ss archives — Page 89 of 90

Workers For Change protest State Security’s violations

Posted on 30/10/200604/01/2021 By 3arabawy

Around 50 activists from Workers For Change and Youth For Change protested for an hour, in front of the Public Prosecutor’s office, against State Security‘s violations against opposition candidates running for seats in the General Federation of Labor Unions. The elections are scheduled to start on 5 November, but already government violations are rampant. State Security is hasseling Leftist and Muslim Brothers candidates, elections posters have been taken down, activists have been also banned from running by security’s stalling their paper work.

Demonstrators were cordoned by CSF troops, but no arrests or scuffles were reported.

UPDATE: Here’s a report from the Daily Star.

Police kidnap labor activist

Posted on 28/10/200617/01/2021 By 3arabawy

Police kidnapped Muhammad Hassan, an activist with Workers For Change, an hour ago in front of the General Federation of Trade Unions HQ in Cairo. Hassan was distributing leaflets denouncing the security intervention in the labor unions electoral process, and warning of serious vote rigging to come. Security personnel nabbed him, and took him to al-Azbakeya Police Station which has a notorious history of police brutality.

Hassan is still locked up at this moment.

Meanwhile, 25 transportation workers are currently on a sit in inside the Federation’s HQ, protesting the hassels they are facing from the union bureaucracy in issuing their “candidacy certificate” (one of the red tape procedures a union candidate has to go through). And 13 other left-leaning workers from the Helwan steel mills have been eliminated from the candidacy list by State Security.

Workers For Change are calling for a demo, Monday 1 pm in front of the Public Prosecutor office in Ramses St., to protest the violations by the security services.

UPDATE: Muhammad Hassan has been released, after he was kept for three hours in police custody.

"Hi, This is State Security"

Posted on 12/10/200617/01/2021 By 3arabawy

There is reportedly a bureau at State Security police called the “CounterCommunism and Civil Society Organizations Bureau.” Its officers are assigned with monitoring and cracking down on Marxists and left-wing rights activists. Some of them have been involved in several torture cases of leftist activists, the most recent of which has been Muhammad el-Sharqawi.
There’s hardly a civil society activist that hasn’t received at least a “phone call” from them. Sometimes it’s an “invitation for coffee,” other times it’s direct threats… Whether it’s this or that, the aim obviously is intimidation.
I met today my friend Emad Mubarak, director of the recently launched Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, and the brother of the late legendary left wing lawyer Hisham Mubarak.
Emad was one of the main figures in the Egyptian leftist students scene in the 1990s, and was subject to several incidents of police brutality and detentions. Since his graduation from Ain Shams University’s Faculty of Law, he’s been working as a rights lawyer. Emad has been involved in defending Leftist and Muslim Brothers student activists, labor struggles, and campaigns for rights of detainees from all political tendencies.
Emad met me with a big smile, “I finally received the phone call.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“State Security called me yesterday,” he said.
“What did they want?” I asked.
“They wanted to say Mabrouk (Congrats)!” he said.
“What do you mean?! Are you joking?”
“No no, I swear.”

Emad went on narrating the conversation he had with the State Security officer.
SS: “Who is on the phone?”
Emad: “Are you kidding? You are the one who called. Who is it?”
SS: “This is Ahmad S… from State Security.”
Emad: “How Can I help you?”
SS: “We found your number on the internet, and it was mentioned as a contact number for the Association for the Freedom of Thought and Expression. We wanted to know who this number belonged to.”
Emad: “You mean you have my number, but you can’t get my name from the telephone directory?! Anyways, my name is Emad Mubarak.”
SS: “Oooooh! Emad Mubarak? The brother of Hisham Mubarak? May God bless his soul. He was very respectable.”
Emad: “Hisham was indeed respected by everybody, especially you!” (Hisham had lost one of his ears’ hearing capability, due to brutal torture by SS in 1989.) “Anyways, what do you want?”
SS: “Nothing we just called in to say mabrouk for launching your association.”
Emad: “Thanks, anything else?”
SS: “No, No. We just wanted to say mabrouk.”
Emad: “So do you work at Lazoughly (State Security’s HQ in Downtown Cairo) or Gaber Ibn Hayan (SS HQ in Giza)?”
SS: “Gaber Ibn Hayyan”
(Emad knew the officer was lying, as the number that appeared on his mobile started with a 76…., which meant the caller was making the call from downtown.
Emad: “So you must be ….’s student? (Emad dropped in the name of one of the notorious officers there.)
SS: “Oh, Ah, Yeah, I know him.”
Emad: “Ok, anything else?”
SS: “No, we just wanted to say Mabrouk!”
Emad: “ok, Bye!”
Emad then hung up.
“What a waste of my time and their time,” he told me when I met him today. “They have nothing better else to do. I wonder when they’ll invite me for coffee. I bet soon.”