ss archives — Page 87 of 90

HRinfo workshop moved after State Security threats

Posted on 20/12/200603/02/2021 By 3arabawy

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.

State Security police bar Dr. Essam from traveling

Posted on 20/12/200602/02/2021 By 3arabawy

State Security detained him for over six months despite court orders for release. They tried unsuccessfully to put him under house arrest. Now, they are banning him from traveling outside the country.

Egypt bars senior Brotherhood member from Qatar trip
by Aziz El-Kaissouni
CAIRO, Dec 19 (Reuters) – Egyptian security forces barred a top member of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s strongest opposition group, from traveling to Qatar on Tuesday, security and Brotherhood sources said.
Essam el-Erian, who heads the Brotherhood’s political department, said airport authorities told him they had been instructed by State Security officials to stop him from traveling.
Erian, who was recently released after more than six months in detention, was scheduled to travel to Qatar to attend a conference that brings together nationalist and Islamist activists from around the Arab World.
While his passport was initially stamped, airport officials told him they would carry out further checks, later informing him that he would not be allowed to leave the country.
Erian said he and other members of the Brotherhood had in the past successfully sued to have their names removed from the government’s no-travel list, but were still often barred from travel.
“Occasionally they’ll let me through, and occasionally they’ll stop me. But I no longer have the desire to seek their permission every time I want to travel … there’s no legal basis for this,” Erian said.
An Interior Ministry spokesman declined to comment.
In the past two months, several members of the Brotherhood have been banned from travel, and in November Al Jazeera television’s Cairo bureau chief was also barred from travel to Qatar and briefly detained.
On Saturday, Egyptian prosecutors ordered the detention of scores of Brotherhood members for 15 days for questioning in connection with a protest march at al-Azhar University in which several dozen Islamist students wore black militia-style uniforms and black balaclavas.

State Security crackdown on MB activists

Posted on 14/12/200602/02/2021 By 3arabawy

At dawn, State Security agents kidnapped at least 180 Muslim Brotherhood students from Al-Azhar University, and arrested senior leaders from their home, including the all-powerful Khairat el-Shatter, the deputy head of the group’s Supreme Guide.

The crackdown comes following a campaign by the state-owned press against Al-Azhar MB students, who held a demo that included a group of masked MB activists who performed a martial art show during the demo, with bandanas written on it, “Samedoun” (Steadfast). The demo had been organized to protest the expulsion of student activists who were part of the Free Student Union.

I totally object to this media witch-hunting, and see the whole “militia” affair to be exaggerated out of proportions.

1- It’s not the first time the MB activists hold similar parades. These have been common since the outbreak of the intifada. Some of these demos (that had the masked martial arts students) had taken place with permission of the security services to defuse dissent on campus.

2-It is ludicrous to assume these pathetic masked kids are part of a “militia” or a new secret organization. The Brothers are NOT involved in terrorism anymore. While Mubarak loves to accuse them of terrorism during interviews with Western press outlets, not a single terror case featured a MB member. And knowing how Mubarak handles terror suspects, we could have expected the MB to be butchered by now (and ho ho believe me, there are those in the security services who would love to do it.) if they possessed a single bullet.

3-The tradition of activists wearing masks during demos is not solely limited to the MB. I’ve seen many Socialists and Nasserists doing it before, for the sake of protecting their identity from the State Security photographers and informers who are present in demos.

4-The MB kids’ parade simulated a HAMAS parade in Palestine… What’s the big deal? The Palestinian intifada is a inspiration for activists in the region, whether it is Islamists or Leftists… but that does not necessarily mean they wanna simulate their tactics. Does wearing a Che Guevara shirt mean you wanna grab an AK-47 and shoot the police?! For many here in the region (secularists or Islamists), Hamas and Hezbollah fighters are the Arab Guevaras. It’s common to see students and random citizens wearing shirts that celebrate the two organizations.

5-Those who have made it their cause to expose the MB “Masked Militia” should worry more about the State Security Masked Militias. Don’t State Security officers bring with them a platoon of masked Special Forces soldiers, armed with machine guns, whenever they raid homes of unarmed activists to arrest them, causing terror in the entire neighborhood?! That’s the “Masked Militia” the press should be worried about, not the pathetic Karatae Kids the MB has.

Here’s a report by journalist and friend Ali Zalat about today’s arrests:

اعتقال نائب مرشد الإخوان و خطف 180 طالبا ًمن المدينة الجامعية لجامعة الأزهر
الشاطر.. الرجل الحديدي في الإخوان و الممول الأبرز
كتب / علي زلط
في تطور خطير لتصاعد الأزمة بين الأجهزة الامنية وجماعة الإخوان المسلمين شنت قوات الأمن فجر الخميس 14-12-2006 حملة اعتفالات موسعة شملت المهندس خيرت الشاطر النائب الثاني للمرشد العام والمهندس أيمن عبد الغني زوج ابنة الشاطر والقيادي في قسم الطلاب بالجماعة، والمهندس ممدوح الحسيني من إخوان القاهرة و180 من طلاب الإخوان المسلمين المقيمين في مدينة الصفا الجامعية بينهم أمين الاتحاد الحر بجامعة الأزهر صهيب الملط ونائبه أحمد الصنهاوي ولم يتم حتى الآن حصر أسماء المعتقلين
و صرح مصدر مقرب من عائلة المهندس خيرت الشاطر بأن قوات الأمن صادرت 3 أجهزة كمبيوتر تخص عائلته و مبلغا ماليا يقدر ب60 ألف جنيه إضافة إلى أجهزة محمول زوجته و زوج ابنته المهندس أيمن عبد الغني الذي قبض عليه في نفس الوقت من منازلهم الكائنة في ضاحية مدينة نصر.
و على الصعيد ذاته أكدت مصادر طلابية في جامعة الأزهر أن عدد الطلاب المعتقلين وصل إلى 180 طالبا جرى اقتحام مبناهم السكني في مدينة الصفا الجامعية و تأكد ان بينهم الطالبي صهيب الملط أمين عام إنحاد الطلاب الحر بجامعة الأزهر و أحمد الصنهاوي الأمين المساعد .و آخرين .
و أضافت المصادر الطلابية بأن سلطات الأمن هاجمت ثلاثة شقق سكنية طلابية في الحي العاشر بمدينة نصر (شرق القاهرة) واقتادت 8 طلاب على الأقل ،بالتزامن مع حملة الإعتقالات الموسعة التي طالت ثالث رجل في الإخوان وعدد من الناشطين والطلاب .
و ترددت أنباء عن اعتقال طلاب آخرين أثناء قضائهم عطلة نهاية الأسبوع في محافظاتهم الأ صلية خاصة الشرقية و وردت أنباءعن اعتقال اثنين من اعضاءهيئة التدريس بجامعة الأزهر إلا أنه لم يتسنى حتى الآن التأكد من صحة هذه الأنباء
يذكر أن حملة الاعتقالات الجديدة تتم بعد حملة إعلامية واسعة شنتها وسائل إعلام وصحف مصرية على جماعة الإخوان المسلمين، متهمةً إياها بالعنف عقب استعراض شبه رياضي قام به طلاب ملثمون أمام مكتب رئيس جامعة الأزهر ضمن اعتصام نظم للاعتراض على فصل 5 طلاب من الجامعة ينتمون للإخوان المسلمين، وقال طلاب الإخوان أن اللقطات التي بثتها وسائل الإعلام على أنها عرض عسكري لملثمين لا تتعدى مشاهد تمثيلية قام بها بعض الطلاب في جامعة الأزهر.
وتأتي هذه الحملة في أعقاب ثلاثة أيام من الإفراج عن الدكتور محمد مرسي عضو مكتب الإرشاد والدكتور عصام العريان القيادي في الجماعة.

UPDATE: Thousands of Al-Azhar students demonstrated today against the kidnapping of 180 student activists by State Security. Photographer Nasser Nouri was there.