Hossam el-Hamalawy
A person called me from downtown saying a group of activists are right now demonstrating in front of Al-Ghad Party HQ in Talaat Harb Street.
I could hear on the phone the demonstrators in the background chanting “Down with Mubarak,” and calling for the release of Dr. Ayman Nour.
The building is surrounded by security forces, the caller told me, who are dispersing any people passing by the demo or curious enough to approach the protest.
The Egyptian Association Against Torture, the Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, and the Hisham Mubarak Law Center (three secular left-leaning rights watchdogs) have issued a statement denouncing the security crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood student activists.
I received the following statement from leftist lawyer Gamal Eid, director of HRinfo:
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo) decided to change the place of its prospected workshop to Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate headquarter rather than Shepherd Hotel. The workshop is attributed to discuss HRinfo’s recently published report on the conflict between Arab governments and the internet. Shepherd Hotel in Cairo dismissed its agreement with HRinfo to host the workshop after State Security Intelligence (SSI) officers threatened to close the hotel and arrest its officials if they accepted to hold the workshop.
Shepherd Hotel in Cairo is not the first to terminate its agreement with HRinfo with regards to the same workshop. Flamenco Hotel officials retreated, too, after they were plainly threatened by SSI officers who control the entire minor and major in Egypt, as a state governed by police.
“Using such police pressures to prevent holding our workshop on the freedom to use the internet is both ridicule and outrageous. Do Egyptian government’s fears reach up that high? These pressures significantly resemble the police-like practices of the government, and clarify the extent to which SSI acts as a ghoul against freedoms in Egypt, particularly freedom of speech,” HRinfo Executive Director, Gamal Eid said.Therefore, HRinfo decided to hold its workshop at Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate headquarter located in Abdul Khalek Tharwat Street, Downtown Cairo. The workshop will be held on the same previously assigned date: at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday 23 December 2006.