Fleeing war, poverty, African migrants face racism in Egypt

January 02, 2020

CAIRO (AP) — Two Sudanese sisters, Seham and Ekhlas Bashir, were walking their children home from elementary school in a Cairo neighborhood when a group of Egyptian teenagers crowded around them. The boys taunted them, calling them “slave” and other slurs. Then they tried to rip off Ekhlas' clothes.

An onlooker intervened, scolding the young harassers, and the sisters and their three children managed to escape. But they were shaken. They had just arrived in Cairo months earlier, fleeing violence in their homeland. The harassment brought up traumatic memories of detention, torture and rape they said they experienced at the hands of militias in Sudan's Nuba mountains.

“We have come here seeking safety,” said Ekhlas, recounting the incident that took place in November. “But the reality was very different.” Egypt has for decades been a refuge for sub-Saharan African migrants trying to escape war or poverty. But the streets of Cairo, a metropolis of some 20 million, can bring new dangers in the form of racist harassment or even violence in ways that other significant migrant communities here, such as Libyans and Syrians, don't face. While other major centers of African migration like Europe have been wrestling with racist violence, Egypt has only made small starts toward addressing the issue.

The U.N.'s International Organization for Migration says Egypt hosts more than 6 million migrants, more than half of them from Sudan and South Sudan, where simmering conflicts continue to displace tens of thousands of people annually. For some, Egypt is a destination and a haven, the closest and easiest country for them to enter. For others, it is a point of transit before attempting the dangerous Mediterranean crossing to Europe.

In visits to several migrant communities throughout Cairo, at least two dozen sub-Saharan Africans, including four children, told The Associated Press that they have endured racist insults, sexual harassment or other abuses in the past three months.

The children said they have had rocks and trash thrown at them as they go to or from school. One woman from Ethiopia said neighbors pound on the windows of her family’s home, yelling “slaves” before disappearing into the night.

There are signs that Egypt is starting to recognize and censure racist crimes. In November, there was a public outcry over a video that went viral showing three Egyptian teenagers bullying a schoolboy from South Sudan.

In the video, taken by mobile phone, the teenagers block the boy’s way, laughing and making fun of his appearance before trying to take his backpack. In the aftermath, police detained the teenagers for a day before their families reached a settlement with the family of the South Sudanese boy, John Manuth.

Weeks later, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi hosted Manuth at a youth forum in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and made a rare high-level acknowledgement of the problem. “They are our guests and negative treatment is not acceptable and not allowed,” el-Sissi told the audience.

In 2018, a court sentenced to seven years in prison a man who was known to harass refugees and who beat to death a South Sudanese teacher who had worked in a community-run school for refugees in Cairo.

Refugees and rights workers say the country still has a long way to go. Reported cases of sexual and gender-based violence against migrants has increased in recent months, according to the IOM. Women and girls are the most effected, but so are vulnerable men and young boys, said Shirley De Leon, a project development officer at the organization. She said that could in part be because of Egypt's economic strains — “challenges remain and are exacerbated by inflation, eroded income and high youth unemployment.”

Most migrants live in crowded poorer neighborhoods, where they form insular communities in small, packed apartment buildings. The idea is to protect families and vulnerable new arrivals from abuses. Racism has roots in Egyptian society. For centuries, Egypt was colonized by Arab, Turkish and European imperial powers. Lighter skin was identified with the elite. Darker-complexioned Egyptians and sub-Saharan Africans have been portrayed as doormen, waiters, and cleaners in films for decades. Some Egyptians still unabashedly address people by their skin color, calling them “black,” “dark,” or “chocolate.” Historically, many have preferred to think of themselves as Arab, rather than African.

Attia Essawi, an expert on African affairs at Cairo’s al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, says it will take a lot to break some societal beliefs. “Authorities should be decisive, with more severe measures against racism and bullying,” he said.

But for many, reporting a crime is not an option. Two South Sudanese women, who work as part-time house cleaners, told the AP they had been sexually assaulted by their employers. Neither of them reported the allegations to police, as one of them has not finalized her documents as a migrant in Egypt and the other feared reprisals from her attacker. For the same reasons, they spoke on condition of anonymity.

Now, they and others say they make sure to be home by nightfall, and only go out in groups. El-Sissi has said in the past that his country doesn’t need camps for refugees, because it is welcoming and absorbs them so readily. Many sub-Saharan African migrants enter the country legally but overstay visas. Enforcement on those who stay illegally is lax, and a large number of them work in the huge informal economy as street vendors and house cleaners.

In a café frequented by migrants in a central Cairo neighborhood, Ethiopian refugee Ahmed el-Athiopi says that he came to the city five years ago to escape repression at home. He believes the only reason he has been able to keep a job is because he makes half that of an Egyptian.

For now, though, he says Cairo remains his best available option. “I hope things get better in the future. Here is much better than in my home country as there is likely a zero chance to leave for Europe,” he said.

Egypt's president submits nominations after rival's arrest

Thursday 25 January 2018

CAIRO: Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi submitted his nomination documents on Wednesday, a day after a potentially serious challenger in the March vote was arrested by the military.

El-Sisi is virtually certain to win a second four-year term in the March 26-28 vote, as two would-be challengers have withdrawn from the race and another two have been arrested. But his supporters have been actively gathering signatures from voters in an attempt to show he has popular support.

Would-be candidates must secure 25,000 “recommendations” from voters or the support of 20 lawmakers to be eligible to run. El-Sisi already has the support of more than 500 of parliament’s 596 lawmakers. But on Wednesday his official Facebook page posted images of workers unloading boxes of recommendations from a van, each bearing the president’s image and the slogan “Long live Egypt!“

On Tuesday, the military arrested former chief of staff Sami Annan over a slate of serious allegations, all but ending his hopes of running in the election and ensuring that el-Sisi, a former general, will not face off against another member of the country’s powerful military establishment.

Amnesty International said the arrest of Annan amounted to an attack on rights to public participation and freedom of expression.

“It is clear that the Egyptian authorities are hell-bent on arresting and harassing anyone who stands against President el-Sisi,” said Najia Bounaim, Amnesty’s North Africa Campaigns Director. “This is consistent with the Egyptian government’s ongoing efforts to crush dissent and consolidate power by attacking civil society, activists and human rights defenders in the country.”

Annan’s arrest leaves prominent rights lawyer Khaled Ali as the only serious would-be candidate to challenge el-Sisi. But Ali’s candidacy is also at risk because he was convicted in September of making an obscene hand gesture in public. If that ruling is upheld on appeal, he will be ineligible. The next appeal hearing is scheduled for March 7, less than three weeks before the vote.

Two other presidential hopefuls have withdrawn.

Former prime minister and air force Gen. Ahmed Shafiq, who finished a close second in Egypt’s first free election in 2012, said he did not think he was the “ideal” man to lead the nation after days of harsh criticism by pro-el-Sisi media.

Another would-be candidate was former lawmaker Mohammed Anwar Sadat, the nephew of the Egyptian leader who was assassinated in 1981. He said the country’s political “climate” was not conducive to campaigning and because he feared for the safety of his supporters.

Another hopeful, Army Col. Ahmed Konsowa, was court martialed and sentenced to six years in prison for breaching military regulations prohibiting political activism.

In his first public comments since Annan’s arrest, el-Sisi on Wednesday reiterated vague warnings that Egypt is the target of a foreign conspiracy.

“The evil people are still trying to achieve their goal and all eyes are on Egypt, but no one will hurt Egypt,” he said at a ceremony marking Police Day.

“We are talking construction, building and development. We don’t want anyone to lead us astray with rhetoric that we don’t need,” he said, in what may have been a reference to Annan’s video message announcing he would run.

In the video, Annan spoke of deteriorating living standards and what he called the “erosion” of the state’s capabilities, which he blamed it on the military’s growing involvement in the economy and politics. “Wise” policies were needed to bring in the civilian sector, but that required respect for the constitution and guarantees of freedoms, added Annan.

He also took the unusual step of appealing to the military and state institutions to remain neutral in the election, saying they should not be biased in favor of el-Sisi.

El-Sisi led the 2013 military overthrow of Egypt’s first freely elected president, Muhammad Mursi, whose year in power proved divisive. The government has since waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent, silencing nearly all its critics.

Except for Mursi and interim president Adly Mansour, who succeeded him in 2013, all of Egypt’s presidents since the establishment of the republic in the early 1950s have come from the military, and the security apparatus is believed to wield great power behind the scenes.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://www.arabnews.com/node/1232271/middle-east.

10-year jail terms for 15 protesters in Egypt

December 29, 2017

An Egyptian court yesterday sentenced 15 persons to ten years in jail each for taking part in protests in late 2013 in the country’s southern province of Minya, a judicial source told the Anadolu Agency.

Fourteen of the defendants were sentenced in absentia and one was present in the court while the verdict was being pronounced.

The verdict may be appealed at a higher court.

Prosecutors accused the defendants of protesting, inciting violence, attempting to wreck public property and membership in an outlawed group, in reference to the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood.

The defendants were arrested during a protest in December 2013. Prosecutors referred them to criminal trial in May 2015 and the first trial session was held two months later.

An interim government issued the controversial protest law in November 2013, four months after then-defense chief Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi led a military coup against the country’s first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi.

In the wake of the coup, the government also banned the Muslim Brotherhood group, accused it of terrorism, and rounded up its members and sympathizers. Thousands have been behind bars in pretrial detention or facing trial for membership in the Brotherhood and over accusations such as “inciting violence” and “membership in a terrorist group”. The Brotherhood has repeatedly denied the accusations and stressed that it adheres to peaceful protests against the coup.

The protest law, which was issued in response to a wave of protests that opposed the coup and called for Morsi’s reinstatement, was described by international watchdog Human Rights Watch as “deeply restrictive” and by Amnesty International as “draconian” and “repressive”.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20171229-10-year-jail-terms-for-15-protesters-in-egypt/.

Egypt extends state of emergency for 3 months starting Friday -official gazette

Thursday 12 October 2017

CAIRO: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi extended for the second time a state of emergency first declared following deadly church bombings in April, in a decree issued in the official gazette on Thursday.

The renewed three-month state of emergency will start on Friday, according to the decree.

“The armed forces and the police will take the necessary measures to confront the dangers of terrorism,” it said.

Parliament approved the initial state of emergency in April after the two church bombings claimed by Daesh that killed at least 45 people.

The state of emergency was then renewed on July 10.

The terrorist group said it was behind the bombings in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria, and it threatened further attacks against Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority.

Terrorists also claimed a Cairo church bombing in December that killed 29 people.

The emergency law expands police powers of arrest, surveillance and seizures and can limit freedom of movement.

Egypt had been ruled for decades under a state of emergency, which was canceled a month before Mohammed Mursi took over as the president in 2012.

Following Mursi’s overthrow by El-Sisi, then an army chief, in 2013, a state of emergency was declared for a month after clashes between police and Islamist protesters that killed hundreds and after extremist mobs attacked Christian properties.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://www.arabnews.com/node/1176496/middle-east.

Human rights honor goes to Egyptian banned from travel

October 11, 2017

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian has been honored with one of the most prestigious awards granted to human rights defenders but was unable to accept the prize in person because his government has banned him from travel over his work documenting abuses.

Mohamed Zaree is one of several prominent Egyptian activists and human rights workers who are banned from travel over allegations of harming national security, part of a wide-scale crackdown on dissent that has stamped out much of the country's once-vibrant civil society.

The Martin Ennals award is given out by 10 of the world's leading human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, to recognize outstanding work done at great personal risk. Zaree's wife and daughters accepted it on his behalf at the ceremony in Geneva.

Zaree said he hopes the award will offer some protection to him and other members of Egypt's dwindling human rights community, nearly all of whom face prosecution under sweeping laws targeting those accused of "undermining national unity."

"We are all banned from travelling, and some have had their bank accounts frozen," he told The Associated Press. "There is a danger for myself and my colleagues, but I believe the biggest danger is when the victims of human rights violations are denied their last hope."

The 37-year-old Zaree leads activities in Egypt for the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, which focuses on the Arab world. The group moved its base to Tunisia in 2014 after Egypt unleashed a wave of repression against such organizations following the military overthrow of an elected Islamist president the previous year.

The group has handled high-profile cases, including that of Egyptian-American charity worker Aya Hijazi, who had established a foundation to aid street children in 2013 and was jailed on charges of child abuse that were dismissed as bogus by human rights groups and U.S. officials. She was released and allowed to return to the U.S. earlier this year after nearly three years in prison.

The award, named after a former head of Britain-based Amnesty, is among the most prestigious in the field. The other finalists were El Salvador transgender woman and activist Karla Avelar, and the FreeThe5KH group — five human rights defenders who were recently released after more than a year in pre-trial detention in Cambodia.

In Geneva, award founder Hans Thoolen celebrated Zaree's "heroic" behavior in "holding the fort" nearly alone amid the crackdown on human rights organizations. "There was a very clear understanding that the Egyptian regime seems to be emboldened by the lack of action in the U.N. and by major states," he said.

Local human rights organizations and other civil society groups played a major role in documenting abuses under President Hosni Mubarak, who resigned in the face of a popular uprising in 2011 after nearly three decades in power. Such groups continued to operate until the military overthrew his successor, the freely elected but divisive Mohammed Morsi, two years later.

But Egypt's current president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who led Morsi's overthrow, has presided over the heaviest crackdown in decades. Authorities have jailed tens of thousands, mainly Islamist supporters of Morsi but also several prominent secular activists.

The government has also pressed ahead with a law that would place heavy restrictions on civil society groups, which pro-government media outlets routinely portray as part of a foreign plot to destabilize the country.

"There is no comparison — it's the darkest time Egypt has ever seen for human rights," Zaree said. He said that under Mubarak "it was a fight to defend the space we had." "Now it's a fight for our very existence — the current regime doesn't want to deal with any human rights organizations, political parties, activists or journalists," he said.

Last month Ibrahim Metwally, a prominent rights lawyer who focused on the issue of forced disappearances, was himself arrested in secret, with authorities only acknowledging his detention days later. He remains in custody on charges of "spreading false news." Metwally's son went missing during clashes at an Islamist protest in 2013 and has not been seen since.

Police have also launched a crackdown targeting gay men after a rainbow flag was waved at a concert last month, charging over two dozen individuals with violating laws on public decency. The United States, which provides Egypt with $1.3 billion a year in mainly military aid, moved to halt or delay the transfer of nearly $300 million earlier this year, citing the country's poor human rights record. But President Donald Trump has also praised el-Sissi as an ally against terrorism, and European countries still offer Egypt generous financing for advanced weapons systems.

As the award ceremony began in Geneva, Zaree, who was stuck in Cairo, called on Egypt's foreign backers to do more to press for change, saying "security and human rights cannot be separated." "It is the basis of stability — countries with economic and military relations with Egypt should make sure that the weapons they sell it are not used in human rights violations," he said. "There must be oversight that ensures these weapons are not used against peaceful civilians."

Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

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/.

Egypt to build 11th prison in less than 3 years

June 15, 2016

Egyptian authorities are to build a new prison in Qalyubia Governorate, north of Cairo, the third to be built this year and the eleventh since the military coup three years ago, the Anadolu Agency reported yesterday.

Human rights groups have said that there are 40 prisons in Egypt, these along with police stations, military basis and secret prisons are all used to hold prisoners in terrible conditions.

Since the military coup against the first freely elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Egyptian authorities have increased arbitrary arrests based on political opinion.

The Arab Organisation for Human Rights said that the number of prisoners held in Egyptian jails and detention centers has reached more than 41,000.

Egyptian authorities have said that the country’s constitution dictates how prisoners are treated and that they adhere to international laws, a claim human rights groups deny.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20160615-egypt-to-build-11th-prison-in-less-than-3-years/.

Egypt journalists stage protest over police raid at union

May 02, 2016

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's journalists' syndicate called for the dismissal of the interior minister and an immediate sit-in at its headquarters in downtown Cairo on Monday, to protest the police detention of two journalists on its premises the night earlier.

After an emergency meeting in the early hours of Monday morning, the group called for the "open-ended" sit-in to run through a Wednesday general assembly meeting and World Press Freedom day on May 3. Later Monday morning, dozens gathered at the steps of the building, chanting "journalists are not terrorists." They plan for a larger demonstration Monday afternoon.

The syndicate described the police's entry into the building as a "raid by security forces whose blatant barbarism and aggression on the dignity of the press and journalists and their syndicate has surprised the journalistic community and the Egyptian people." Some syndicate members have said the raid was heavy-handed, involving dozens of officers and resulted in a security guard being injured.

Police denied they entered the building by force and said only eight officers were involved, who they said were acting on an arrest warrant for the two journalists — accused of organizing protests to destabilize the country. Unauthorized demonstrations in Egypt are banned, and demonstrators subject to arrest.

"The Ministry of Interior affirms that it did not raid the syndicate or use any kind of force in arresting the two, who turned themselves in as soon as they were told of the arrest warrant," the ministry said in a statement.

The two journalists, Amr Badr and Mahmoud el-Sakka, are government critics who work for a website known as January Gate, also critical of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's government. It was unclear what size any sit-in at the syndicate could achieve. Police, backed by army troops, on Monday had initially barricaded the entire area and prevented people from approaching the building, but they eventually lifted the blockade. Still hundreds of uniformed and undercover police were deployed across central Cairo in order to prevent any protests.

A day earlier, police prevented hundreds of workers from holding a meeting at the building to commemorate International Workers' Day, prompting independent trade union leaders to urge the government to allow them freedom of assembly.

The syndicate has invited the trade union leaders to join the sit-in to denounce the "raid" and protest restrictions on freedom of assembly for labor organizers. It said the move was illegal and violated its charter, which forbids police from entering the building without the presence of a syndicate official, and is urging police to end their "siege" of the building and stop preventing journalists from entering.

The journalists' syndicate has been a rallying point for demonstrations in the past, and was blocked in a similar manner ahead of planned anti-government protests last Monday. The building drew particular attention because it was from there that some 2,000 demonstrators gathered last month to protest el-Sissi's decision to hand over two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. Police fired tear gas and arrested dozens to break up the protests, the first significant wave of street demonstrations since the former army chief became president in 2014.

A second round of mass demonstrations over the issue planned for last Monday were stifled by a massive security presence, with hundreds of arrests and only small flash mobs managing to assemble, drawing tear gas and birdshot from the riot police.

Egypt's government resigns amid corruption probe

September 12, 2015

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's government resigned Saturday in the face of intense criticism from state-friendly media that reflects growing discontent but stops short of faulting President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, the former general who led the overthrow of an Islamist president two years ago.

The office of the president said he accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb and his Cabinet but that the ministers would continue to serve until a new body is appointed. El-Sissi tasked Petroleum Minister Sherif Ismail with forming a new Cabinet within a week.

Prior to handing in his resignation, Mehleb provided a report detailing the performance of the government, which two officials from the president's office said el-Sissi found "unsatisfying." The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief reporters.

Egypt's president is generally in charge of major affairs of state while the prime minister, whom he appoints, handles day-to-day running of the government. El-Sissi in recent months has had to perform tasks that normally should fall to Mehleb, such as arranging meetings with ministers and negotiating business deals with foreign investors, according to the two officials. Mehleb also failed to pressure his ministers into following through on memorandums of understanding that el-Sissi signed during a much-publicized economic summit in March, they said.

The country's private media, while lavishing praise on el-Sissi, have slammed the government in recent weeks, accusing ministers of incompetence and of being out of touch with ordinary citizens suffering from years of turmoil since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

"El-Sissi and the armed forces are responsible for the accomplishments we see," said Ibrahim Eissa, a prominent journalist and popular TV host, who called Mehleb and his Cabinet a "burden" on the president. "All of the ministers that failed were Mehleb's choices," Eissa told viewers earlier this week.

The government suffered a major blow when Agriculture Minister Salah el-Din Helal was detained Monday after tendering his resignation amid an investigation into allegations that he and others received over $1 million in bribes.

The Egyptian government has long been plagued by corruption allegations, particularly regarding land deals. El-Sissi routinely insists that he is rooting out corruption. Mehleb walked out of a press conference in Tunisia earlier this week after being asked about the allegations, a move widely ridiculed by the pro-Sissi private media.

"Didn't you watch el-Sissi's speeches?" television host Youssef el-Hosseiny said, before playing clips of the president's past press conferences for comparison. The corruption allegations have fed into the perception that the government is detached from the people and engaged in the sort of cronyism that was widespread in the Mubarak era and was a central grievance of the protesters who overthrew him.

Last week, the higher education minister reportedly tried to exempt the children of judges, army and police officers from unpopular regulations that restrict where Egyptians can attend university. In May, the justice minister suggested the children of sanitation workers could never aspire to be judges.

Mehleb, a former construction magnate and prominent member of Mubarak's now-defunct National Democratic Party, angered many in July when he suggested the country's youth consider driving auto-rickshaws, known as tok-toks, instead of counting on government employment.

El-Sissi has approved a new civil service law that many believe will dramatically reduce the country's 6 million-strong public workforce. There have been few public expressions of discontent with the government. A draconian law restricting protests, and a wide-ranging crackdown on supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi as well as secular activists, have largely silenced dissent.

The dismissal of the Cabinet could further bolster support for el-Sissi ahead of parliamentary elections later this year, furthering the image he has cultivated of himself as a leader who is above the political fray.

More Brotherhood members get life sentences

Monday, 31 August 2015

Nine more members of the Muslim Brotherhood have been sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Egypt, Anadolu has reported. In the same session, four other members of the movement were each sent to prison for four years.

Those convicted by the Criminal Court in Ismailiyah included a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Office, Mohamed Taha Wahdan, and the local spokesman for the movement in the city, Ali Abdullah, in addition to the main Brotherhood official in the governorate, Sabry Khalafallah.

All were arrested following the dispersal of a pro-democracy demonstration in December 2013. They were accused of attempting to undermine Egypt's security, public safety, taking part in an illegal demonstration and being affiliated with Egypt’s largest Islamic movement.

A source in Ismailiyah added that the Appeal Court had released a number of pro-Brotherhood individuals on bail.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/africa/20736-more-brotherhood-members-get-life-sentences.

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.

Murder charges against Egypt's Mubarak dismissed

November 30, 2014

CAIRO (AP) — A judge dismissed murder charges Saturday against former President Hosni Mubarak and acquitted his security chief over the killing of protesters during Egypt's 2011 uprising, crushing any hope of a judicial reckoning on behalf of the hundreds victims of the revolt that toppled him.

Yet instead of outrage, a largely muted initial reaction greeted the decision in an Egypt where unlicensed protests draw stiff prison terms and many remain fearful over their security four years after the nation's Arab Spring revolt.

Some 2,000 young people protested the verdict near Cairo's Tahrir Square, the birthplace of the 2011 uprising closed off Saturday by soldiers and police, though open a day earlier despite widespread fears of violent Islamist protests. They chanted against the military, whose former chief, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, is now the president.

"The people want to bring down the regime!" they shouted, using one of the chief slogans in the 18-day, anti-Mubarak uprising. In the evening, police broke up the gathering, firing water cannon and tear gas and driving protesters into side streets after supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood joined the protest. An Interior Ministry statement said that Brotherhood supporters pelted security forces with rocks and fought with the protesters.

Security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to brief reporters, said police arrested 29 people. A statement from the health ministry early Sunday said one person was killed and nine were injured in the clashes.

The dispersal of protesters contrasted with the jubilant well-wishers who greeted Mubarak after the decision when he returned to his temporary home at a Nile-side military hospital. He later triumphantly waved back to supporters from his hospital window.

A television interviewer reached him by telephone, asking whether he had ordered the killing. "I did not do anything at all," replied Mubarak, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2012 on charges related to the killing of protesters. The verdict was overturned on appeal the following year.

The monarch of close U.S. ally Bahrain, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, also called to congratulate Mubarak, according to the official news agency of the Gulf Arab island nation. Mubarak, who assumed Egypt's highest office in 1981 following the assassination of Anwar Sadat, has spent virtually all the time since he was detained in April 2011 in hospitals due to poor health. On Saturday, he came to the courtroom on a gurney, wearing dark glasses, a navy blue tie and a matching cardigan.

In his ruling, judge Mahmoud al-Rashidi cited the "inadmissibility" of the case against Mubarak due to a technicality. He said Mubarak's May 2011 referral to trial by prosecutors ignored the "implicit" decision that no criminal charges be filed against him when his security chief and six of his top aides were referred to trial by the same prosecutors two months earlier.

After the decision, Cairo resident Nermine Fathy simply asked: "Who killed the martyrs? I want to know who killed the martyrs." That question likely won't be answered in Egypt's courts. Already, nearly 170 police officers and security officials put on trial in connection to the killings have either been acquitted for lack of evidence or were found to have acted in self-defense. Some received short, suspended sentences.

The Mubarak trial, however, was concerned only with the killing of 239 protesters whose names were cited in charge documents, not the nearly 900 killed in total during the 18 days of the revolt. Saturday's ruling marks another major setback for the young activists who led the 2011 Egyptian uprising, many of whom are now in prison or have withdrawn from politics. It likely will reinforce the perception that Mubarak's autocratic state remains in place, albeit led by el-Sissi, the former military chief who later led the overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.

It concludes Mubarak's retrial along with his two sons, his security chief Habib el-Adly and six top security commanders, who were all acquitted. Also acquitted was wealthy businessman Hussein Salem, a longtime Mubarak friend tried in absentia.

Hossam Bahgat, a prominent human rights advocate, said Saturday's verdict would be used by the government to signal the end of the upheavals associated with the 2011 revolt. "The regime's message: It's time to look forward, time to move on, time to focus on building the nation. But I doubt this will work. It will deepen the grievance and feeling of injustice felt by many young people," Bahgat said by telephone from New York.

Mubarak was also acquitted of corruption charges that he faced along with his sons Alaa and Gamal — his one-time heir apparent — over the statute of limitations in the case running out. The case involves their purchase from Salem of luxury villas in a Red Sea resort at a vastly discounted price, something that the prosecution had said amounted to bribery. The two sons face a separate trial on charges of insider trading.

All the rulings can be appealed. It was not immediately clear whether Mubarak would now walk free since he is serving a three-year jail term for separate corruption charges he was convicted of in May. He has been in detention since April 2011, but it is unclear if the past 3 1/2 years will be treated as time served.

Al-Rashidi, the judge, said the dismissal of the charges did not absolve Mubarak of the corruption and "feebleness" of the latter years of his 29-year rule. The judge praised the 2011 uprising, saying that its goals — freedom, bread and social justice — were legitimate.

He also said Mubarak, like any other human, erred at times and suggested that his old age should have spared him a criminal trial. "To rule for or against him after he has become old will be left to history and the Judge of Judges, ... (God), who will question him about his rule," the judge said.

Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb and Merrit Kennedy contributed to this report.

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.