigation squad did not actually take part in surveillance of suspects “because of the scale of the events” in Mahalla.
In an op-ed published this month in the Socialist Worker, a British publication, activist Hossam El-Hamalawy alleges that the 49 are “scapegoats for the uprising” in Mahalla and describes the legal process against them as a “show trial.”

On the new media law

Posted on By 3arabawy

I got a number of emails in these last few days from journalists in US publications who wanted a quote about the new media law, leaked by the Al-Masry Al-Youm, which will tighten the grip of the Mubarak’s dictatorship on the media outlets as well as the cyberspace. The queries were mostly something like: “How will this affect you personally?”

My reply, and you can quote it from this posting instead of me writing it back in separate emails:

Hosni Mubarak’s regime can go fuck itself. The law doesn’t affect me personally, because we do not have a ‘rule of law’ to start with. The executive branch of the state, and namely the security services and the army, as proven again and again, are the ones who are running the show and do not give a damn about the ‘law’ or about whatever international treaties or human rights conventions they signed. So for me nothing changes. Even if we had some ‘progressive law’ introduced, that does NOT mean anything on the ground for us in Egypt. So I will continue to say ‘Fuck Mubarak’ (and in Arabic I’ll say كس أمك يا مبارك) whether the law is enacted or not.. We will not fall into the trap of ‘legalism.’ The blogosphere, or at least those on the radical left of it, will continue to mobilize against the regime and use the same language, and we will not be intimidated. I do not see any way to reform this regime, we will have to overthrow it to get a free media. I repeat, Fuck Mubarak, his royal family and his State Security pigs who are running amok in the country, torturing bloggers, workers, peasants, and anyone who crosses their path or puts them in a bad mood. They are the worst breed of species that have existed on this earth, together with their backers, the hypocrite fucks, in the White House, in 10 Downing St, and in every European capital.
Some people are wishing for the ailing Mubarak to die tomorrow. I don’t wish that at all (though the thought is tempting). I want him to live a little bit longer, because the revolution is coming, and he will be tried and executed in a public square for all the crimes he committed against our people and against the Palestinians. I repeat, Mubarak is a traitor and should be executed in Tahrir Sq, together with his State Security pigs who have enjoyed torturing and sexually abusing us for 27 years now.. Enough is Enough.. Down with Mubarak, Down with his Israeli allies, Down with the hypocrites in the White House… Long Live the struggle of the Egyptian workers, peasants, civil servants and bloggers.. Long Live the Palestinian Intifada…

So that’s my quote.. Go and print it as it is.. But I know you won’t, coz you are a bunch of fucking cowards and the mainstream media is just as complicit in the current crimes just as the Western govts… How many times did AP or the NYT refer to Mubarak and the pro-American dictators as “moderates” and “peacemakers”? Oh, Blessed are the peacemakers indeed.

U.S. Dog كلب الأمريكان

HRW: Release dozens of protesters held without charge

Posted on By 3arabawy

I received the following statement from Human Rights Watch:

Egypt should immediately release six men who have been detained for more than 90 days without charge since their arrests following a workers strike and street protests in Mahalla al-Kobra in April, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch also called on authorities to suspend the prosecution of 49 others by a security court where procedures violate fair trial rights and to investigate allegations that some of the men were tortured.
The men, whose names were released by Human Rights Watch, were arrested after thousands of security forces prevented workers from striking to protest the failure to implement promised wage increases at Mahalla’s Misr Spinning and Weaving textile mill, Egypt’s largest factory on April 6. Mahalla residents took to the streets later that day and again on April 7 to protest recent food price hikes. Witnesses said security forces used live ammunition to disperse demonstrations, and news reports said two people were killed.
“Not only has the government blatantly violated the right of workers to strike, it has refused to provide those arrested with basic due process rights,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch. “Nothing justifies torturing and indefinitely detaining protesters without charge.”
Six of the men were arrested on April 6 and 7, and 32 others were detained during a three-day sweep on April 21, 22 and 23. The six men have been detained for over three months without charge, leaving it unclear what, if any, crime they are alleged to have committed. The 32 others currently in detention had been detained without charge in “preventive custody” until June 6, when a prosecutor charged them and transferred their cases, along with 17 others, to Egypt’s Supreme State Security Court.
In total, the East Tanta General Prosecutor’s Office transferred 49 cases to the Supreme State Security Court, according to a charge sheet obtained by defense lawyers. All 49 men face a wide range of charges, including participating in a gathering of five or more people “of a nature to disturb public order” in violation of Egypt’s Emergency Law, as well as destroying public property, illegally possessing firearms, and assaulting policemen.
Egyptian human rights lawyers say the men could face lengthy prison terms, since judges can increase criminal sentences in cases related to national security or public order.
Two former detainees from Mahalla told Human Rights Watch that security forces tortured them in custody.
On April 10, Mahalla police arrested James Buck, an American journalism student, and Muhammad Maree, a 23-year-old veterinary student who was working as his translator. Buck told Human Rights Watch that the public prosecutor in Muhalla ordered their release later that night, but that police rearrested them moments later. They later released Buck.
On April 11, Marei told Human Rights Watch he was transferred to State Security Investigations (SSI) offices in Mahalla, where officers interrogated him for seven hours, beating him, kicking him in the head and genitals, and threatening him with electric shock by holding electricity cables so close to his head that he could hear the current. He said the SSI threatened to put him “in the oven,” and that his feet and hands were bound so tightly during the interrogation that he lost feeling in them for four days. He was beaten “into unconsciousness” before being transferred, blindfolded, to a detention center and kept in solitary confinement for 19 days.
Marei said his family tried to visit him, but SSI officers denied that he was in custody. They then transferred him to Burj al Arab prison, near Alexandria, where he twice went on hunger strike to protest continued detention. He did not see his family for 32 days, and did not see a lawyer for 42 days. He was released on July 5, after 87 days in detention, without ever being told of any charges against him.

The statement is also available in Arabic here. One point though, While the statements (both in Arabic and in English) were titled: “Egypt: Release Dozens of Protesters Held Without Charge,” it was very disappointing that the content of the statements themselves limited the call for the “immediate release” to only six of the detainees, and suspending the prosecution of the 49.

I hope statements from other rights watchdogs will state CLEARLY that they support the IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF ALL those who’ve been rounded up in Mahalla during and after the uprising.