Remembering Egypt's bloody military coup

July 3, 2017

Four years ago today the Egyptian army overthrew the country’s first democratically elected leader, Mohammed Morsi. In the aftermath of the coup Egypt’s armed forces suspended the constitution and appointed the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Mansour, as interim head of state. Morsi and his presidential team were detained in an unknown location and later stood trial.

What: Military coup

When: 3 July 2013

Where: Egypt

What happened?

In January 2013, then army Chief Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi warned that the political crisis in the country might lead to a collapse of the state. Two months later the Tamarrod movement collected signatures for a petition calling for new presidential elections in light of Mohamed Morsi’s failure to restore security and fix the economy and organised mass protests to this effect.

On 30 June demonstrators took to the streets. Armed vehicles were deployed around Cairo and armed forces to areas they expected protests in support of Morsi, such as Cairo University.

Morsi warned the country that he was the elected leader and that attempts to overthrow him would lead to chaos but on 3 July he was arrested by the army and detained in an unknown location alongside other members of his presidential team.

That evening Al-Sisi set out his roadmap for Egypt in a televised statement.  President Morsi had ignored the calls of his people, he said, and therefore he was suspending the constitution, calling for early elections, putting the chief justice in charge, putting in place an interim government and setting up a committee to amend the constitution.

Opposition leader and then Vice President Mohamed El-Baradei and the Coptic Pope Tawadros II stood by his side.

What happened next?

In the weeks that followed, Morsi supporters joined mass protests and demanded his release. On 14 August 2013 1,000 people were massacred by the army in Rabaa Square where they had gathered to call for his immediate return to power.

Muslim Brotherhood leaders were prevented from leaving the country and Morsi and his presidential team were held at secret locations. In September 2013 state television announced that Morsi would stand trial for “incitement to murder and violence” during a protest between his supporters and the opposition and for ordering others to be tortured and unlawfully imprisoned.

In November 2013 Morsi and other top Brotherhood figures were put on trial for the first time. In April 2015 they were sentenced to 20 years in prison. They still face trials in a number of cases.

In March 2014, Al-Sisi officially announced his presidential bid and assumed power on 8 June that year. In the four years that have followed the coup the military-led government has inflicted a wide-scale crackdown on all members of the opposition, not just the Brotherhood.

Unprecedented numbers of people have been forcibly disappeared, tried in mass trials or military courts, given the death sentence, tortured in detention and denied medical care once detained. Children are arrested, detained with adults and sexual violence used against them. Human rights organisations and workers have been targeted as well as journalists, activists and lawyers.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170703-remembering-egypts-bloody-military-coup/.

Freedom & Justice Party media statement on the sentencing to death of President Morsi

Saturday, 16 May 2015

Today, May 16th, President Mohammed Morsi, the first ever democratically elected President of Egypt, along with tens of others, were sentenced to death by an Egyptian court following a political show trial on charges of espionage and jailbreak.

This is the second of four separate trials of President Morsi, all of which started last November. The death sentence was handed down as a result of charges supposedly related to allegedly conspiring with various foreign powers in the region.

Speaking in response to the sentence, Amr Darrag, a former Morsi Minister and a co-founder of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), said:

"Today will be remembered as one of the darkest days in Egypt's history. Today, the aspirations of millions of Egyptians have been broken and sentenced to death along with their first ever democratically elected President. Since July 2013, the Egyptian society's dreams have turned into living nightmares, worse than ever.

"Today, we are not only grieving the tragic fate of a martyr who had only started to implement the hopes of his fellow citizens, we are mourning the January 25th 2011 Revolution's martyrs who gave their lives so that their dreams of a free society may come true. Did those hundreds of Egyptian civilians die for nothing?

"These latest charges are another deeply disturbing attempt to permanently erase democracy and the democratic process in Egypt.

"In today's judgment, the court relied on lies, hearsay and paranoid conspiracy theories, not evidence. Any impartial legal expert will see that this entire process is profoundly flawed. It is simply a kangaroo court.

"It is becoming very clear that a government sanctioned campaign is underway not only to silence Dr Morsi and his supporters, but to suffocate freedom and democracy in Egypt. These trials symbolize the dark shadow of authoritarianism, that is now cast back over Egypt.

"I firmly believe that this illegitimate government will not achieve its goals and that the Egyptian free conscience will never die. Today, democracy in Egypt bleeds over this scandal but we shall overcome. The strong and dignified behavior of President Morsi throughout this difficult time is an example for all supporters of freedom in Egypt.

"We solemnly call the international community to be coherent and thus to condemn, react and stop this unlawful regime which purges the opposition, silences the media, brutally crushes any dissent and despises its own people's will. Dr Morsi's sentence is a tragedy. But there is something far larger at stake – the rights of millions of Egyptians to live freely and without fear, and to choose their leaders through the ballot box."

Yehia Hamed, a former Morsi Minister, said: "Dr Morsi is an example of resistance against tyranny in Egypt. This corrupt regime is condemning him to death for no other reason than his refusal to let go of the aspirations and dreams of our young people that were demonstrated so vividly during the 25th January revolution."

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/18661-freedom-a-justice-party-media-statement-on-the-sentencing-to-death-of-president-morsi.

Egypt to sack workers who strike

Wednesday, 29 April 2015

Public sector workers who go on strike will be dismissed for "disrupting public facilities" following a court ruling in Egypt yesterday.

Two days ahead of Workers' Day, the High Administrative Court said: "Workers' protests are not dealt with the same way as demonstrations and public gatherings because they stop work and disrupt the flow of work."

Quds Press reported the court saying that this ruling is final and is not open for appeal.

The same court has previously turned three officials in the local unit of Al-Manofiyeh Governorate to retirement and decided to delay the promotion for 14 others because they disrupted the workflow in their workplace.

In a statement, the Administrative Prosecution claimed that the court's ruling was based on Islamic teachings. It also said that the Egyptian government has pledged to guarantee the right of work strikes on condition that they comply with Islamic teachings.

The statement claimed the workers' strikes contradict Islamic teachings and Sharia, considering workers' strikes as a "crime".

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/18336-egypt-to-sack-workers-who-strike.

Egypt crackdown angers people in Sinai border town

November 07, 2014

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Egyptian troops are pressing ahead with the demolition of hundreds of homes along the border with the Gaza Strip, cutting off electricity and firing warning shots in the air in a heavy-handed campaign to evict thousands of residents from the volatile area.

The forced evacuations in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula are further alienating a restive population with longstanding grievances against the government of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, raising the risk of more violence in the lawless region.

The demolitions, meant to halt the smuggling of weapons and militants in and out of Gaza, have also put pressure on Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza and has long counted on smuggling tunnels as its lifeline.

Egypt announced the demolition plan last month after militants killed 31 Egyptian troops in an assault on a checkpoint 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Rafah. Egypt has long accused Islamic militants of using smuggling tunnels to move in and out of Gaza and announced it would clear out a 500-yard-wide (meter) buffer zone along the border.

In recent days, Egyptian forces have steadily cleared out residents and dynamited several homes each day. The goal is to raze 800 homes and force out 10,000 residents. Security officials say the operation is going smoothly and should be completed within two or three weeks.

Residents say there is little they can do. "We have no options but silence and lining up behind the military. This is not the time to clash with the state because any clash with the state will be perceived as a betrayal to Egypt," said Said Aitaq. He lives about 1½ miles beyond the buffer zone, but says residents fear the area will be expanded to up to three miles.

Rafah was split into two halves — one Palestinian and one Egyptian — after Egypt signed its peace agreement with Israel in 1978. While Egypt has sealed off its side of the city and barred journalists from entering, scenes of the operation are visible from the Gaza side of the border.

The Egyptian side of the city is under curfew from dawn to dusk, and electricity and water are cut off during the day as homes are being demolished, residents reached by phone told The Associated Press.

Egyptian troops order people to leave with just a day's notice, they said. "The situation is hellish. We don't know where we will go. We put our things at the place of a friend until we know where we are going," said one resident, who gave only his first name, Abu Mohammed, for fear he would be punished by the security forces or risk losing compensation.

"You can't protest. They are strong and well-armed," he said of the troops, who residents said are accompanied by dogs and occasionally fire into the air. Egypt has offered compensation of roughly $20,000 to $30,000 per home — a sum that residents say does not come close to replacing their losses. They say the compensation process is bureaucratic and there is little time to find new housing.

One man, who requested anonymity because of safety fears, said his 70-member extended family moved from a four-story building into a single-floor space of just 1,300 square feet after they were told their home would be destroyed.

"We are big families, extended families. We can't just scatter and go away. We have been living here for decades," he said. On Tuesday, an excavator could be seen flattening a home, followed by a loud explosion that rocked the area and elicited panicked screams from schoolchildren on the Palestinian side of the city. The students covered their faces with jackets to keep from inhaling the yellowish smoke.

As the air cleared, two flattened concrete homes could be seen. "The kids are always tense. In the day, there are the blasts. In the night, we hear heavy shooting," said Majdi Yousef, a 38-year-old carpenter who lives in an apartment building on the Gaza side that overlooks the border.

Residents say the forces dynamite several apartment buildings a day, and bulldozers flatten another 20 homes. They say few people have received payouts yet. Egypt's Foreign Ministry said families would receive a down payment to cover three months of rent and full compensation once their property is appraised. The ministry said 30 families had received compensation as of Sunday.

The state will pay up to $140 million in compensation, el-Sissi said earlier this week. He praised the people of Sinai and accused unnamed factions of "trying to sow discord between the people of Sinai and the Egyptian state."

North Sinai is one of Egypt's poorest districts, and the local population has complained of neglect and discrimination for decades. Aitaq said the forced evictions could lead some people to join militant groups.

"I am afraid that these groups will only find more supporters because of this plan," he said. Over the past decade, the northern region of the Sinai Peninsula has become a hub for Islamic extremists, and the insurgency has spiked since last year's military ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

No one has claimed responsibility for the deadly Oct. 24 attack. But el-Sissi has made no secret about his disdain for Hamas — the ideological ally of Morsi. Since taking power last year, el-Sissi's government has destroyed most of Hamas' smuggling tunnels. The new buffer zone appears to be aimed at stamping out the last remnants. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said security forces have found dozens of tunnels under evacuated houses.

The crackdown has been accompanied by Egypt's closure of the Rafah border crossing — the main gateway for Gazans to the outside world. Hamas spokesman Salah Bardawil said the demolitions on the Egyptian side change little since the tunnels have already been closed for more than a year. "We say it's Egyptian land and it's the Egyptians' right to do this," he said.

Other Hamas officials said they believe Egypt is trying to crush the group, but refused to go on the record with those comments, for fear that criticism of the el-Sissi government would invite further sanctions.

Kennedy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank contributed to this report.

Survivors of Rabia massacre still search for justice

Sarah el-Sirgany
August 14, 2014

CAIRO — Nour was 17 when he heard about the death of his teacher and nine friends in the span of few hours. He was at Rabia al-Adawiya Square on Aug. 14, 2013. “Seeing brains pouring out of people’s heads had become the norm for us that day,” he said. His account of the day is as disjointed as it is gory. It was like “a sea of blood. We stepped on the body parts of dead people.”

More than 1,000 were killed that day during simultaneous crackdowns on two sit-ins supporting ousted president Mohammed Morsi. At least 817 were killed in the eastern Cairo encampment of Rabia Square, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report that described it as “one of the world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history.”

“We used to hear the buzzing sound [of bullets] around us, worse than any video game or action film,” Nour said.

Saved on his phone are pictures of his friends and his mentor Ahmed Ammar dying. The name also adorns a poster over his bed. According to testimonies collected by HRW, Ammar was killed by four bullets to the chest.

The high school student wants to make sure he doesn’t forget that day.

Before he left for Doha with his family in January, he was a regular at street marches. A four-fingered hand — Rabia is the name of a historical, reverend woman, but also means four — became the symbol of the massacre. It was flashed in victims’ funerals in August and quickly became a logo carried alongside Morsi’s posters.

“In the Rabia sit-in, the main demand was the return of legitimacy and the reinstatement of Morsi. After the dispersal, this demand remained for a while, but then the blood increased,” said 18-year-old Ahmed, who remains active in street demonstrations that have seen a dip in numbers over the past months. He agrees with some protest leaders that Morsi’s name should be avoided to attract sympathizers.

There are different viewpoints about political demands, but blood is the one goal everyone is united behind, he explained.

Neither Nour nor Ahmed has an idea of how justice can be achieved. A regime change is key in their loosely constructed scenarios of retribution. “The new regime has to be Islamist,” Ahmed said. Prosecuting or investigating those deemed responsible for the crackdown would require their removal from office.

The HRW report argues that Rabia wasn’t a mere case of disproportionate and indiscriminate force, but a planned operation against political opponents, ordered and approved by the current president and then-Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim among other officials. Ibrahim said in an Aug. 31 interview the ministry anticipated about 2,000 fatalities.

Both men, especially Sisi, are regarded by many as heroes who saved Egypt from the Muslim Brotherhood.

A political resolution was needed first before justice could be achieved, argued Karim Ennarah, a researcher of transitional justice and security sector reform who documented the Rabia massacre and the communal fighting before it.

“We are not post- anything. We are not in a democratic transition. We live in a conflict. … We need political resolution to end the conflict,” he said.

The intertwining of political demands with calls for retribution, however, impedes the momentum that a massacre of this magnitude could have gathered, especially among part of Morsi’s opposition.

Noha, a 34-year-old designer, lost her 32-year-old brother and 23-year-old cousin. Both were gunned down in Rabia on Aug. 14. They were critics of Morsi, but against the military coup that ousted him and the deadly crackdowns on his supporters that preceded Aug. 14. Her brother was against the sectarian discourse promoted in Rabia. Her family refused to give the Muslim Brotherhood permission to use their pictures in banners commemorating victims. She refuses to join any of the marches despite expressing respect for protesters’ courage.

“I won’t go carry Morsi’s picture,” she said.

She spent many sleepless nights thinking of the blank box in her brother’s death certificate. Morgue employees who played pro-army songs on loop as families processed the bodies of their loved ones refused to write the cause of death.

She wants at least to know the names of the killers, but like others she has no confidence in the judicial system, a sentiment echoed by rights groups who see the judiciary and the prosecution as largely biased and politicized.

“People ask me if I had done the legal work. Who am I going to ask for justice from? The people who have killed and continue to kill?” she said.

In an interview last week, Interior Ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif said Aug. 14 will commemorate 114 policemen killed “in their battle against the terrorism of the Muslim Brotherhood in the dispersal of the Rabia and Nahda sit-ins.” He said 64 policemen were killed on that day. An earlier forensic report said only eight officers were killed in Rabia. The rest were killed in retaliatory attacks by Morsi supporters on 180 police buildings and 22 churches across the country.

HRW alleges that police officers were given guarantees they would not be prosecuted and were later awarded with bonuses. A monument for their efforts was erected at the square.

The government has dismissed the HRW report as “biased and negative.” It said that it ignored that an officer was the first to die on Aug. 14 — an issue addressed in the report.

Member of the Anti-coup Alliance Hamza Sarawy notes a “horrifying” transformation in ideology among youth languishing in prison. The Islamic State doesn’t have to come to Egypt, its ideology will find rife soil here, he said.

As the Rabia anniversary approached, the government warned of anticipated terrorist attacks, signaling a spate of ongoing violence that precludes any political solutions. Data collated by Ennarah indicate that 207 police personnel were killed in the second half of 2013, as opposed to 45 in the first half, and at least 122 were killed in 2014. On the other side, activists ridicule political initiatives calling for reconciliation as the death toll from subsequent clashes and crackdowns exceed 3,000, according to Wikithawra.

The violence hasn’t abated since Aug. 14, 2013, although its frequency and impact fluctuated from massive explosions damaging security directorates to ineffective IEDs. Extremist groups have occasionally referred to the treatment of pro-Morsi supporters by the police as justification for their targeting of security forces.

Individuals interviewed for this report said they understand why others are resorting to violence although they wouldn’t partake in such actions.

“If I were a different person I’d find a terrorist organization to join,” Noha said. Her only vindication would be the prosecution and execution of Sisi and Ibrahim.

The HRW report called for the UN to investigate what’s likely to be a crime against humanity. “The message sent so far is that Egypt can get away with mass murder. That is a disastrous message to try to build a genuine democracy,” said Kenneth Roth, HRW executive director. Justice is needed “for the sake of victims of yesterday and of possibly tomorrow.”

Source: al-Monitor.
Link: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/08/egypt-protests-massacre-victims-justice.html.

Egypt police open fire on protesters, killing 5 people

Thu Aug 14, 2014

At least five people have been killed after Egyptian police opened fire on protesters marking the first anniversary of the mass killing of the supporters of former president Mohamed Morsi in Cairo.

Police forces also wounded dozens of others across the country on Thursday.

The rallies were called by pro-Morsi Anti-Coup Alliance under the slogan “We Demand Retribution.”

On August 14, 2013, after then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Egypt's first freely elected president, the security forces launched a brutal crackdown on thousands of the Morsi supporters at protest camps in Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda squares, leaving hundreds of people dead.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released on Tuesday that the assault was “one of the largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history.”

HRW said its report titled “All According to Plan: The Rabaa Massacre and Mass Killings of Protesters in Egypt” identifies Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim, Sisi, and top security official Medhat Menshawy as senior leaders who should face proceedings for the deadly crackdown at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square.

The New York-based international non-governmental organization added at least 817 demonstrators died due to the heavy-handed crackdown in Rabaa al-Adawiya.

“An international investigation and prosecutions of those implicated are needed... states should further suspend military and law enforcement aid to Egypt until it adopts measures to end its serious rights violations,” HRW said.

Since Morsi’s ouster on July 3 last year, Egypt has been the scene of anti-government protests with continuous clashes between security forces and Morsi’s supporters.

Rights groups say the government crackdown on the supporters of Morsi has left over 1,400 people dead, and at least 15,000 have been jailed. Hundreds of the former president’s supporters have so far been sentenced to death or long prison terms.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/08/14/375292/egypt-police-kill-five-protesters/.

Year after Cairo carnage, Sisi tightens grip on Egypt

2014-08-12
By Jay Deshmukh
Cairo

A year after a bloody Cairo crackdown, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has tightened his grip on Egypt, crushed the Muslim Brotherhood, jailed top opponents and turned the page on the Arab Spring, critics say.

On August 14, 2013, after having overthrown Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi, the crackdown on thousands of his supporters at protest camps in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda squares left hundreds dead.

The assault was "one of the largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history," said New York-based Human Rights Watch in a report released Tuesday to mark the anniversary.

In Rabaa al-Adawiya alone, at least 817 people were killed, it said, calling for top officials to be investigated for likely "crimes against humanity".

According to an AFP correspondent who was at the square, more than 100 protesters were killed several hours into the crackdown.

Police said eight policemen also died in Rabaa, from a total of 42 policemen killed across Egypt that day.

The crackdown was launched after thousands of pro-Morsi supporters refused to end their sit-ins despite repeated warnings by the interim authorities installed by then army chief Sisi.

Since that day, more than 1,400 people have been killed in street clashes, including the Rabaa carnage, over 15,000 jailed including Morsi and the top leadership of his Muslim Brotherhood, and over 200 sentenced to death in speedy trials.

The authorities have also dissolved the Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, since Sisi became Egypt's second democratically elected president following a landslide victory in a May vote.

"Sisi has succeeded in eliminating most opposition within Egypt to his rule," said James Dorsey of the Singapore-based S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

"He has banned organizations, jailed opponents and certainly in early days after the ouster of Mohamed Morsi used brutal force to suppress groups like the Muslim Brotherhood," he said.

"He is operating in an environment where for all practical purposes there is no independent media to hold him to account. As a result he has consolidated his rule."

- 'Random shootings' -

Survivors say the Rabaa al-Adawiya crackdown was not just to break the pro-Morsi sit-in but to eliminate the Islamist's supporters.

"It was horrible ...it was genocide," said Ammar Yasser, a 22-year-old engineering graduate and survivor who said security forces were "shooting randomly" at protesters at the square.

"There were snipers in army choppers above our heads...There were corpses around us ... Eight people around me had their brains blown out," while all streets leading to the square were sealed off by security forces, he said.

HRW said the assault was methodically planned by top Egyptian government officials.

"This wasn't merely a case of excessive force or poor training. It was a violent crackdown planned at the highest levels of the Egyptian government," said HRW's executive director Kenneth Roth.

"Many of the same officials are still in power in Egypt, and have a lot to answer for."

Roth and fellow activist Sarah Leah Whitson were barred from entering Egypt ahead of Tuesday's release of the report.

Egypt's liberal activists who revolted in 2011 against longtime president Hosni Mubarak seeking democratic freedoms largely kept quiet over the crackdown, but soon bore the brunt as authorities banned all unauthorized rallies.

The secular April 6 movement which in the heady days of the Arab Spring led the anti-Mubarak revolution has also been banned, prompting activists to charge that Egypt was heading to a worse autocracy than under Mubarak.

Sisi had made it clear even before becoming president that his priority was Egypt's stability rather than democratic ideals.

It could take "20 to 25 years to achieve true democracy" in Egypt, Sisi said in early May.

- Brotherhood needs 'strategy' -

The crackdown has crippled the Brotherhood, which swept all elections after Mubarak's fall until Morsi's ouster, and triggered divisions within its ranks, according to analysts.

Officials accuse the movement of being implicated in militant attacks which they say have killed more than 500 security personnel since the July 2013 ouster of Morsi.

"The challenge for the Brotherhood is not to allow internal divisions to translate into an organizational split," said Shadi Hamid, fellow at Brookings Institution's Center for Middle East Policy.

The movement lacks a strategy to counter Sisi's "resilience" to stay in power and needs a long-term formula, he said.

"They don't have any major strategy beyond protests, protests, protests, while waiting for the economy to suffer," said Hamid.

The new authorities have succeeded in "destroying the status which the Brotherhood achieved" after Mubarak's ouster, said Ziad Akl, researcher at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

"Today their businesses are confiscated, journalists giving their side of the story are jailed ... The regime has succeeded in turning the Brotherhood into an illegitimate entity and forced it to go underground."

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=67549.

Egypt court dissolves Brotherhood party wing

Sat Aug 9, 2014

An Egyptian court has dissolved the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and ordered its assets liquidated.

In its ruling on Saturday, the Supreme Administrative Court ordered "the dissolution of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) because it broke the law regarding political parties."

According to the state-run Middle East News Agency, the decision is final and not open to appeal.

The measure against the FJP comes after a recommendation by the court's advisory panel that noted the party's leaders had already been accused, and in some cases convicted of murder and inciting violence.

Moreover, the court decision is part of a wider crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood and members of the movement.

Since the ouster of former Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, on July 3 last year, Egypt has been the scene of anti-government protests with continuous clashes between security forces and Morsi’s supporters.

Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, was toppled in a military coup led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt’s current president and then army commander.

Following Morsi’s ouster, Sisi announced his candidacy for the nation’s presidency and was sworn in as president after winning an election in which less than 50 percent of eligible voters participated.

Sisi is accused of leading the suppression of Muslim Brotherhood supporters as hundreds of them have been killed in clashes with Egyptian security forces.

Rights groups say the army’s crackdown on the supporters of Morsi has left over 1,400 people dead and 22,000 others arrested.

At least 200 people have also been sentenced to death in mass trials, including Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie, although none of the sentences has been carried out so far.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/08/09/374650/egypt-court-dissolves-brotherhood-party-wing/.

Egypt police clash with protesters in Cairo, Suez

Fri Apr 18, 2014

Egyptian riot police backed by military troops have attacked massive rallies of anti-government protesters in the capital Cairo and the city of Suez.

Police backed by army units attacked al-Azhar University students protesting in Cairo’s Nasr City on Friday.

Security forces fired tear gas and birdshot to disperse anti-regime demonstrators.

Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in the city of Suez also came under a similar crackdown.

Reports say several people were arrested and injured in both cities.

Protests against the army and the military-backed authorities usually break out every week after Friday prayers.

Opponents of the former defense minister, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, who is running for president, are right now holding rallies in many other Egyptian cities including Alexandria, Giza and Sharqiyah.

The latest developments come after Sisi officially submitted his bid to run for president.

Sisi led the overthrow of former President Mohamed Morsi, suspended the constitution and dissolved the parliament in July last year. He is also accused of leading a severe crackdown against the supporters of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egyptian military-installed interim officials have mounted a heavy-handed crackdown on Morsi supporters and members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Figures show Egypt’s military-backed government has jailed nearly 16,000 people over the past few months.

Despite Cairo's crackdown, the Brotherhood says the group remains committed to peaceful resistance against the interim government.

Several international bodies and the United Nations Human Rights Council have expressed concern over the Egyptian security forces’ crackdown and the killing of peaceful anti-government protesters.

Rights groups say at least 1,400 people have been killed in the violence since Morsi’s ouster, "most of them due to excessive force used by security forces."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/18/359144/police-attack-protesters-in-cairo-suez/.

Egypt police attack anti-Sisi protesters

Thu Mar 27, 2014

Egyptian riot police have attacked anti-government protesters outside the Defense Ministry in Cairo, injuring several people.

Fresh protests were organized in Egypt in condemnation of military chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s presidential nomination.Student protesters rallied in front of the defense ministry in the capital Cairo on Thursday.

Police moved in later and used tear gas and birdshot to break up the protest. Several injuries were reported in clashes there.

Similar demonstrations were held in several cities across Egypt the night before.

They came after Sisi announced his resignation as Egypt’s military chief to run for president.

State institutions and media are all geared toward Sisi's candidacy, a situation which undermines the chances of a fair competition for any other candidate.

However, Egypt's political parties and figures have repeatedly called on the country’s army to stay out of politics.

The field marshal helped overthrow the country’s first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi last year, following mass protests against his rule.

The UN Human Rights Council recently expressed concern over the Egyptian security forces’ heavy-handed crackdown and the killing of peaceful anti-government protesters.

Anti-government demonstrators have been holding rallies almost on a daily basis since the army toppled president Morsi. The demonstrators demand that Morsi be reinstated.

According to a UK-based rights group, Amnesty International, 1,400 people have been killed in the political violence since Morsi’s ouster in July last year, "most of them due to excessive force used by security forces."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/356243.html.

Egyptian court sentences nearly 530 to death

March 24, 2014

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court Monday sentenced to death nearly 530 suspected backers of ousted President Mohammed Morsi over a deadly attack on a police station, capping a swift, two-day mass trial in which defense attorneys were not allowed to present their case.

It was the largest single batch of death sentences in the world in recent years, Amnesty International said. The U.S. State Department said it "defies logic" that so many people could get a fair trial in just two sessions.

The verdicts by a court in the city of Minya are subject to appeal and are likely to be overturned. But the outcome stunned human rights activists and raised fears that the rule of law is being swept away in the crackdown waged by the military-backed interim government against Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood since his overthrow last summer.

The government is conducting a series of mass trials of Brotherhood supporters, some with hundreds of defendants. "It turns the judiciary in Egypt from a tool for achieving justice into an instrument for taking revenge," said Mohammed Zarie, a Cairo-based human rights lawyer.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry brushed off the criticism, saying in a statement that the judiciary is "entirely independent and is not influenced in any way by the executive branch of government." The government has branded the Brotherhood a terrorist group, a claim it denies. Some 16,000 people have been arrested since Morsi's ouster, including most of the group's top leaders as well as large numbers swept up by police during pro-Morsi protests.

A judicial official involved in Monday's case told The Associated Press that the swift and harsh verdicts were meant as a deterrent. "Now no one would dare to think to attack a police station or a state institution after they saw death penalties falling on their group's heads," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the case.

He defended the mass trial, saying, "We are in exceptional circumstances. We don't have time to summon each and every defendant, prove their presence and confirm who are their lawyers." He said he expected an appeals court to overturn the verdicts and order a retrial because defense lawyers were not given a chance to present their case — but he predicted a similar verdict.

The 545 defendants were charged with murder, attempted murder, joining an outlawed group aiming at toppling the regime and stealing government weapons in connection with the attack last August in the town of Matay, south of Cairo. The town's deputy police chief, Mohammed al-Attar, was killed in the violence.

The bloodshed was part of nationwide rioting sparked when security forces stormed two pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo and killed over 600 people. The state news agency and the judicial official said 528 defendants were found guilty and handed death sentences, while the rest were acquitted, though some officials put the number at 529 convicted.

All but around 150 of the defendants were tried in absentia and will get retrials if captured. In the trial's first session, on Saturday, the presiding judge, Said Youssef, angrily shouted down requests by defense lawyers for more time to review the prosecution's case, Khaled el-Koumi, a lawyer representing 10 of the defendants, told the AP. Dozens of lawyers reacted by chanting slogans against the judge.

"We didn't have the chance to say a word or to look at more than 3,000 pages of investigation to see what evidence they are talking about," el-Koumi said. On Monday, police and special forces encircled the building and barred defense attorneys from attending, said one of the lawyers, Yasser Zidan. The judge ordered the measures because of the disruptions during the previous session, Minya police said.

When the judge read the verdict, around 150 defendants, held in a courtroom cage, as is customary in Egyptian trials, screamed, "You butcher!" a senior official involved in courtroom security said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The death sentences must first be approved by Egypt's mufti, the country's top Islamic official — a step that is usually a formality. Once that happens, expected on April 28, the defense lawyers can file an appeal with a court in Cairo.

The Egyptian judicial official said the court did not need to establish that all those convicted were directly involved in the police official's killing — only that they were involved in the attack on the station.

He said the evidence included 20 video clips showing the crowd beating the deputy chief with iron poles and a doctor smashing his head with an oxygen canister. But one of those tried and sentenced in absentia, 21-year-old Sayyaf Gamal, said he was in Cairo at the time of the attack. Speaking by telephone from hiding, Gamal said the verdict is aimed at driving the Brotherhood into violence to justify an even heavier crackdown.

"They want to explode the situation," he said. In a statement, the Brotherhood called the verdict "shocking" and an indication that "the corrupt judiciary is being utilized by the coup commanders ... to install a brutal regime."

On Tuesday, a group of 683 defendants is set to go on trial in Minya over an attack on another police station. Among the defendants are the top leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badei, and other senior figures.

"We are deeply concerned that the dozens of mass trials that are taking place ... are similarly riddled with due process violations and will also result in outrageous sentences," said Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch.

But with authorities casting the arrests of Brotherhood supporters as part of a fight against terrorism, some members of the public strongly back the crackdown. On Monday, an announcer on state radio praised the latest verdicts for bringing "swift justice."

Amin Fatouh, a Cairo resident, said: "Those who kill deserve death, just as the Quran says. These people have committed murder, and they must be killed in return."

Associated Press Writer Sarah El Deeb contributed to this report from Cairo

Egypt: Coup authorities take over largest Muslim Brotherhood school chain

Wednesday, 05 March 2014

Egyptian authorities took over a school chain owned by Muslim Brotherhood affiliates in the Upper Egypt governorate of Asyut.

Dar Hiraa school chain is reportedly the largest school chain partly owned by Muslim Brotherhood affiliates in Egypt. It includes 87 schools and is located in different places across the country.

On Monday, the Education Ministry Directorate in Asyut announced the changing of the school's name into "30 June", which marks the date of the military coup d'état against Egypt's first democratically-elected president Mohamed Morsi.

The Ministry of Education formed a new board for the school's administration, excluding all members of the Muslim Brotherhood and all those who supported the anti-coup protests following June 30.

On Tuesday, police raided the school and informed its staff about the newly appointed board. Police forces were deployed inside the school.

Wafaa Mashhour, the original chairwoman of the board, said in statements to Anadolu news agency that the procedures "are worse than arrests". "My relation with this school is older than my relation with my children. Forcibly sacking me from the school is a very cruel decision," she said.

"The school is a subsidiary of an NGO which includes all sections of society. Its board has been elected by the NGO's members. This is an educational institution. The fact that some of its board members are affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood is not harmful to the school."

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/10120-egypt-coup-authorities-take-over-largest-muslim-brotherhood-school-chain.

Female prisoners tortured and sexually abused in Egypt's jails

Saturday, 08 February 2014

Egypt's Women against the Coup movement has revealed that the authorities arrested 200 women in December and January and accused the interior ministry of torture and sexual abuse. "We registered the arrest of 200 women since the ratification of the Demonstration Act, which requires prior permission from the interior ministry for any demonstration and imposes severe retribution against dissidents," said a report by the group.

According to Turkish news agency Anadolu, the women's movement pointed out that female students from Al-Azhar University top the list of prisoners, which includes girls under 15 years old and elderly ladies of 60-plus.

The movement's report noted that most arrests took place on the last Friday of December when 40 women were taken into custody. "Criminal sentences handed down in absentia started to appear in January," the report said. "Six female students from Al-Azhar were sentenced to one year in prison and six from Nasser City were sentenced to five years."

Women against the Coup said that violations against the women prisoners "started from the minute that they were arrested"; the report also uses the term "kidnapped". "They were beaten by batons, their scarfs were removed and they were pulled by the hair; clothes were ripped off and they were sexually molested by officers who touched their private parts," it alleged.

When the prisoners arrived at police stations they were obliged to strip off their clothes and, again, police officers touched their private parts and beat them before putting them in "inappropriate" cells. "After they were taken to Al-Qanater Prison," claims the report, "the women faced virginity tests and were mixed with common criminals, who also attacked them."

The UK-based Arab Organization for Human Rights said that it had received complaints from the families of 12 students imprisoned in Egypt. "The complaints indicated that the ladies were beaten, insulted and sexually abused by soldiers or policemen when they were arrested."

Egypt's Deputy Interior Minister for Western Cairo, Brigadier Ali Damardash, denied the accusations. Speaking to Anadolu, he said: "I do not understand the violations it (AOHR) is speaking about. This is completely untrue… Egyptian prisons follow a system that respects international human rights… There is no basis for all the rumors about torture or violations in the Egyptian prisons."

It is worth noting that many domestic and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have issued dozens of reports describing the serious violations taking place inside Egyptians prisons. Human rights activists are denied permission to visit the prisons or meet the prisoners.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/9647-female-prisoners-tortured-and-sexually-abused-in-egypts-jails.

Coup in Egypt refers Al-Jazeera journalists to trial

January 29, 2014

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's chief prosecutor on Wednesday referred 20 journalists from the Al-Jazeera TV network, including four foreigners, to trial on charges of allegedly joining or assisting a terrorist group and spreading false news that endangers national security.

It was the first time authorities have put journalists on trial on terror-related charges. The charges demonstrate the expanding reach of the authorities' heavy crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood since the military's ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi on July 3.

The charges are based on the government's declaration last month of the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Authorities have long depicted the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network as biased toward Morsi and the Brotherhood. But so far its crackdown on the network had mostly targeted its Arabic service and its Egyptian affiliate.

Soon after the declaration, police arrested three reporters from Al-Jazeera English, accusing them of operating a media center for the group and spreading false news. "This is an insult to the law," Gamal Eid, the head of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information said. He said there is no evidence in the case and pointed out that the charges come after this month's passage of a new constitution that authorities touted as "the charter of freedoms," for its articles guaranteeing a range of rights.

"Whoever took this decision must be punished because if there is law and justice in Egypt it wouldn't be used in political settlements," he said. "Working in Al-Jazeera doesn't mean membership in the Brotherhood."

Al-Jazeera denies bias and has demanded the release of its reporters, whose arrest sparked an outcry from rights groups and journalist protection organizations. Authorities have also denied the network's reporters accreditation.

Those arrested include acting bureau chief Mohammed Fahmy, a Canadian-Egyptian, award-winning correspondent Peter Greste of Australia and producer Baher Mohamed, an Egyptian. On Wednesday, the prosecutor's office said 16 Egyptians in the case are accused of joining a terrorist group, while the foreigners — an Australian, a Dutch citizen and two Britons — are accused of helping to promote false news benefiting the terrorist group.

The prosecutor's statement said the accused had established a media network composed of 20 people — Egyptians and foreigners — who used two suites in a luxury hotel in Cairo as a media center, supported with cameras, broadcasting equipment and computers.

The statement said the defendants "manipulated pictures" to create "unreal scenes to give the impression to the outside world that there is a civil war that threatens to bring down the state" and broadcast scenes to aid "the terrorist group in achieving its goals and influencing the public opinion."

An official from the high state security prosecution investigating the case said Fahmy, the acting bureau chief, was an alleged member of the Muslim Brotherhood, led the media operation that "fabricated footage" and aired it on Al-Jazeera and CNN with the "aim of harming Egypt's reputation" in the world. The official said equipment used to "fabricate" the footage were confiscated in the hotel where they operated, including editing equipment, microphones, cameras, computers, internet broadcasting equipment and money.

The official said national security agents implemented the prosecutor's order, seizing also in the hotel documents, and handwritten notes including "students on strike during exams," ''the most important trials of December" and "the road map has become worthless." Student supporters of Morsi were on strike and held protests that frequently turned violent for most of December.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Al-Jazeera journalists and cameramen have been detained and a court order has barred its local affiliate from broadcasting in Egypt since September, accusing it of endangering national security. The affiliate, Al-Jazeera Mubasher Egypt, has continued to broadcast using its studios in Doha, Qatar, collaborating with freelancers and using amateur videos.

The prosecutors' statement said eight of the defendants are in custody. Presumably they include the three journalists arrested in December — two Egyptians and an Australian. But it was not clear who the other five are.

The only other two Al-Jazeera reporters known to be in custody were arrested in August, while they covered a police crackdown on pro-Morsi protesters in Cairo that left hundreds dead, and it was not known if they are among the defendants in the case.

Al-Jazeera had no immediate comment. A lawyer involved in the case confirmed the referral to trial but said he was still seeking more information. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of his security.

Hundreds of the Brotherhood's leaders are now in detention or on trial, mostly on violence-related charges. Morsi himself is on trial. Eid, of the rights center, said that under autocrat Hosni Mubarak's nearly 30-year rule, there were instances of journalists detained on allegations of terror links. But he said he knows of no instance in which they were actually referred to trial. He said it is also the first time Western journalists are accused on such charges.

"It is a state of hysteria that has reached the extent of making up charges," Eid said. He said he doesn't believe the case was part of a planned crackdown, but that among the various agencies of the state, each "is practicing its repression its own way ... We have repressive republics operating in one nation."

Ousted Egypt leader in glass-encased cage at trial

January 28, 2014

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's toppled President Mohammed Morsi stood inside a glass-encased metal cage Tuesday, separated from other defendants for the start of a new trial Tuesday over charges from prison breaks during the country's 2011 revolution, state television reported.

Egypt's state news agency MENA reported that Morsi flew by helicopter from Borg al-Arab prison in Alexandria. Only 19 other of the 129 defendants in the case, including the leader of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group and other leading figures, are held by authorities. The rest, including members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah, are on the run.

Egypt's state television broadcast exclusively from the courtroom. Its reporter said Morsi appeared in a separate cage from the other defendants in the case. He said defendants turned their back to the court, a form of protest of their prosecution.

The case is rooted in the 2011 escape of more than 20,000 inmates from Egyptian prisons — including Morsi and other Brotherhood members, during the early days of the 18-day uprising against ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

Authorities accuse Morsi and the other defendants of plotting to "destroy the Egyptian state and its institutions," conspiring with the foreign groups who infiltrated to Egypt through Gaza and using the turmoil during the uprising to organize the prison breaks. The prosecutors said more than 800 foreign fighters entered Egypt through Gaza to take part in storming of three prisons and killed a number of police officers and inmates.

A Brotherhood lawyer has said the trial appears aimed at "denigrating" Morsi and the Brotherhood. It is Morsi's second court appearance since Egypt's popularly backed July 3 military coup. He missed a Jan. 8 hearing in another trial after security officials said bad weather grounded a helicopter meant to bring him.

The hearing is at a police academy complex in eastern Cairo, where a heavy security presence stood guard Tuesday. State television showed briefly showed live footage from inside the courtroom before the trial started.

Morsi is facing three other trials on different charges as well. Only one of those trials, where he is accused of inciting murder of his opponents while in office, has begun. Many of the charges he faces carry the death sentence.

In his first appearance, Morsi insisted he was still the country's legitimate president and challenged the legitimacy of the court, regularly interrupting the judges and prosecutors. The glass window over the metal cage is apparently to muffle the defendants' outbursts.

Since Morsi' ouster in July 3 in a popularly backed military coup, hundreds of senior Brotherhood leaders have been arrested in a widening crackdown against a group that authorities accuse of retaliating to Morsi's removal with a violent campaign. Hundreds of supporters also have been killed in security crackdown on protests that often turned violent. The group denies using violence to achieve its goal of having Morsi reinstated.

On Tuesday, hundreds of Morsi supporters clashed with police officers, with television footage showing protesters burn tires and police shooting tear gas canisters. Tuesday marked the third anniversary of the "Friday of Rage," one of the most violent days of the 2011 uprising when protesters and police clashed for hours before police withdrew from the streets and the military deployed.

Meanwhile, the interior ministry said two gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed a senior police officer as he left his home in the Haram district of Giza, a Cairo neighborhood. Maj. Gen. Mohammed El-Said was the head of the technical office in the interior ministry, which is in charge of police.

Also Tuesday, MENA reported that gunmen blew up a natural gas pipeline Monday night in the volatile Sinai Peninsula south of el-Arish, the capital of the North Sinai governorate. It said firefighters rushed to the scene to extinguish a fire there.

Gas pipelines have come under attacks several times since Mubarak's downfall, which led to a fracturing of Egypt's security agencies. Suicide bombings also have spiked and spilled into the capital, Cairo, and other cities. An al-Qaida-inspired group called Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, or Champions of Jerusalem, has claimed responsibility for most of those attacks.

Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef contributed to this report.

Coup forces have killed 7,000 in Egypt

Monday, 20 January 2014

A senior Egyptian judge claimed on Sunday that more than 7,000 civilians have been killed in the country since the coup which overthrew President Mohamed Morsi last July. Judge Mohamed Gharib said that most of the dead were killed by security forces and that he has filed complaints against named army and police officers who carried out the killings for Egyptian courts to investigate.

The judge, who is a member of the legal defense team for the ousted president, made his comments on Al-Jazeera's evening show Hadith Al-Thawra. He offered harsh criticism of the Egyptian judiciary and accused it of being biased against those citizens who are against the coup.

To back-up his claim, he pointed out that court officials have been very quick to issue rules against school pupils who own balloons or school kits with the Rabaa Al-Adawiyya four-finger symbol on them, while the same courts have not even started investigations over the killing of 7,000 Egyptians.

In an ironic act of self-fulfilling prophecy, on Sunday an Egyptian criminal court accused Morsi and other politicians, journalists, activists and parliamentarians of having "contempt" for the judiciary. For Morsi, this is the fourth accusation against him. The Muslim Brotherhood, observers and anti-coup politicians and activists called the accusations "completely political" and accused the Egyptian judiciary of being a "puppet in the hands of the army".

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/9321-coup-forces-have-killed-7000-in-egypt.

Egypt prosecutors interrogate Jazeera team

December 30, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian state security prosecutors interrogated a team of journalists working for Al-Jazeera's English channel Monday a day after they were arrested in Cairo, a security official said Monday.

State security prosecutors usually investigate cases involving national security or terrorism. The official said the journalists from the Qatar-based network were being questioned for broadcasting without permission from a five-star hotel, the Cairo Marriott. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

It was not immediately clear if the team was facing other charges. Egypt has long accused Al-Jazeera of bias in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood of ousted President Mohammed Morsi. But so far its crackdown on the network has mostly targeted its Arabic service and a local branch focusing on Egypt coverage.

The Interior Ministry had said its arrest of the journalists was part of its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood group, which the government branded as a "terrorist" organization last week. The ministry accused one of those arrested, without naming him, of using the hotel suite as a media center for the group from which it broadcast "rumors and false news" and to hold organizational meetings for members of the Brotherhood.

The arrests came as authorities widen its crackdown on the movement. A Cairo court on Monday also sentenced 138 pro-Morsi protesters to two years in prison with labor on charges of rioting and vandalism.

In Washington, Marie Harf, the deputy spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, said the United States remains concerned about the interim Egyptian government's Dec. 25 terrorist designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as well as ongoing detentions and arrests, including for peaceful demonstrators, civil society and political activists.

"We remain deeply concerned about all of the politically motivated arrests, detentions and charges in Egypt," she said Monday. "These actions raise questions about the rule of law being applied impartially and equitably and do not move Egypt's transition forward."

Al-Jazeera network said in a statement that four of its journalists based in Cairo were detained late Sunday, including Australian award-winning correspondent Peter Greste; Al-Jazeera English Bureau Chief Mohammed Fahmy, a producer and a cameraman. The network called their detention "arbitrary", and called for their immediate release.

Al-Jazeera's offices have been stormed several times before. State pressure on the channel has intensified since Egypt's July 3 coup, which followed demonstrations by millions calling for Morsi's ouster.

Al-Jazeera journalists and cameramen have been detained and a court order has barred its local affiliate from broadcasting in Egypt since September, accusing it of endangering national security. The affiliate, Al-Jazeera Mubasher Egypt, has continued to broadcast using its studios in Doha, Qatar, collaborating with freelancers and using amateur videos.

The Al-Jazeera English team kept an office in the hotel for months. The channel's offices were raided this summer and equipment confiscated in late summer as part of a broad state crackdown. In its statement, the network said it was not officially banned in Egypt. "We condemn the arbitrary arrest of Al Jazeera English journalists working in Cairo and demand their immediate and unconditional release," the statement said.

Egypt's military-backed government has accused Al-Jazeera network of bias because its patron, Qatar, is perceived to have supported the Brotherhood, and was one of Morsi's biggest financial backers, injecting billions into the battered economy during his time in office.

In a statement on its Facebook page, the Interior Ministry said that the journalists had with them footage and protest materials from university students who staged a demonstration in support of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Meanwhile, riot police clashed with students of the Islamic Al-Azhar University in Cairo, who rallied against the military and in support of Morsi. The government accuses the protesting students of seeking to derail midterm exams. Volleys of tear gas fell inside the campus for the third straight day.

In a new move that appears designed to limit student action, a Cairo court Monday barred university students from protesting without a prior permission from their deans.

Mubarak's sons, PM Ahmed Shafiq acquitted in corruption trial

Dec. 19, 2013

CAIRO, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- A criminal court in Cairo Thursday acquitted former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq and toppled President Hosni Mubarak's sons of embezzling public funds.

Shafiq and Alaa and Gamal Mubarak were accused of misappropriating funds in the Pilots' Association for Land Development in the 1990s, with Shafiq accused of seizing land belonging to fishing farms and allocating it to the association then selling the land to Mubarak's sons at below-market prices.

Also acquitted were former Air Force Gens. Nabil Shoukry and Mohamed Reda, both former association officials who were defendants with the Mubaraks and Shafiq, Ahram Online reported.

Shafiq, who was tried in absentia, lives in Dubai where he fled after losing the presidential election runoff to the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi in 2012. Morsi was ousted this summer by the military.

A verdict in a separate corruption trial against Shafiq was expected to be announced soon.

Alaa and Gamal Mubarak also face separate trials on other corruption-related charges.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/12/19/Mubaraks-sons-PM-Ahmed-Shafiq-acquitted-in-corruption-trial/UPI-14441387460792/.

Egypt: Police clash with Islamists at Tahrir

December 01, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — Police have used heavy tear gas to clear hundreds of supporters of Egypt's ousted Islamist president from Cairo's famed Tahrir square shortly after they entered and took over the plaza.

The development, late Sunday afternoon, was the first time in more than a year that Islamists entered the square in significant numbers. The location has been the near exclusive domain of liberal and secular protesters since shortly after Mohammed Morsi took office in June 2012.

The square was the birthplace of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak. That uprising was led by liberal and secular youth groups. Sunday's Islamist protesters came from Cairo University, where they have been protesting the death of an engineering student at the hands of police.

Police fire water cannon to disperse Egypt rally

November 26, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's police fired water cannons Tuesday to disperse dozens of activists protesting police brutality in Cairo, the security forces' first implementation of a controversial new law forbidding protests held without a permit from authorities.

The unrest points to the growing backlash against the law, which imposes heavy restrictions on protests, among the secular political factions that rallied behind the military's ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

Now some in the loose coalition are growing impatient with signs the military-backed interim government is taking the country down a more authoritarian path. Many non-Islamist activists say the law aims to silence any dissent ahead of a referendum on an amended constitution and other key elections. Those activists oppose provisions in the revised constitution entrenching greater powers for the military and the president, and curtailing rights to free trials and assembly.

The government says the law is needed to restore security and stability and rein in near daily protests by Morsi supporters demanding his reinstatement. The Islamist rallies have often descended into bloody clashes with security forces, leaving hundreds dead since Morsi's ouster in July. The government's message has a strong resonance among a public weary of constant protests and unrest.

But rights groups and activists say the law, issued Monday by the interim president, will stifle Islamists and non-Islamists alike. They say it is harsher than restrictions on protests during the rule of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in 2011 in an uprising calling for greater democratic freedoms.

"They don't want anyone in the streets any more. Not us, not the Islamists," said Rasha Azab, a political activist who took part in Tuesday's rally that was broken up by security forces. International criticism of the law has also been growing.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement Tuesday that the law raises concerns because it does not meet international standards and will not move Egypt's transition forward. "We urge the interim government to respect individual rights and we urge that the new constitution protect such rights," she said.

Skeptical of both Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group and the military, activists who spearheaded the 2011 uprising against Mubarak have been organizing limited but rare non-Islamist protests in recent weeks demanding justice from police officials who killed hundreds of protesters during the tumultuous past three years. The activists have openly clashed with the military before — when generals directly ruled Egypt following Mubarak's fall — and then with the Brotherhood during Morsi's one year in office.

On Tuesday, around 100 secular protesters held a rally in downtown Cairo to commemorate the death of protester Gaber Salah, known by the nickname "Gika," at the hands of police a year ago. Police quickly deployed to the area.

As protesters gathered, a police officer came out in front of an armored vehicle and told the crowd that they had no permit, the activist Azab said. He gave two warnings before the police fired water cannons, sending the protesters running into sidestreets, she said.

Azab said she was briefly detained, and an officer told her that while he has the right to arrest her, he was letting her go to tell her colleagues that no protests will be allowed to take place without permits any more.

"I told him: You want me to take a permit after January 2011? He said: This is what the moment calls for," she said. "They want to bring us back" to before 2011. She said for the authorities, the secular activists — though smaller in numbers — "are more of a nuisance than the Brotherhood because we don't have a central leader like the Islamists' guide to tell us what to do."

A police spokesman, Maj. Gen. Abdel-Fattah Othman, told the private CBC station that the rally was dispersed because organizers had not sought a permit from security officials as required by the new law.

"This behavior is a challenge to the state and its prestige. The protesters want to embarrass the state. But the state is capable," Othman told the station. "Any gathering without a permit will be dealt with according to the law."

Security forces had heavily deployed across town where Morsi supporters had planned to hold a rally later Tuesday.