Egypt

Al-Jazeera Journalists Leave Egyptian Prison On Bail

February 13, 2015 Patrick Kingsley, www.theguardian.com Educate! Egypt, Freedom of Press, Journalism

A court in Egypt has freed two imprisoned al-Jazeera English journalists on bail, nearly a fortnight after their Australian colleague, Peter Greste, was deported. The decisions means Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed have been allowed to walk free for the first time in 14 months. They were arrested in December 2013 on trumped-up charges of helping terrorists and spreading false news. Adel Fahmy tweeted jubilantly on Friday morning that his journalist brother had been released after posting bail. Baher Mohamed was also freed, his family told the Guardian soon afterwards. Fahmy had been ordered to put up 250,000 Egyptian pounds (£21,000/$US33,000) for his freedom, but Mohamed and several students also tried alongside Greste have no fee to pay.

230 Egyptian Activists Get Life Sentences

February 5, 2015 Al Akhbar, www.english.al-akhbar.com Resist! Egypt, Human Rights, Law

An Egyptian court sentenced prominent activist Ahmed Douma along with 229 other anti-Mubarak activists to life in prison on Wednesday after the court held hearings for 269 people connected to “the cabinet headquarters events” of December 2011, judicial sources said. Douma and 268 others were accused of staging “riots” outside central Cairo's cabinet headquarters and assaulting policemen during a sit-in back in December 2011 against a decision by Egypt's then-ruling military council to appoint as prime minister Kamal al-Ganzouri, who had served in this position under ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak. In addition to “rioting,” the activists were accused of possessing white arms like knives, attacking police officers and armed forces, burning the al-Majmaa al-Alami and attacking other government buildings including the cabinet headquarters.

Egypt Releases Al Jazeera Journalist After 400 Days

February 1, 2015 Patrick Kingsley, www.theguardian.com Educate! Egypt, Media

One of the three al-Jazeera English journalists jailed in Egypt, Peter Greste, has been released after 400 days in an Egyptian jail and has already left the country, the Egyptian interior ministry said on Sunday. As an Australian national, Greste is likely to have been deported under the terms of a recently enacted presidential decree that allows foreign detainees to continue their detention in their home countries, and which is thought to have been enacted with the journalist’s case in mind. Greste’s family did not respond to requests for confirmation but the Egyptian interior ministry told the Guardian that the reporter had already left the country. The family of Mohamed Fahmy, Greste’s Canadian co-defendant, said on Sunday that there was no news about Fahmy’s fate, though he also applied for deportation earlier this month. The pair’s colleague, Baher Mohamed, is ineligible for deportation as he only holds an Egyptian passport.

At Least 17 Killed In Protests On Anniversary Of Egypt Uprising

January 26, 2015 Maggie Fick and Shadi Bushra, www.reuters.com Resist! Egypt, Protests, Revolution

At least 17 people were killed on Sunday in Egypt's bloodiest protests since Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was elected president, as security forces fired at protesters marking the anniversary of the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. Gunfire and sirens could be heard in Cairo into the night as armoured personnel carriers moved through the centre of a city where security forces had once again used lethal force against dissenters. A Health Ministry spokesman said at least 17 people had been killed at protests across the country. The anniversary was a test of whether Islamists and liberal activists had the resolve to challenge a government that has persistently stamped out dissent since the then-army chief Sisi ousted elected Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in July 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

Textile Workers’ Strike Stirs Discontent In Sisi’s Egypt

January 17, 2015 Hossam el-Hamalawy, www.alaraby.co.uk Resist! Egypt, Labor Unions, Strike

Thousands of workers have been on strike since Tuesday in Egypt's largest textile mill. They are withdrawing their labour in a dispute over bonuses, while also protesting against the government's recent decision to scrap cotton subsidies. The Misr Company for Spinning and Weaving, located in Mahalla el-Kubra, at the heart of the Nile Delta, has been a hotbed of industrial militancy in Egypt since at least the 1940s. Strikes in Mahalla have historically set the tone for the country's class politics. If a strike in Mahalla wins, an upturn in the textile sector's industrial actions can spill over to the rest of the manufacturing population.

Egypt Court Orders Retrial For Peter Greste & Al-Jazeera Colleagues

January 3, 2015 Patrick Kingsley, www.theguardian.com Educate! Egypt, Freedom of Press, Journalism, Law

Three al-Jazeera English journalists jailed in Egypt have been sent for retrial after a New Year’s Day appeal hearing in Cairo, dashing their families’ hopes of a release on bail, but opening the door for two of the trio to be deported. After more than a year in jail, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy, Australian Peter Greste and Egyptian Baher Mohamed now face several further months behind bars, with no date for a new hearing set. Fahmy and Greste could still be deported under the terms of a recent presidential decree that allows foreign nationals to serve sentences in their home countries, but President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s office did not respond to a request for comment about his intentions.

Protests Mark 1 Year Since Al Jazeera Journalists Jailed

December 30, 2014 Tim Chester, www.mashable.com Resist! Egypt, Freedom of Press, Journalism

Friends, colleagues and supporters of the three Al Jazeera journalists who were arrested in Egypt exactly one year ago have gathered outside the Egyptian embassy to protest against their incarceration. Staff from Channel 4, CNN and other organisations held banners bearing the hashtag #FreeAJStaff and taped their mouths shut during the silent protest to draw attention to the trio's ongoing sentence, at the start of a week that could see their case up for a retrial. Baher Mohamed, Mohamed Fahmy and Peter Greste were arrested in Cairo on Dec. 29, 2013, and convicted on terrorism-related charges in June. Mohamed, an Egyptian producer, received a sentence of 10 years in prison while Egyptian-Canadian Fahmy, Al Jazeera's Cairo bureau chief, and Australian Greste, a former BBC correspondent, were sentenced to seven years each.

Egypt Police Hail Arrest Of 10,000 ‘Terrorists, Rioters, Facebook Admins’

December 22, 2014 Passant Darwish, www.english.ahram.org Educate! Egypt, Freedom of Expression, police brutality

The Muslim Brotherhood is now facing its “final struggle,” the Egyptian interior ministry said on Saturday, citing the arrest of thousands of people in 2014 on charges related to terrorism and political violence. Police arrested 10,000 alleged saboteurs, rioters, and terrorists in 2014, assistant interior minister Abdel-Fattah Osman was quoted as saying on Saturday by state-run news agency MENA. The police also arrested 119 Facebook page admins responsible for inciting against state institutions and security personnel, and four people charged with recording “hostile videos," he said. "The terrorist Brotherhood has terrorised people on the one hand and promoted an environment of discontent on the other, whether by blowing up electricity pylons or by obstructing transportation," Osman stated, adding that security forces have managed to thwart all such "satanic plans."

The CIA Torture Report: Through Arab Eyes

December 21, 2014 Maged Mandour, www.opendemocracy.net Educate! Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Torture

One of the fears highlighted by western and American media was the loss of American moral power in the world, and the possibility of the use of this report for propaganda and recruitment purposes by Jihadist groups. As an Arab, I cannot help but think that this fear is vastly exaggerated, for the simple reason that the US - at least in the Arab world - never possessed this moral legitimacy in the first place. In the average Arab mind, there is a connection between the US, Israel, Arab autocrats, foreign domination and war. In other words, the US is not seen as a moral power; it is seen as an imperial power that uses its local cronies - sometimes with direct intervention - to maintain its hegemony over the region and, most importantly, the people of the region. The torture report will not alter this dynamic nor accelerate it. The Jihadists were created by these practices and wider policies that never received any international condemnation. The increase of extremists at an alarming rate is the result of US foreign policy. Those living under the yoke of America’s allies experience real torture and this is not being addressed as a US responsibility. From the Palestinians in the occupied territories and refugee camps, to the Egyptians living under military autocrats, and Iraqis suffering from the violence of sectarianism; they all languish in a slow painful existence, which is not acknowledged as torture. The US is responsible for the daily torture of millions of Arabs, as a matter of systematic policy, for which it is not being held accountable.

Revolution A Distant Memory As Egypt Escalates Repression

December 15, 2014 Orla Guerin, www.bbc.com Resist! Egypt, police brutality, Revolution, Wars and Militarism

If you want to know what became of the revolution of 2011, which electrified Egypt and swept then-President Hosni Mubarak from power, you could talk to its leaders. Or try to. Some are in exile, and others in jail. The award-winning liberal activist Asmaa Mahfouz is still at large, but far from free. She was recently banned from leaving the country. "The regime is hostile towards the revolution," she says, "and is trying to erase it from history." Many here share that view. Almost four years on, she says the situation is far worse than during the three decades of his rule. "When we protested under Mubarak we were beaten in the streets," Ms Mahfouz says. "Sometimes we were tortured. But now people are being killed, in the most brutal way."

Mubarak Verdict Fuels Protests, Mockery In Egypt

December 1, 2014 Amr Dalsh, www.reuters.com Resist! Egypt, Law, Protests

Protests erupted at universities across Egypt on Sunday, condemning a court decision to drop criminal charges against Hosni Mubarak, the president whose ouster in the 2011 uprising raised hopes of a new era of political openness. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Cairo University, waving pictures of Mubarak behind bars and demanding the "fall of the regime", the rallying cry of the Arab Spring uprisings that shook governments from Tunisia to the Gulf in 2011. Police stood ready at the gates to bar students that sought to take their demonstration into the streets. An Egyptian court on Saturday dropped its case against Mubarak over the killing of protesters in the 2011 uprising that ended his 30-year rule.

Egypt Court Sentences 23 Protesters To Prison

October 30, 2014 Dominic Yobbi, www.jurist.org Resist! Egypt, Human Rights, political prisoners

An Egyptian court on Sunday sentenced 23 activists to three years in prison for protesting without a permit, an act that violates a law enacted in November 2013. The men were arrested in June while protesting the restrictive protest law that requires demonstrators to obtain permission from authorities one week in advance of gathering in public, grants the interior ministry the right to reject requests and imposes severe fines for violations. In addition to violating the protest law, the men were also convicted of blocking off a road during the demonstration, damaging public property and using violence "with the aim of terrorizing citizens."

Egypt Risks ‘Student Intifada’ Amid Campus Crackdown

October 16, 2014 Mamoon Alabbasi, www.middleeasteye.net Resist! Egypt, police brutality, Repression, Student Activism

The Egyptian government risks causing a major student uprising against the state if the authorities continue their current policy of cracking down on dissent in university campuses, warned a new report by a Cairo-based NGO. The warning came as the start of the new academic year in Egypt witnessed the arrests of more than 100 university students, amid widespread anti-government protests, and where a private security company using metal detectors has left bottlenecked queues outside universities. The report, released Tuesday by Egypt's Democracy Index of the International Development Centre (IDC), also called on the authorities to release students arrested during protests in the first days of the academic year which began on 11 October.

Trials Of Egyptian Activists, Many On Hunger Strike, Begin

October 11, 2014 Dahlia Kholaif, www.aljazeera.com Resist! Egypt, Law, militarism, political prisoners

Twenty-three Egyptian activists are due to stand trial for breaching a widely criticised law that bars protests unauthorised by the government. Among those to appear before the court in Cairo on Saturday is 20-year-old Sana Seif, who was arrested on July 21 while peacefully demonstrating against the arrest of her brother, renowned blogger and activist Alaa Abdel Fattah. Abdel Fattah has since been released, while Seif's trial has faced repeated postponements. "We don't know what to expect anymore," Laila Soueif, Seif's mother and an assistant professor of mathematics at Cairo University, told Al Jazeera. "We've given up on understanding. If things proceed according to logic, it should be postponed, since the case was referred to a new judicial circuit and a new judge. But our lawyers are braced for all scenarios."

150 Hunger Striking Students Tortured In Egypt

September 28, 2014 Staff, www.middleeastmonitor.com Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Egypt, Hunger Strike, Students

Al-Azhar Students' Union has said that there are over 150 students on hunger strike and they are subjected to severe torture, including verbal and physical abuse inside prisons. In a statement the union said that prisons' administrations threaten the hunger strikers with burning, killing them or moving them to be with criminal detainees. The prisoners, the statement said, are banned from getting water for long periods of time. One hunger striker is the head of the Faculty of Commerce in Al-Azhar University, Usama Zaid, who is in Abu-Za'bal Prison. According to the statement the prisoners receive bad medical treatment and are even subjected to torture inside the prisons' clinics. Hunger strikers are put in solitary confinement for long periods or put with criminal prisoners, who are encouraged to beat and kill them without being liable to judicial trials.

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