Fascinating visuals.
Tag: protests
Mahalla 49 Trial: 22 convicted
It’s a sad day!
An Egyptian emergency court convicted 22 people for participating in deadly food riots in April, handing out sentences ranging from three to five years, the presiding judge said.
The remaining 27 defendants in the high profile case held in the northern provincial capital of Tanta 55 miles (90 kilometers) north of Cairo, were acquitted, Judge Alsayyed Abdel-Maaboud told The Associated Press.
Defendants screamed at the judge calling him unjust when the verdicts were read out, with some fainting, according to witnesses inside the court.
Thousands of residents of the gritty industrial town of Mahalla al-Kobra rioted in April for two days over the hardships caused by high food prices, destroying posters of the president and clashing with security troops.
The demonstrations were quashed by tear gas and shotgun-wielding security forces who killed three people and arrested dozens of others.
Greeks riot against police brutality
UPDATE: An excerpt from correspondence with a Greek Socialist:
You know that on Saturday the police murdered a 15-year-old school boy in Athens
On Saturday we had the first signs of a riot.
On Sunday we organized a mass demonstration in Athens, that went to the Police Headquarters and then to the parliament. It was huge and we marched through banks and other corporations put on fire.
The result is obvious today: there is not one school working all around Greece. All school students left their classrooms and marched in the streets shouting: “Cops, Pigs, Murderers”. Outside my window in Peristeri there was a march of around 3.000 students (12-17 y.o.). All around Greece the same picture. The center of Athens is closed. The government ordered all Universities to be closed in order to avoid mass meetings to decide occupations. In 6pm today we’re having a new demo in Athens. Tomorrow all school teachers are on strike against the police brutality, and the government ordered that the schools would be closed even without a strike to show “the popular grief for the boy’s funeral”. Wednesday is a general strike against the 2009 budget, but everybody knows that it will be a general anti-government earthquake. The reformists are trying to appease people.. eg. the Communist party sends their members to occupy Universities officially in order to make the students stay at home and not get in touch with the general mood. But the revolutionary left is quite big and we can form a center for all the ongoing struggles.