Egypt

Why It’s Way Too Soon To Give Up On The Arab Spring

June 30, 2014 Juan Cole, www.latimes.com Educate! Arab Spring, Egypt, Elections, Middle East, Revolution, Youth

Three and a half years ago, the world was riveted by massive crowds of youths mobilizing in Cairo's Tahrir Square to demand an end to Egypt's dreary police state. We watched transfixed as a movement first ignited in Tunisia spread from one part of Egypt to another, and then from country to country across the region. Before it was over, four presidents-for-life had been toppled and the region's remaining dictators were unsettled. The young Arabs who made the recent revolutions are ... distinctive: substantially more urban, literate, media-savvy and wired than their parents and grandparents. - Some 42 months later, in most of the Middle East and North Africa, the bright hopes for more personal liberties and an end to political and economic stagnation championed by those young people have been dashed. Instead, some Arab countries have seen counterrevolutions, while others are engulfed in internecine conflicts and civil wars, creating Mad Max-like scenes of postapocalyptic horror. But keep one thing in mind: The rebellions of the last three years were led by Arab millennials, by young people who have decades left to come into their own. Don't count them out yet.

Egyptian Injustice: Journalists Sentenced To 7 Years

June 23, 2014 AP, www.AP.org Resist! Egypt, Human Rights, Journalism, Prison, Terrorism

An Egyptian court convicted three Al-Jazeera journalists and sentenced them to seven years in prison each on terrorism-related charges in a verdict Monday that stunned their families and was quickly denounced as a blow to freedom of expression. International pressure mounted on Egypt's president to pardon the three. The verdicts against Australian Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohammed came after a 5-month trial that Amnesty International described as a "sham," calling Monday's rulings "a dark day for media freedom in Egypt." The three, who have been detained since December, contend they are being prosecuted simply for doing their jobs as journalists, covering Islamist protests against the ouster last year of President Mohammed Morsi. Three other foreign journalists, two Britons and a Dutch citizen, were sentenced to 10 years in absentia. Media groups have called the trial political, part of a fight between the government and the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network , which authorities accuse of bias toward the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi. The network denies any bias.

From Cairo: Everyone’s Right To Protest

June 22, 2014 Comrades from Cairo, www.roarmag.org Resist! Egypt, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Protest

Having hijacked the popular protests of June 30, 2013 against the Muslim Brotherhood to ride back into power, the military establishment is now using every means at its disposal to silence all forms of dissent and annihilate the hard-won political space of the past three years. Violence and intimidation have always been the principal tools of the police force, but in Sisi’s Egypt the judiciary has been given a new leading role in the suppression of freedoms. Their tool is the Protest Law, which in its seven months of life has been used to round up, detain and sentence thousands of participants in peaceful protests — and to target specific and influential activists within them. The most noted example today is Alaa Abd El Fattah. On November 26, 2013, around two hundred protesters gathered outside Egypt’s Parliamentary Upper House were attacked by police with water canons, batons, plainclothes thugs, and tear gas. Fifty people were arrested, and once the women, journalists and lawyers were released, twenty-four men were left in jail. The following night, the police violently arrested Alaa from his home. Now, Alaa and the twenty-four have been sentenced to fifteen years in prison.

Two Journalists Released, 14 Still Behind Bars

June 19, 2014 Committee to Protect Journalists, www.cpj.org Resist! Egypt, Journalism, Prison

The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release from prison this week of two Egyptian journalists and calls on authorities to release at least 14 journalists still behind bars, including three Al-Jazeera journalists whose trial continues on Monday. Abdullah al-Shami, reporter for Al-Jazeera who was jailed without charge, was released on Tuesday in connection with his deteriorating health, and Karim Shalaby, reporter for Al-Masder, was freed on Monday after a court acquitted him of charges that included protesting illegally. "Egypt's newly elected president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, has an opportunity to reverse the drastic decline in the country's press freedom record by doing all he can to ensure that journalists are set free from jail," said Sherif Mansour, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. "Releasing all imprisoned journalists and allowing them to report freely and safely would be a resounding signal that Egypt is changing course."

Then They Came For The Revolutionaries

June 17, 2014 Bel Trew, www.foreignpolicy.com Strategize! Activists, Egypt, Law, Military, Police, Prison, Revolution

Every night when Egyptian activist Mohamed Kamel goes home, there is a man outside his building who follows him until he enters the doorway. The figure doesn't speak; he doesn't leave his post. He just keeps watch. "I smile at him and tell him, 'Please do come up and have dinner with me,'" said the 38-year-old, Cairo-based high school manager. "What else can I do?" Kamel is part of April 6 Youth Movement, a revolutionary group founded in 2008 to support striking industrial workers. Its members, estimated by the organization to number in the tens of thousands, were also a driving force behind the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak. But now, despite having supported the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, the group finds itself under fire from the military-backed government in Cairo. Last week, an Egyptian court outlawed the movement after a lawsuit accused it of espionage and tainting the image of the state. The group's most prominent voices, meanwhile, have been thrown in jail. In December, founder Ahmed Maher, 32, and Mohamed Adel, 25, were sentenced to three years in prison for participating in an illegal rally and allegedly assaulting a police officer.

Egypt’s April 6 Youth Movement Fears New Military Rule

June 14, 2014 Louise Osborne, www.occupy.com Resist! Egypt, Military, Protest, Revolution, Youth

In a quiet cafe in Cairo’s hip Zamalek quarter, Ahmad Abd Allah sits on a sofa hunched over a laptop. A shisha pipe in hand, the 34-year-old types quickly, peering intensely at the computer screen. His mobile buzzes and he picks it up distractedly, his eyebrows furrowed as he types a message before taking another puff on the pipe. “We’re having a protest tonight,” he explains, adding that around 5,000 youth are expected to attend the demonstration despite the threat of arrest and imprisonment under Egypt's new anti-protest law. Allah is a member of the April 6 Youth Movement that was instrumental in ousting dictator Hosni Mubarak three years ago. Now, the rush of those heady days has faded to disappointment. On June 8, former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was inaugurated as Egypt's president, a position he won by a landslide in a vote that many viewed as a sham – and others saw as a victory of stability over freedom. The resurgence of the military in Egypt has also made Allah and his fellow youth activists outlaws. In the run-up to the late May election, an Egyptian court banned the April 6 movement on charges of espionage and defaming the government – what Allah says are trumped up excuses to silence the opposition. “It’s crazy," he said.

Icon Of Egypt’s 2011 Revolt Gets 15 Years

June 11, 2014 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Educate! Arab Spring, Egypt

A court on Wednesday convicted a prominent activist from Egypt's 2011 uprising for demonstrating without permit and assaulting a policeman, sentencing him to 15 years in prison. The sentence against Alaa Abdel-Fattah is by far the toughest against any of the liberal, pro-democracy activists behind the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak's 29-year regime. It is also the first conviction of a prominent activist since former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi took office as president on Sunday. He was tried in abstentia, AP reported "he did turn up at the Cairo courtroom later on Wednesday and was detained by police." But, this does not describe the strange and unjust circumstances that actually occurred. Ahramonline reported that he and other defendants were actually trying to get into the courtroom for the trial...

How Wealthy Elites Are Hijacking Democracy

June 2, 2014 Sonali Kolhatkar, www.truthdig.com Educate! Democracy, Egypt, oligarchy, Thailand, Ukraine

Mass street protests are usually seen as a hallmark of democratic aspirations. And elections are meant to be a culmination of such aspirations, affording people the opportunity to choose their own leaders and system of government. But in country after country these days, the hallmarks of democracy are being dangerously subverted and co-opted by powerful elites. The question is, are we recognizing what is happening under our noses? Three examples unfolding right now are indicators of this trend: Thailand, Ukraine and Egypt. Thailand has just witnessed its 19th coup in 82 years. Although coup leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-Ocha has promised “genuine democracy,” he has given no timetable for an end to martial law. The U.S. State Department initially refused to call the takeover a coup, insisting that martial law is consistent with Thailand’s constitution. It then changed its tune to issue a strongly worded condemnation. In Ukraine, voters elected a pro-Western leader after President Viktor Yanukovych fled following mass protests over his refusal to sign an accord with the European Union. Although the incoming president, Petro Poroshenko, has promised democratic development, the U.S. has openly sided with pro-Western forces inside Ukraine and raised the tensions of the conflict to near Cold War era levels, rendering any promises of true democracy ineffectual at best.

Court Sentences Activist Mahienour El-Masry, Others To Prison

May 21, 2014 Ahram Online, www.english.ahram.org.e Resist! Egypt, Political Prisoner, Protesters Arrested

A court in Alexandria has upheld Tuesday an earlier verdict sending a group of activists to two years in jail and fining them LE50,000 for organising an unauthorised protest during the Khaled Said murder retrial. Mahienour El-Masry, Loai Mohamed Abdel-Rahman, Omar Abdel-Aziz Hussein, Islam Mohamed Ahmed, Nasser Abul-Hamed Ibrahim, Hassan Mostafa, Moussa Hussein, and Hassan El-Siyad were convicted of organising an unauthorised protest, blocking the road, assaulting a police officer and destroying a police vehicle on 2 December. The initial verdict was issued in January, appealed in Feburary, where the court upheld the decision. However, some of the defendants were sentenced in abstentia, and they appealed the verdict for the second time. This is another prosecution of non-Islamist activists under the 2013 controversial protest law. On 22 December 2013, a Cairo criminal court sentenced April 6 Youth Movement founders Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel, and independent activist Ahmed Douma to three years in jail and a LE50,000 fine for organising an unauthorised protest and attacking security forces outside the Abdeen court in November.

Jailed Journalist Given Press Freedom Prize As Trial Resumes

May 3, 2014 Patrick Kingsley, www.theguardian.com Educate! Egypt, Journalism

One of the four al-Jazeera journalists jailed in Egypt, Mohamed Fahmy, has been given a press freedom award, before the seventh session of his trial on Saturday. The Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom said it had awarded the prize to Fahmy, a Canadian-Egyptian and the Cairo bureau chief for al-Jazeera English, in recognition of the battle he has fought for free speech since being detained with two colleagues in late December. Fahmy, an ex-CNN journalist; Peter Greste, an Australian former BBC reporter; and a local producer, Baher Mohamed, are accused of smearing Egypt's reputation, doctoring footage and aiding terrorists. A fourth colleague – Abdullah Elshamy, a reporter for al-Jazeera's Arabic channel – has been jailed without charge in a separate case since last August. Fahmy recently celebrated his birthday in prison and has applied for permission to marry his fiancee inside jail. In a handwritten letter smuggled from prison, Fahmy thanked the judges for the award and donated the prize money, worth C$2,000 (£1,100), to the family of an Egyptian journalist, Mayada Ashraf, who was shot dead in unexplained circumstances at a protest last month.

VIDEO: Rally To Free Egyptian Journalist Mohamed Soltan

April 29, 2014 Robert Brune, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Egypt, Media

This video features Omar Soltan, the brother of Mohamed Soltan, a journalist, translator and aid to groups such as al-Jazeera who was jailed after the Muslim Brotherhood uprising in Egypt this past Summer. On this day, protesters rallied at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington, D.C. because the US Sec. of State John Kerry and business leaders were to meet with the Egyptian Foreign Minister of Affairs. The protesters called for the release of Mohamed. As of this interview with Omar Soltan will have been on a hunger strike for 92 days. Despite Mohamed being the son of a well known Muslim Brotherhood figure, he remains in confinement. Friends and family maintain that Mohamed was not an advocate of violence. He is described as "a peaceful person and strongly committed to non-violence and social justice" on the Facebook support page.

Egypt Rebel Leaders Explain Military Co-option

April 20, 2014 Sheera Frenkel and Maged Atef, www.informationclearinghouse.info Strategize! Egypt

When, on the night of July 3, the military ousted the Brotherhood from government, arresting Morsi and whisking him to a secret location, they did so in the name of the tens of millions of people who had taken to the streets after Tamarod circulated a petition across Egypt that drew up a number of complaints against the Muslim Brotherhood-held government. “How did we go from such a small thing, five guys trying to change Egypt, to the movement which brought tens of millions to the street to get rid of the Brotherhood? The answer is we didn’t. I understand now it wasn’t us, we were being used as the face of what something bigger than us wanted,” said Doss, who now has nothing to do with the Tamarod movement, or political life in Egypt. “We were naïve, and we were not responsible.”

CODE PINK Mocks Egyptian Dictator Sisi Outside Of US Chamber Of Commerce

April 16, 2014 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance Resist! CODE PINK, Egypt, Video

The Egyptian military government is one that US corporations should not do business with: “No more business as usual.” That was the message of a CODE PINK protest inside and outside of the US Chamber of Commerce when the Egyptian Finance Minister, Hany Kadry Dimian, was speaking. CODE PINK described the Egyptian government as the “Egyptian Junta” and expressed their solidarity with Egyptian people who want real democracy not a military dictatorship. Since the military took over in July 2013 over 2,000 people have been killed who have protested the government; and 16,000 protesters have been imprisoned. Outside the Chamber of Commerce CODE PINK mocked General Sisi, the dictator of Egypt, who recently resigned his position in the military to run for president in an election that very few will be legitimate. CODE PINK has started a twitter handle for the election of Sisi: #VoteForThePimp

Egypt Tightens Vice On Dissent, Upholds Convictions Of Activists

April 8, 2014 Hassan Mohamed, www.amnesty.org Resist! Egypt

A Cairo appeals court today upheld the conviction of three government critics for taking part in an “unauthorized” protest, a further sign that the Egyptian authorities are tightening the vice on freedom of expression and assembly, Amnesty International said. The defendants, Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel, both activists with the 6 April Youth Movement, and well-known blogger Ahmed Douma, are to serve three years in prison with labour and a 50,000 Egyptian pound (US$7,185) fine. The court also ruled they should serve three years’ probation following their release. “This appeals court ruling tightens the vice on freedom of expression and assembly and is yet another sign of Egypt’s growing climate of intolerance towards any legitimate criticism of the authorities,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International.

Managing Disorder: Towards A Global State Of Control?

March 31, 2014 Jerome Roos, www.roarmag.org Resist! Brazil, Egypt, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, NSA, Police abuse, Spain, Türkiye

It’s not just right-wing or military regimes that are leading the assault on hard-fought popular freedoms. In Brazil, the ruling Workers’ Party announced this week that it would send the army into Rio’s favelas to pacify the slums ahead of the World Cup. Ostensibly targeted at violent drug gangs, this pacification scheme has led to a situation in which hundreds of slum dwellers are killed by state troops every year. Under President Rousseff — a former Marxist guerrilla who was tortured and imprisoned by the military dictatorship — state brutality against the “unruly” poor and excluded remains the order of the day. Just last week, Brazilian military police were caught on camera after shooting and killing a 38-year-old mother of four and dragging her lifeless body 200 meters down the street in their police van. It is no coincidence that the intensification of long-standing patterns of state repression appears to be particularly acute in the countries that experienced large-scale street protest in the past three years.

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