Hossam el-Hamalawy
Here’s a video clip, shot by blogger Muhammad Adel, of a group of Kefaya demonstrators last Thursday marching through downtown, chanting against the regime, shortly before their arrest.
[Video removed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPKvOeJCezs
Police cracked down on the demo that day, dispersing crowds of demonstrators into small groups that reassembled in front of Tagammu Party HQ, Mugamma’ building in Omar Makram, and Talaat Harb Street.
Today’s protest against Mubarak’s authoritarian constitutional amendments was banned by the police.
Kefaya blogger Malek Mustafa was kidnapped around noon. He’s currently detained in a blue car, with license plates no. 865171, full of police informers, parked in front of the American University in Cairo.
UPDATE: It’s 4:10pm now. Malek has just been released. No word on Abdel Qodouss.
UPDATE: Muhammad Abdel Qudouss was released, according to leftist journalist and activist Khaled el-Balshi. Abdel Qudouss was also locked up in a police car, said Khaled. None of the detainees today were taken to police stations. Basically the police took everyone on a cruise.
The National Forces are calling on all activists to join the opposition MPs in their sit-in in front of the Parliament, this Tuesday 12 Noon, to protest Mubarak’s authoritarian constitutional amendments.
Meanwhile…
Opposition MPs in Egypt have walked out of parliament in protest over constitutional amendments proposed by Hosni Mubarak, the president.
About 100 legislators, including independents and members of several opposition parties, interrupted the parliamentary session by staging a walkout.
Egypt’s Revolutionary Socialists issued a statement on Thursday denouncing the amendments.
Also, international rights watchdogs like Amnesty International denounced Mubarak’s amendments, describing them as the “greatest erosion of human rights in 26 years.”
Amnesty International today called on Egyptian members of parliament to reject proposed amendments to the country’s constitution, which the organization described as the most serious undermining of human rights safeguards in Egypt since the state of emergency was re-imposed in 1981.
The appeal came as the Egyptian Parliament prepared to approve this Sunday amendments to 34 articles of the constitution, including Article 179. The amendments to this Article would give sweeping powers of arrest to the police, grant broad authority to monitor private communications and allow the Egyptian president to bypass ordinary courts and refer people suspected of terrorism to military and special courts, in which they would be unlikely to receive fair trials.
