AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Egypt’s worrying rise in criminal blasphemy cases
June 11, 2013
Showing posts with label Bloggers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bloggers. Show all posts
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Egypt: Worrying rise in criminal blasphemy cases
Criminal “defamation of religion” charges must be dropped in a number of
cases across Egypt, Amnesty International said today after a teacher
was convicted for insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad in the
classroom.
During
the second hearing on 11 May, one of the lawyers allegedly asked the
judge to refer the case back to the prosecution to demand the
application of the death penalty. Some of those present to hear the
sentencing on 1 June reportedly complained that the punishment had been
too lenient.
Activist sentenced to jail for insulting dictator Morsi
Tunis Afrique Presse
Egypt: Activist Sentenced to Prison for Insulting Mursi
4 June 2013
Cairo — A high-profile Egyptian blogger and activist Ahmed Douma was sentenced to six months in jail on Monday for insulting President Mohamed Morsi and circulated false news on television.
Douma, who has been detained since 30 April, was convicted on a number of charges including insulting the president and circulating false news on a television programme.
He had called President Morsi a killer and a criminal, and said that he is wanted by the state.
The court found him guilty, saying that such acts would "undermine state security and terrorise people."
More than 100 of Ahmed Douma's supporters filled the courtroom in a Cairo suburb and chanted slogans against the Islamist president during the hearing.
"It's clear that the government is trying to threaten activists with these cases," said one of his lawyers, Ali Soliman.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
More face charges in escalating crackdown on dissent & free speech
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
More face charges in Egypt’s escalating free speech and dissent crackdown
April 3, 2013
Today’s charges against yet another comedian for ‘defaming religion’ are part of an alarming new escalation of politically-motivated judicial harassment and arrests, Amnesty International has said.
In a mounting crackdown on freedom of expression, up to 33 people have been targeted within the last two weeks, with arrests and charges.
Some have been charged with what seem to be politically motivated or trumped-up criminal charges. Others are charged with ‘insulting the President’ or ‘defamation’ of religion for actions that should not be criminalized as they merely amount to the peaceful exercise of freedom of expression.
“We are seeing arrests and charges for literally nothing more than cracking a few jokes. This is a truly alarming sign of the government’s increasing intolerance of any criticism whatsoever,” said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“There is no sign of this campaign of judicial harassment coming to an end. The government is seriously redoubling its efforts to stamp out freedom of expression.”
Those targeted have included the country’s most famous political satirist Bassem Youssef, opposition activists, bloggers, and a high profile opposition politician.
Today, stand-up comedian Ali Qandil was interrogated at the public prosecutor’s office on charges of ‘defamation of religion’ on Bassem Youssef’s satirical television show. Qandil denied insulting Islam, emphasizing that he poked fun at the exploitation of religion, rather than the religion itself. He was released on bail.
Some have been targeted for supposed crimes that occurred months ago, or in one case more than a year ago. Most have been released on bail but will remain under investigation.
“The government is trying to destroy freedom of expression when it should be protecting the peaceful dissent and political participation that brought it into power,” said Ann Harrison.
The charge sheets:
Bassem Youssef: ‘Egypt’s Jon Stewart’ and host of satirical show ‘Al-Bernameg’.
Turned himself in on 31 March after a warrant was issued for his arrest, and was released on bail for 15,000 Egyptian pounds.
The charges: A range of accusations that include “insulting the president” and “defamation of religion”. Investigations are ongoing.
The crime: Youssef’s show frequently pokes fun at the Egyptian authorities and the exploitation of religion for political ends. Most recently, he mocked President Morsi’s choice of graduation hat during a ceremony in Pakistan and his poor command of English.
Ali Qandil: Stand-up comedian.
Turned himself in for questioning on 3 April 2013 after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was released on bail after questioning.
The charges: Defamation of religion. Investigations are ongoing.
The crime: Qandli appeared on Bassem Youssef’s show and made jokes about the way in which religion is practised by some in Egypt, using the example of Friday prayers and the call to prayer.
Hamdi Al-Fakharany: Former parliamentarian and known opposition politician from Mahalla.
Known for exposing corruption during the era of former President Hosni Mubarak and for his political run-ins with the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamdi Al-Fakharany was arrested on 26 March 2013 and detained incommunicado for 36 hours. He has been released on bail for 50, 000 Egyptian pounds.
The charges: Inciting violence against the Muslim Brotherhood during protests commemorating the second anniversary of the ‘25 January Revolution’ in Mahalla, during which protesters criticized the President and ruling party.
The crime: Amnesty International fears that the case against Al-Fakharany may be politically motivated and is unaware of any evidence that he used or advocated violence. Additionally, no investigations have taken place into Hamdi Al-Fakharany’s complaint that he was beaten by supporters of the President during demonstrations against the Constitutional Declaration in November 2012.
Ahmed Anwar: Video blogger
Police officers went to his home to arrest him on 17 March 2013. He is due to face trial on 4 May.
The charges: “Insulting the Ministry of Interior”
The crime: Posting a video online making fun of police officers giving an award to an actress, calling them “the ministry of belly dancers.” The comical video, showing police officers dancing, criticizes police brutality and impunity for human rights abuses. The video was posted on his blog over a year ago, in March 2012.
Cairo activists
Trial proceedings have been initiated against 12 people, who are expected to appear in court on 9 May 2013. Among the accused are prominent activist and blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah, his sister Mona Seif Al Islam who launched the No to Military Trials initiative, and Ahmed Abdallah, a leading activist with the 6 April Youth Movement.
The charges: Charges relate to the burning of the headquarters of former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq in May 2012. Ahmed Shafiq has already publicly withdrawn his complaint about the fire. Alaa Abdel Fattah and four other opposition activists are also facing charges relating to protests at the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo on 22 March 2013.
The crime: Amnesty International fears the charges are politically motivated due to their opposition activism.
Alexandria activists
Lawyer and well-known opposition activist Mahinour Masri was among 13 people arrested on 29 March 2013 in the context of a sit-in by lawyers at an Alexandria police station. They were released the following day, but investigations are ongoing.
The charges: Insulting government employees on duty, insulting officials, and attempting to break into a police station.
The crime: Amnesty International believes that Mahinour Masri’s arrest and the charges she faces are trumped-up and politically motivated due to her opposition activism, her work to expose human rights violations, and her defence of victims.
*Photo courtesy of AFP/Getty Images
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Egypt: Crackdown against media reaches new lows
Committee to Protect Journalists
Sherif Mansour
The government of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi continues to escalate its offensive against journalists. Details of the most recent case, in which an arrest warrant was issued for blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah for inciting "aggression" against members of the Muslim Brotherhood, show how low the government is willing to go in order to silence its critics.
Abdel Fattah went voluntarily Tuesday to the office of Prosecutor General Talaat Abdullah after hearing about the warrant against him in the media. What followed was a mockery. According to his testimony, the questions he received were all about comments by others posted on his Twitter and Facebook accounts, not about things he said or did.
There was no evidence, witnesses, or even a sign of prior investigation by police. Their focus was on a Twitter mention of his user name by another Twitterer, going by the handle Princess Joumana. The naïve members of the Muslim Brotherhood who filed the complaint against Abdel Fattah apparently thought the interaction on social media was a conspiracy involving a real princess--possibly from a hostile government such as that of the United Arab Emirates, where Brotherhood members are being put on trial.
Furthermore, according to Abdel Fattah, there was never a need to issue an arrest warrant, since he was never asked, and never declined, to appear in front of the authorities for investigation. Even more astonishing, the arrest order came only three days after the complaints were presented to the Prosecutor General, while many other complaints and requests for investigation--including into attacks by members of the Muslim Brotherhood--have not been carried out.
Why the rush to investigate a Twitter mention while turning a blind eye to assaults and other human rights violations by Muslim Brothers and Egyptian police which have been documented and shown on TV?
The answer is clear. When your adversary is also the judge, a Twitter mention can become evidence. In his testimony, Abdel Fattah said he denounced the investigation and sought an independent judge to run it instead of the prosecutor general.
The latter, in Abdel Fattah's view, is allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, who initiated the complaint against him. Abdullah was appointed by Morsi in November in a power grab that resulted in a series of protests by the opposition and strikes within the judiciary.
Today, in fact, Egypt's Court of Appeals ruled that Morsi's sacking of Abdullah's predecessor was illegal and void, according to news reports, and the Egyptian Syndicate for Journalists announced that it would not cooperate with him.
Abdel Fattah is a well-known blogger who also refused to cooperate with a military court investigation against him last year for criticism of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which released him.
On Tuesday, hundreds of his friends, supporters, and volunteer lawyers accompanied him to the prosecutor general's office. The show of support forced prosecutors, once again, to release him without bail--but what happens to others in the Egyptian media who do not have his profile and support?
There are reports that the investigation against Abdel Fattah is one of dozens, and that other journalists critical of the Muslim Brotherhood will be next. Today, government newspaper Al-Ahram reported that Lamees al-Hadidy, Amro Adeeb, and Youssef al-Husseiny, who host three of the top talk shows on CBC, OnTV, and Orbit private TV channels, respectively, will be investigated for "violating journalist's ethics in order to incite sedition and chaos and threatening national peace."
Those in media are already coming under pressure from inflammatory, anti-press comments by Morsi and members of the Brotherhood, and now they can witness how the law is being abused and the justice system bent backwards in order to silence them.
As troubling as this is, it's perhaps more troubling that young activists who use social media to disseminate information and news about the Muslim Brotherhood are taking a direct hit. The government, in order to continue investigations and produce evidence, has decided to launch an Internet monitoring operation by those police who usually patrol the Internet for fraud and other online crimes.
There is a fear that this will be used to track activist down and violate their privacy. Today, local news reported that Essam Mohamed, a Facebook activist who runs an anti-Muslim Brotherhood page under a fake name, was arrested without charge in the industrial city of Mahalaa on a complaint to the public prosecutor that he, like Abdel Fattah, incited "aggression" against members of the Brotherhood.
*Photo by Mostafa Darwish, courtesy of the Associated Press
In Egypt, crackdown against media reaches new lows
March 28, 2013Sherif Mansour
The government of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi continues to escalate its offensive against journalists. Details of the most recent case, in which an arrest warrant was issued for blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah for inciting "aggression" against members of the Muslim Brotherhood, show how low the government is willing to go in order to silence its critics.
Abdel Fattah went voluntarily Tuesday to the office of Prosecutor General Talaat Abdullah after hearing about the warrant against him in the media. What followed was a mockery. According to his testimony, the questions he received were all about comments by others posted on his Twitter and Facebook accounts, not about things he said or did.
There was no evidence, witnesses, or even a sign of prior investigation by police. Their focus was on a Twitter mention of his user name by another Twitterer, going by the handle Princess Joumana. The naïve members of the Muslim Brotherhood who filed the complaint against Abdel Fattah apparently thought the interaction on social media was a conspiracy involving a real princess--possibly from a hostile government such as that of the United Arab Emirates, where Brotherhood members are being put on trial.
Furthermore, according to Abdel Fattah, there was never a need to issue an arrest warrant, since he was never asked, and never declined, to appear in front of the authorities for investigation. Even more astonishing, the arrest order came only three days after the complaints were presented to the Prosecutor General, while many other complaints and requests for investigation--including into attacks by members of the Muslim Brotherhood--have not been carried out.
Why the rush to investigate a Twitter mention while turning a blind eye to assaults and other human rights violations by Muslim Brothers and Egyptian police which have been documented and shown on TV?
The answer is clear. When your adversary is also the judge, a Twitter mention can become evidence. In his testimony, Abdel Fattah said he denounced the investigation and sought an independent judge to run it instead of the prosecutor general.
The latter, in Abdel Fattah's view, is allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, who initiated the complaint against him. Abdullah was appointed by Morsi in November in a power grab that resulted in a series of protests by the opposition and strikes within the judiciary.
Today, in fact, Egypt's Court of Appeals ruled that Morsi's sacking of Abdullah's predecessor was illegal and void, according to news reports, and the Egyptian Syndicate for Journalists announced that it would not cooperate with him.
Abdel Fattah is a well-known blogger who also refused to cooperate with a military court investigation against him last year for criticism of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which released him.
On Tuesday, hundreds of his friends, supporters, and volunteer lawyers accompanied him to the prosecutor general's office. The show of support forced prosecutors, once again, to release him without bail--but what happens to others in the Egyptian media who do not have his profile and support?
There are reports that the investigation against Abdel Fattah is one of dozens, and that other journalists critical of the Muslim Brotherhood will be next. Today, government newspaper Al-Ahram reported that Lamees al-Hadidy, Amro Adeeb, and Youssef al-Husseiny, who host three of the top talk shows on CBC, OnTV, and Orbit private TV channels, respectively, will be investigated for "violating journalist's ethics in order to incite sedition and chaos and threatening national peace."
Those in media are already coming under pressure from inflammatory, anti-press comments by Morsi and members of the Brotherhood, and now they can witness how the law is being abused and the justice system bent backwards in order to silence them.
As troubling as this is, it's perhaps more troubling that young activists who use social media to disseminate information and news about the Muslim Brotherhood are taking a direct hit. The government, in order to continue investigations and produce evidence, has decided to launch an Internet monitoring operation by those police who usually patrol the Internet for fraud and other online crimes.
There is a fear that this will be used to track activist down and violate their privacy. Today, local news reported that Essam Mohamed, a Facebook activist who runs an anti-Muslim Brotherhood page under a fake name, was arrested without charge in the industrial city of Mahalaa on a complaint to the public prosecutor that he, like Abdel Fattah, incited "aggression" against members of the Brotherhood.
*Photo by Mostafa Darwish, courtesy of the Associated Press
CPJ condemns Islamists' siege of Media Production City
Committee to Protect Journalists
CPJ condemns siege at Cairo's Media Production City
March 25, 2013
The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the violent siege on Sunday of the Media Production City, a complex housing numerous private news outlets in Cairo, an episode that followed a series of inflammatory anti-press comments by President Mohamed Morsi and members of the Muslim Brotherhood."President Morsi's escalated rhetoric against the critical press is deeply troubling," said Sherif Mansour, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa coordinator. "The president is not meeting his responsibility to set a tone of tolerance and respect for viewpoints that differ from his own and those of the Muslim Brotherhood."
An escalation in anti-press rhetoric by the president followed a week of violent protests outside the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in Cairo that reached a high point on Friday. In a speech Sunday, Morsi accused owners of private news outlets of criticizing and insulting him, and said the media had incited violence by covering only the attacks on protesters--and not those on Muslim Brotherhood members, news reports said.
Echoing those remarks, the Muslim Brotherhood used social networking sites to call for a siege on Sunday of the Media Production City in Cairo. A Facebook group, called "We are the Muslim Brotherhood youth, learn about us," encouraged protesters to besiege the studios of five private satellite channels--Al-Hayat, ONTV, Al-Nahar, Al-Qahira wal Nas, and CBC--located inside the Media Production City. The outlets are known for criticizing the Muslim Brotherhood group.
On Thursday, the National Security Committee--a part of the Egyptian upper house of parliament--accused the private media of biased coverage and said that the government should censor private outlets, according to news reports. An official in the meeting, Essam al-Erian, a Muslim Brotherhood majority leader, also threatened an Al-Watan correspondent, saying he had "surprises for them ... that would make everyone in the media know their limits," the paper reported.
On Sunday, members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood surrounded the Media Production City, closing the gates and refusing entrance to journalists and guests. Protesters assaulted journalists to prevent them from filming, and chanted threatening slogans to journalists inside the city, saying they would be slaughtered for their insults to Morsi, according to news reports.
Hussein Abdel Ghany, a prominent news host and a former correspondent of Al-Jazeera in Egypt, told CPJ that he was attacked by 10 individuals outside the city and the windshield of his car broken. He said protesters attempted to take him out of his car and beat him, but that his driver prevented the attack.
Reham al-Sahli, a host of the talk show "90 Minutes" was attacked and her car damaged in the protests, according to news reports. Diaa Rashwan, head of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, was prevented from entering Media Production City, reports said.
A journalist at Al-Ahram Weekly, Khaled Dawoud, told CPJ he had received death threats as a result of his writings and his role as a media spokesman for the National Salvation Front, an opposition organization that includes liberal and leftist parties. Muslim Brotherhood supporters claim that the organization provides a "political cover" for the violent protests against them.
"Authorities are prosecuting critics while ignoring numerous attacks against journalists last week alone," said Mansour. "The attacks that took place at the gates of Media Production City demand immediate judicial intervention."
Today, Egypt Prosecutor General Talaat Abdullah ordered the arrests of five activists and journalists after Muslim Brotherhood members accused them of inciting violence following Morsi's speech, according to news reports. The prosecutor also imposed a travel ban on them. The list includes Alaa Abdel Fattah, a prominent blogger who was accused and fined last year for "insulting the military," according to news reports.
Abdel Fattah vowed on his Facebook account to appear in front of the prosecutor tomorrow to challenge the "fabricated charges" against him, while others, including columnist and activist Hazim Abdel Azim, decided to ignore what they considered an "illegitimate" arrest warrant, according to news reports.
Abdullah was appointed by Morsi last November in a move that resulted in series of protests from the opposition and strikes within the judiciary. He has referred dozens of journalists and media professionals in the past few months for investigation by public prosecutors because of accusations of criminal defamation of President Morsi.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Blogger Aliaa el-Mahdy joins nude protest against Brotherhood constitution
International Business Times
Aliaa Magda Elmahdy Egypt's Naked Blogger Joins Femen Protest against Mursi Constitution
December 20, 2012
Gianluca Mezzofiore
Egypt's famous naked blogger Aliaa Magda Elmahdy has staged a nude demonstration along with members of the Femen radical feminist group against the planned Egyptian constitution.
Elmahdy, who last year caused a controversy across
the Arab world for posting nude pictures of herself online, posed naked
with "Sharia is not a constitution" painted on her body along with
other two Femen activists. The protest was held outside the Egyptian
embassy in Stockholm.
The blogger, 21, branded an Egyptian flag while her Ukrainian allies held banners stating "No religion" and "Religion is slavery".
Egypt has been riven by protests over the draft constitution, which President Mohammed Mursi wants enacted.
Rights activists, liberals and Christians fear that the draft will lead to restrictions on the rights of women and minorities. Among the most controversial articles, the draft says that the "principles of Islamic law" will be the basis of national law. However, this does not mean Egypt will adopt sharia law in its entirety, said some observers.
The blogger, 21, branded an Egyptian flag while her Ukrainian allies held banners stating "No religion" and "Religion is slavery".
Egypt has been riven by protests over the draft constitution, which President Mohammed Mursi wants enacted.
Rights activists, liberals and Christians fear that the draft will lead to restrictions on the rights of women and minorities. Among the most controversial articles, the draft says that the "principles of Islamic law" will be the basis of national law. However, this does not mean Egypt will adopt sharia law in its entirety, said some observers.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the main group aligned with Mursi, expects a big victory for the ratification of a referendum on the constitution.
Elmahdy, a former student at the American University of Cairo, made a name for herself with her naked blog postings that she said were a "scream against a society of violence, racism, sexism, sexual harassment and hypocrisy".
The hashtag #NudePhotoRevolutionary went viral after Ahmed Awadalla, who works in human rights, health, sexuality and gender, tweeted: "@3awadalla: A feminist #Jan25 revolutionary posted her nude photo on the internet to express her freedom. I'm totally taken aback by her bravery."
In her blog, Elmahdy said she published the pictures to protest against the ban on nude models in Egyptian universities and books.
"Put the models who worked at the Faculty of Fine Arts until the early 1970s on trial," she told her critics. "Hide art books and smash nude archaeological statues, then take your clothes off and look at yourselves in the mirror. Burn your self-despised bodies in order to get rid of your sexual complexes forever, before directing your sexist insults at me or denying me the freedom of expression," she said.
everydayrebellion.com presents: Aliaa Elmahdy & Femen protesting against Egyptian constitution by Mursi from Everyday Rebellion on Vimeo.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Egypt: Drop baseless charges against journalists & activists
Committee to Protect Journalists
Egyptian journalists accused of 'insulting armed forces'
March 9, 2012
New York, (CPJ) -- Egyptian authorities should immediately dismiss a baseless complaint of anti-state activities that has been lodged against several journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
The case has been referred to military prosecutors as part of a broader practice that has raised constitutional and international concerns.
The complaint names four current journalists among a number of other government critics, accusing them of "inciting the downfall of the state" and "insulting the armed forces," news reports said.
The complainant, a little-known figure named Mohamed Salah Zaghloul, has submitted numerous vague complaints against government critics over the past year, CPJ research shows. On Wednesday, public prosecutor Abdel Maguid Mahmoud referred the complaint to military prosecutors.
The reporters--Reem Maged and Yosri Fouda, who work for the privately owned satellite broadcaster ONTV, and bloggers Alaa Abd el-Fattah and Nawara Negm--have been repeatedly targeted by Egyptian authorities for harassment, CPJ research shows.
The journalists are among 12 prominent figures identified in the complaint; all have been critical of the ruling military council.
Egyptian authorities have not disclosed any formal charges as yet in connection with the new complaint.
The other individuals targeted in the complaint include presidential contender and veteran journalist Buthayna Kamel; novelist and opposition figure Alaa al-Aswany; Member of Parliament Zyad el-Elaimy; and activists and leading opposition figures Wael Ghonim, Asmaa Mahfouz, George Ishaq, Sameh Naguib, and Mamdouh Hamza.
They have also been subjected to sustained smear campaigns and baseless criminal complaints, CPJ research found.
The Military Justice Code states that civilians may be tried in a military court if the alleged offense involves military officers or was committed in an area under military jurisdiction.
The current military government has adopted an excessively broad interpretation of the code, effectively considering the entirety of the country to be under its jurisdiction, CPJ research shows.
In the past year, more than 12,000 civilians have been tried in military courts, where defendants have curtailed rights, the proceedings are opaque, and the prosecution must meet a lower burden of proof.
Human rights groups have found that the proceedings fail to meet the standards outlined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt is a signatory.
The constitutionality of the practice has been challenged in cases now before Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court, CPJ research shows.
"Authorities must end the practice of hauling critics before military prosecutors every time they disagree with something written or said," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. "This contrived complaint should be dismissed immediately."
The journalists have been harassed in the past by the military, its supporters, and its proxies, CPJ research shows. In May, the military summoned Maged for questioning, and Fouda, who has constantly faced pressure and censorship, twice took his show off the air in protest, in May and October.
Abd el-Fattah was detained for two months in late October after refusing to be interrogated by military prosecutors and still faces charges of "inciting violence against the military," among others. In January, Negm was physically assaulted by a mob believed to be made up of supporters of the military.
Dozens of journalists have been questioned by military prosecutors for being critical of the military's actions, CPJ research shows. Maikel Nabil Sanad, a critical blogger, was imprisoned for close to 10 months for "insulting the military" and stood trial in military courts.
Egyptian journalists accused of 'insulting armed forces'
March 9, 2012
New York, (CPJ) -- Egyptian authorities should immediately dismiss a baseless complaint of anti-state activities that has been lodged against several journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
The case has been referred to military prosecutors as part of a broader practice that has raised constitutional and international concerns.
The complaint names four current journalists among a number of other government critics, accusing them of "inciting the downfall of the state" and "insulting the armed forces," news reports said.
The complainant, a little-known figure named Mohamed Salah Zaghloul, has submitted numerous vague complaints against government critics over the past year, CPJ research shows. On Wednesday, public prosecutor Abdel Maguid Mahmoud referred the complaint to military prosecutors.
The reporters--Reem Maged and Yosri Fouda, who work for the privately owned satellite broadcaster ONTV, and bloggers Alaa Abd el-Fattah and Nawara Negm--have been repeatedly targeted by Egyptian authorities for harassment, CPJ research shows.
The journalists are among 12 prominent figures identified in the complaint; all have been critical of the ruling military council.
Egyptian authorities have not disclosed any formal charges as yet in connection with the new complaint.
The other individuals targeted in the complaint include presidential contender and veteran journalist Buthayna Kamel; novelist and opposition figure Alaa al-Aswany; Member of Parliament Zyad el-Elaimy; and activists and leading opposition figures Wael Ghonim, Asmaa Mahfouz, George Ishaq, Sameh Naguib, and Mamdouh Hamza.
They have also been subjected to sustained smear campaigns and baseless criminal complaints, CPJ research found.
The Military Justice Code states that civilians may be tried in a military court if the alleged offense involves military officers or was committed in an area under military jurisdiction.
The current military government has adopted an excessively broad interpretation of the code, effectively considering the entirety of the country to be under its jurisdiction, CPJ research shows.
In the past year, more than 12,000 civilians have been tried in military courts, where defendants have curtailed rights, the proceedings are opaque, and the prosecution must meet a lower burden of proof.
Human rights groups have found that the proceedings fail to meet the standards outlined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt is a signatory.
The constitutionality of the practice has been challenged in cases now before Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court, CPJ research shows.
"Authorities must end the practice of hauling critics before military prosecutors every time they disagree with something written or said," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. "This contrived complaint should be dismissed immediately."
The journalists have been harassed in the past by the military, its supporters, and its proxies, CPJ research shows. In May, the military summoned Maged for questioning, and Fouda, who has constantly faced pressure and censorship, twice took his show off the air in protest, in May and October.
Abd el-Fattah was detained for two months in late October after refusing to be interrogated by military prosecutors and still faces charges of "inciting violence against the military," among others. In January, Negm was physically assaulted by a mob believed to be made up of supporters of the military.
Dozens of journalists have been questioned by military prosecutors for being critical of the military's actions, CPJ research shows. Maikel Nabil Sanad, a critical blogger, was imprisoned for close to 10 months for "insulting the military" and stood trial in military courts.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Year of attacks on free expression in Egypt
Ahram Online
A year of attacks on free expression in Egypt: The full HRW report
International rights organisation, Human Rights Watch releases a report on violations of freedom of expression in post-revolution Egypt. Below is the full text of the report and related communique
February 12, 2012
HALT ASSAULTS ON JOURNALISTS: REPEAL LAWS THAT CURB SPEECH
(New York, February 11, 2012) – The climate for free expression in Egypt has worsened since Hosni Mubarak was ousted a year ago, Human Rights Watch said today. Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) should act to end assaults on journalists by security forces. It should cease prosecutions based on laws violating media freedoms, and the country’s newly elected parliament should promptly repeal those laws.
In one recent example, a Cairo misdemeanor court on December 26, 2011, sentenced a democracy activist, Gaber Elsayed Gaber, to a year in prison for handing out leaflets at a public rally in Cairo. Security forces have engaged in brutal beatings and used excessive force against demonstrators in Cairo and tried to stop journalists from reporting on them. Actions like these were hallmarks of Mubarak’s 30-year rule, but they also have been used repeatedly in the year since the SCAF assumed control on February 11, 2011, Human Rights Watch said.
“The past year has seen a disturbing assault on free expression,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Not only are direct critics of the military under physical and legal threat, but so are those who deliver these critical voices to the public.”
Violations of the right to freedom of expression have included military trials of protesters and bloggers, interrogations of journalists and activists for criticizing the military, the suspension of new satellite television licenses, and the closure of an outlet of Al Jazeera television. In two high-profile cases, the telecommunications entrepreneur Naguib Sawiris and the veteran film comedian Adel Imam have faced charges of insulting religion under vague and arbitrary laws dating from the Mubarak administration.
Human Rights Watch has documented a number of assaults on journalists by security forces during demonstrations and destruction of news media property since the SCAF took power. These efforts to hinder broadcasts of demonstrations follow several months of efforts to curb activities of independent media outlets.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reported 50 assaults on and detentions of journalists in November and December alone – actions that “are effectively censoring coverage of ongoing protests in Cairo.” Reporters Without Borders ranked Egypt 166th in its press freedom index in 2011, a steep decline from 127th in 2010, because “the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ... dashed the hopes of democrats by continuing the Mubarak dictatorship’s practices.”
State security forces have also used excessive and sometimes deadly force to break up a series of demonstrations and sit-ins in which people were trying to exercise their rights to free speech and assembly.
“The SCAF seems to be unjustly prosecuting journalists to obscure repeated brutality against the media by security forces,” Stork said.
The Mubarak government frequently used overly broad provisions in the penal code to crack down on criticism of the government’s human rights record or the political situation. In the past year, editors, opposition leaders, and activists have been tried in both military and civilian courts for “insulting the authorities or “insulting public institutions.”
Prosecutors have relied on existing vague and arbitrary laws still in force under SCAF rule to punish journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens who dare criticize the role of the military. In some cases, people have been prosecuted for making jokes. The new parliament should act decisively to eliminate laws which infringe upon the right to free speech, Human Rights Watch said.
“Sentencing Egyptians to jail for making jokes violates free speech and makes a mockery of justice,” said Stork. “These cases send a chilling message to critics of the military rulers and supporters of democratic reform that they cannot express themselves freely.”
DETENTIONS, BEATINGS OF JOURNALISTS & BROADCAST DISRUPTIONS
Human Rights Watch interviewed three journalists who said they had been detained and beaten by security forces in November and December 2011 and one in February 2012. In all cases, they said, security officers knew their profession. In addition, two representatives of broadcast companies told Human Rights Watch that police and soldiers destroyed broadcast and photographic equipment, confiscated TV cameras filming from a private home, and threatened a camera crew for taking images of military officers beating male and female protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in December.
On February 4, Central Security Forces agents detained and beat Mostafa Alaa El Din, a reporter and photographer for RASD News Network, an online publication, El Din told Human Rights Watch. He said that the CSF police permitted him to cross their lines near the Interior Ministry during unrest to inquire after a colleague who had been detained earlier. He spoke to a major in the military and told him where he worked. The officer took his camera away and escorted him to El Din’s colleague Mohammed Gaudet.
When El Din tried to phone his superiors, the major took and broke his mobile phone and beat him and Gaudet with a teargas launcher, El Din said. Lower ranking police joined, striking El Din and Gaudet with sticks. They were set free after running a gauntlet of stick-wielding police in the street.
El Din asked for his camera back, but the police did not return it.
On December 17, military forces beat Hassan Shahine, an editor with the independent Al Badil newspaper, after he came to the aid of a woman stripped, beaten, and stomped on by uniformed men, Shahine told Human Rights Watch. He said that the uniformed men then attacked him with clubs, fists, and boots, even as he pleaded for them to stop, saying he was a journalist. He suffered bruises and abrasions to the body and face.
Foreign journalists were also assaulted. Security forces arrested Evan Hill, an online producer for Al Jazeera, on December 16 while he was covering unrest in central Cairo. They beat him and detained him for hours, he told Human Rights Watch.
“Soldiers & men in plain clothes beat me with batons, wooden sticks & once with a crowbar before I was taken inside,” he tweeted that day.
In a published account of his detention at the cabinet office building in Cairo by uniformed soldiers on December 17, 2011, Joseph Mayton, editor of the online newspaper Bikya Masr, wrote, “I was taken in a headlock, lifted off my feet and dragged into the courtyard area, where the grip on my neck increased. I was slapped in the face numerous times and hit on the back.” The soldiers deleted material from his computer and took a memory card from his camera before handing both back, he wrote. He was kept in custody for 10 hours.
Physical attacks were not limited to Cairo. Men in civilian clothing accompanying the police attacked Mohammed Said Shehata, a photojournalist for Akhbar Al Hayat newspaper, on November 19 as he was snapping shots – with police permission – of unrest near Central Security Forces headquarters in Alexandria, Egypt’s second largest city, he told Human Rights Watch.
When Shehata started to photograph the beating of a young boy by plainclothes assailants, they turned on him and hustled him into the police station, where police repeatedly hit him and confiscated his camera. Shehata told Human Rights Watch that in December, the Alexandria branch of the Journalists Syndicate filed a complaint to the public prosecutor about his beating and beatings of three other reporters. As of February 1, he had heard nothing about an investigation or charges being brought.
During periods of unrest, security forces have raided premises to try to cut off broadcasts. On December 17, while a crew from the Cairo News Company (CBC) on the eighth floor of the Ismailia Hotel on Tahrir Square filmed a woman being beaten by security forces on the street below, a uniformed soldier on the street motioned to plainclothes bystanders, apparently telling them to go to the hotel and clear out journalists, said Nader Gohar, who owns CBC. The film crew fled their eighth floor outpost after hearing that the plainclothes men were on the way.
The plainclothes men burst through the eighth floor room where the crew had been working and tossed a camera, boxes of broadcast gear and cables, along with transmission equipment, over the balcony, hitting a sweet potato roaster on wheels and setting it on fire. The equipment losses totaled $120,000, Gohar told Human Rights Watch. Two days later, a military officer phoned Gohar and asked him to send someone to get a mobile phone and computer taken from the eighth floor room.
“They said army people don’t steal,” Gohar recalled.
Minutes after CBC+2 broadcast live images of police beating a prone protestor on Kasr al-Aini Street, a group of five men in civilian clothes entered the crews’ ninth floor quarters in another building on Tahrir Square, said Mohammed Hani, the managing director. The men told the crew to stop broadcasting or they would destroy the equipment. The crew stopped for two hours and then began to broadcast again. Hani told Human Rights Watch he did not know whether the men were police, soldiers, or civilians.
Around November 17, uniformed soldiers entered the apartment home of Pierre Sioufi, who is not a journalist, but where journalists using two cameras were photographing Tahrir Square. The soldiers first broke down a door leading to the rooftop and then asked Sioufi if there were any cameras in his apartment. Sioufi let one of the soldiers enter and he took away the journalists’ cameras, Sioufi told Human Rights Watch.
CURBING ACTIVITIES OF INDEPENDENT MEDIA OUTLETS
On September 9, then-Information Minister Osama Heikal announced that the government would grant no new satellite television broadcast licenses. Two days later, security forces raided the offices of Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr in Cairo, suspending its operations. Mubasher maintains a bureau in Cairo but currently broadcasts from Qatar, the home base of its mother channel Al Jazeera.
On September 12, Heikal told the official Middle East News Agency that “it was unacceptable for channels to use equipment for real time coverage of events without receiving state permission,” and that Al Jazeera Mubasher had committed several violations.
Soldiers and police raided and shut down two television channels – TV25 and US government-funded Al Hurra – the night of October 9, as they broadcast a violent military assault on demonstrators protesting the burning of a Christian church in Upper Egypt.
PROSECUTIONS FOR EXERCISING RIGHT TO FREE EXPRESSION
On December 26, a Cairo district misdemeanor court sentenced Gaber Elsayed Gaber to one year in prison with labor for distributing, according to the court’s written decision, “publications that disturbed public security and drove a wedge between the Egyptian people and the Egyptian army and harmed the reputation of the Egyptian ruling military council.” A group of men in civilian clothes detained him at a pro-SCAF rally in the Abbassiya district of Cairo on December 23 and turned him over to police as he was distributing a pamphlet critical of SCAF and calling for the continuation of the Egyptian revolution, said the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, whose lawyers are defending him and appealing the verdict.
On January 25, the SCAF released Maikel Nabil, a blogger, from prison after almost 10 months of incarceration. A military court had sentenced him in April to three years in prison for “insulting the military establishment,” under article 184 of the penal code, and “spreading false information,” under article 102. In December, the military court reduced the sentence to two years. The SCAF pardoned him and more than 1,900 prisoners on the eve of the first anniversary of the anti-Mubarak uprising.
Nabil, in a video message after his release, rejected the notion that a pardon was adequate, given that he should not have been tried, convicted, and imprisoned in the first place.
“All charges against those implicated for expressing an opinion must be revoked,” he said at a news conference in Cairo on January 28.
On August 13, Asmaa Mahfouz, a former leading member of the anti-SCAF April 6 Youth Movement, received a summons to appear before the military prosecutor the next day for questioning. The military prosecutor questioned her for over three hours about her comments on Twitter and media interviews during protests on July 23 in which she criticized the military for failing to intervene to protect protesters.
On August 16, Egypt’s official news agency, MENA, quoted a military justice official saying the prosecutor had decided to refer Mahfouz’s case to court on charges of insulting the military, dropping the other charges. Mahfouz told Human Rights Watch that the charges against her were withdrawn on August 18.
PROSECUTIONS UNDER LAWS ON RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION
On February 1, a Cairo misdemeanor court sentenced Adel Imam, a well known veteran film and stage comedian, to three months in jail and a fine of 1,000 Egyptian pounds ($166) for contempt of religion in several movies he has made in recent years. In the films, among a wide variety of subjects, he satirizes pious people and Islamist terrorists. The judge did not make clear what law was violated; a full verdict was not shown to defense lawyers on the day of the ruling, Imam’s lawyer, Safwat Hussein, said he went to court the morning of February 2 to inquire, but the judge did not permit him to photocopy the case file.
Adel Imam told Human Rights Watch he knew nothing of the verdict until a note appeared in two Cairo newspapers the evening of February 1. Such suits had been filed against him during the Mubarak era, but none came to anything, he said.
Naguib Sawiris, a prominent businessman and founder of the secular liberal Free Egyptians Party, is on trial for contempt of religion under article 98(f) of the penal code, which punishes “whoever exploits religion in order to promote extremist ideologies by word of mouth or in any other manner, with a view to stirring up sedition, disparaging or contempt of any divine religion or its adherents, or prejudicing national unity.” Last June, he tweeted cartoons of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse in pious Islamic garb.
If found guilty, Sawiris can be punished “with imprisonment between six months and five years or by paying a fine of at least 500 Egyptian pounds.” The first hearing, scheduled for January 14, was postponed until February 11. Sawiris’ lawyer, Naguib Gobraiel, told Human Rights Watch he considers the charges an attack aimed both at Sawiris as a politician and as a Coptic Christian, a minority in Egypt.
“Muslim politicians consider him a strong political rival and think that if they get rid of him, they also get rid of the Copts,” he said.
LAWS INHIBITING FREE SPEECH
Egypt’s penal code includes numerous provisions that violate international law by providing criminal penalties of imprisonment for “insulting” public officials and institutions, including the president (article 179), public officials (article 185), “foreign kings or heads of state” (article 180), and foreign diplomats (article 182).
The United Nations Human Rights Committee, the expert body that provides authoritative interpretations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt is a party, states in General Comment No. 34, on Article 19 on Freedom of Expression, that “States parties should not prohibit criticism of institutions, such as the army or the administration.”
By this standard, article 184 of the Egyptian penal code, which criminalizes “insulting the People’s Assembly, the Shura Council or any State Authority, or the Army or the Courts,” is incompatible with international law and should be amended accordingly, Human Rights Watch said.
General Comment No. 34 continues: “The mere fact that forms of expression are considered to be insulting to a public figure is not sufficient to justify the imposition of penalties, albeit public figures may also benefit from the provisions of the Covenant. Moreover, all public figures, including those exercising the highest political authority such as heads of state and government, are legitimately subject to criticism and political opposition.”
Laws that criminalize “contempt” of religion or religious groupings are incompatible with norms of freedom of expression, the Human Rights Committee said. General Comment No. 34 notes that it is impermissible for “prohibitions of displays of lack of respect for a religion or other belief system, including blasphemy laws…to be used to prevent or punish criticism of religious leaders or commentary on religious doctrine and tenets of faith.”
A year of attacks on free expression in Egypt: The full HRW report
International rights organisation, Human Rights Watch releases a report on violations of freedom of expression in post-revolution Egypt. Below is the full text of the report and related communique
February 12, 2012
HALT ASSAULTS ON JOURNALISTS: REPEAL LAWS THAT CURB SPEECH
(New York, February 11, 2012) – The climate for free expression in Egypt has worsened since Hosni Mubarak was ousted a year ago, Human Rights Watch said today. Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) should act to end assaults on journalists by security forces. It should cease prosecutions based on laws violating media freedoms, and the country’s newly elected parliament should promptly repeal those laws.
In one recent example, a Cairo misdemeanor court on December 26, 2011, sentenced a democracy activist, Gaber Elsayed Gaber, to a year in prison for handing out leaflets at a public rally in Cairo. Security forces have engaged in brutal beatings and used excessive force against demonstrators in Cairo and tried to stop journalists from reporting on them. Actions like these were hallmarks of Mubarak’s 30-year rule, but they also have been used repeatedly in the year since the SCAF assumed control on February 11, 2011, Human Rights Watch said.
“The past year has seen a disturbing assault on free expression,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Not only are direct critics of the military under physical and legal threat, but so are those who deliver these critical voices to the public.”
Violations of the right to freedom of expression have included military trials of protesters and bloggers, interrogations of journalists and activists for criticizing the military, the suspension of new satellite television licenses, and the closure of an outlet of Al Jazeera television. In two high-profile cases, the telecommunications entrepreneur Naguib Sawiris and the veteran film comedian Adel Imam have faced charges of insulting religion under vague and arbitrary laws dating from the Mubarak administration.
Human Rights Watch has documented a number of assaults on journalists by security forces during demonstrations and destruction of news media property since the SCAF took power. These efforts to hinder broadcasts of demonstrations follow several months of efforts to curb activities of independent media outlets.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reported 50 assaults on and detentions of journalists in November and December alone – actions that “are effectively censoring coverage of ongoing protests in Cairo.” Reporters Without Borders ranked Egypt 166th in its press freedom index in 2011, a steep decline from 127th in 2010, because “the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ... dashed the hopes of democrats by continuing the Mubarak dictatorship’s practices.”
State security forces have also used excessive and sometimes deadly force to break up a series of demonstrations and sit-ins in which people were trying to exercise their rights to free speech and assembly.
“The SCAF seems to be unjustly prosecuting journalists to obscure repeated brutality against the media by security forces,” Stork said.
The Mubarak government frequently used overly broad provisions in the penal code to crack down on criticism of the government’s human rights record or the political situation. In the past year, editors, opposition leaders, and activists have been tried in both military and civilian courts for “insulting the authorities or “insulting public institutions.”
Prosecutors have relied on existing vague and arbitrary laws still in force under SCAF rule to punish journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens who dare criticize the role of the military. In some cases, people have been prosecuted for making jokes. The new parliament should act decisively to eliminate laws which infringe upon the right to free speech, Human Rights Watch said.
“Sentencing Egyptians to jail for making jokes violates free speech and makes a mockery of justice,” said Stork. “These cases send a chilling message to critics of the military rulers and supporters of democratic reform that they cannot express themselves freely.”
DETENTIONS, BEATINGS OF JOURNALISTS & BROADCAST DISRUPTIONS
Human Rights Watch interviewed three journalists who said they had been detained and beaten by security forces in November and December 2011 and one in February 2012. In all cases, they said, security officers knew their profession. In addition, two representatives of broadcast companies told Human Rights Watch that police and soldiers destroyed broadcast and photographic equipment, confiscated TV cameras filming from a private home, and threatened a camera crew for taking images of military officers beating male and female protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in December.
On February 4, Central Security Forces agents detained and beat Mostafa Alaa El Din, a reporter and photographer for RASD News Network, an online publication, El Din told Human Rights Watch. He said that the CSF police permitted him to cross their lines near the Interior Ministry during unrest to inquire after a colleague who had been detained earlier. He spoke to a major in the military and told him where he worked. The officer took his camera away and escorted him to El Din’s colleague Mohammed Gaudet.
When El Din tried to phone his superiors, the major took and broke his mobile phone and beat him and Gaudet with a teargas launcher, El Din said. Lower ranking police joined, striking El Din and Gaudet with sticks. They were set free after running a gauntlet of stick-wielding police in the street.
El Din asked for his camera back, but the police did not return it.
On December 17, military forces beat Hassan Shahine, an editor with the independent Al Badil newspaper, after he came to the aid of a woman stripped, beaten, and stomped on by uniformed men, Shahine told Human Rights Watch. He said that the uniformed men then attacked him with clubs, fists, and boots, even as he pleaded for them to stop, saying he was a journalist. He suffered bruises and abrasions to the body and face.
Foreign journalists were also assaulted. Security forces arrested Evan Hill, an online producer for Al Jazeera, on December 16 while he was covering unrest in central Cairo. They beat him and detained him for hours, he told Human Rights Watch.
“Soldiers & men in plain clothes beat me with batons, wooden sticks & once with a crowbar before I was taken inside,” he tweeted that day.
In a published account of his detention at the cabinet office building in Cairo by uniformed soldiers on December 17, 2011, Joseph Mayton, editor of the online newspaper Bikya Masr, wrote, “I was taken in a headlock, lifted off my feet and dragged into the courtyard area, where the grip on my neck increased. I was slapped in the face numerous times and hit on the back.” The soldiers deleted material from his computer and took a memory card from his camera before handing both back, he wrote. He was kept in custody for 10 hours.
Physical attacks were not limited to Cairo. Men in civilian clothing accompanying the police attacked Mohammed Said Shehata, a photojournalist for Akhbar Al Hayat newspaper, on November 19 as he was snapping shots – with police permission – of unrest near Central Security Forces headquarters in Alexandria, Egypt’s second largest city, he told Human Rights Watch.
When Shehata started to photograph the beating of a young boy by plainclothes assailants, they turned on him and hustled him into the police station, where police repeatedly hit him and confiscated his camera. Shehata told Human Rights Watch that in December, the Alexandria branch of the Journalists Syndicate filed a complaint to the public prosecutor about his beating and beatings of three other reporters. As of February 1, he had heard nothing about an investigation or charges being brought.
During periods of unrest, security forces have raided premises to try to cut off broadcasts. On December 17, while a crew from the Cairo News Company (CBC) on the eighth floor of the Ismailia Hotel on Tahrir Square filmed a woman being beaten by security forces on the street below, a uniformed soldier on the street motioned to plainclothes bystanders, apparently telling them to go to the hotel and clear out journalists, said Nader Gohar, who owns CBC. The film crew fled their eighth floor outpost after hearing that the plainclothes men were on the way.
The plainclothes men burst through the eighth floor room where the crew had been working and tossed a camera, boxes of broadcast gear and cables, along with transmission equipment, over the balcony, hitting a sweet potato roaster on wheels and setting it on fire. The equipment losses totaled $120,000, Gohar told Human Rights Watch. Two days later, a military officer phoned Gohar and asked him to send someone to get a mobile phone and computer taken from the eighth floor room.
“They said army people don’t steal,” Gohar recalled.
Minutes after CBC+2 broadcast live images of police beating a prone protestor on Kasr al-Aini Street, a group of five men in civilian clothes entered the crews’ ninth floor quarters in another building on Tahrir Square, said Mohammed Hani, the managing director. The men told the crew to stop broadcasting or they would destroy the equipment. The crew stopped for two hours and then began to broadcast again. Hani told Human Rights Watch he did not know whether the men were police, soldiers, or civilians.
Around November 17, uniformed soldiers entered the apartment home of Pierre Sioufi, who is not a journalist, but where journalists using two cameras were photographing Tahrir Square. The soldiers first broke down a door leading to the rooftop and then asked Sioufi if there were any cameras in his apartment. Sioufi let one of the soldiers enter and he took away the journalists’ cameras, Sioufi told Human Rights Watch.
CURBING ACTIVITIES OF INDEPENDENT MEDIA OUTLETS
On September 9, then-Information Minister Osama Heikal announced that the government would grant no new satellite television broadcast licenses. Two days later, security forces raided the offices of Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr in Cairo, suspending its operations. Mubasher maintains a bureau in Cairo but currently broadcasts from Qatar, the home base of its mother channel Al Jazeera.
On September 12, Heikal told the official Middle East News Agency that “it was unacceptable for channels to use equipment for real time coverage of events without receiving state permission,” and that Al Jazeera Mubasher had committed several violations.
Soldiers and police raided and shut down two television channels – TV25 and US government-funded Al Hurra – the night of October 9, as they broadcast a violent military assault on demonstrators protesting the burning of a Christian church in Upper Egypt.
PROSECUTIONS FOR EXERCISING RIGHT TO FREE EXPRESSION
On December 26, a Cairo district misdemeanor court sentenced Gaber Elsayed Gaber to one year in prison with labor for distributing, according to the court’s written decision, “publications that disturbed public security and drove a wedge between the Egyptian people and the Egyptian army and harmed the reputation of the Egyptian ruling military council.” A group of men in civilian clothes detained him at a pro-SCAF rally in the Abbassiya district of Cairo on December 23 and turned him over to police as he was distributing a pamphlet critical of SCAF and calling for the continuation of the Egyptian revolution, said the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, whose lawyers are defending him and appealing the verdict.
On January 25, the SCAF released Maikel Nabil, a blogger, from prison after almost 10 months of incarceration. A military court had sentenced him in April to three years in prison for “insulting the military establishment,” under article 184 of the penal code, and “spreading false information,” under article 102. In December, the military court reduced the sentence to two years. The SCAF pardoned him and more than 1,900 prisoners on the eve of the first anniversary of the anti-Mubarak uprising.
Nabil, in a video message after his release, rejected the notion that a pardon was adequate, given that he should not have been tried, convicted, and imprisoned in the first place.
“All charges against those implicated for expressing an opinion must be revoked,” he said at a news conference in Cairo on January 28.
On August 13, Asmaa Mahfouz, a former leading member of the anti-SCAF April 6 Youth Movement, received a summons to appear before the military prosecutor the next day for questioning. The military prosecutor questioned her for over three hours about her comments on Twitter and media interviews during protests on July 23 in which she criticized the military for failing to intervene to protect protesters.
On August 16, Egypt’s official news agency, MENA, quoted a military justice official saying the prosecutor had decided to refer Mahfouz’s case to court on charges of insulting the military, dropping the other charges. Mahfouz told Human Rights Watch that the charges against her were withdrawn on August 18.
PROSECUTIONS UNDER LAWS ON RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION
On February 1, a Cairo misdemeanor court sentenced Adel Imam, a well known veteran film and stage comedian, to three months in jail and a fine of 1,000 Egyptian pounds ($166) for contempt of religion in several movies he has made in recent years. In the films, among a wide variety of subjects, he satirizes pious people and Islamist terrorists. The judge did not make clear what law was violated; a full verdict was not shown to defense lawyers on the day of the ruling, Imam’s lawyer, Safwat Hussein, said he went to court the morning of February 2 to inquire, but the judge did not permit him to photocopy the case file.
Adel Imam told Human Rights Watch he knew nothing of the verdict until a note appeared in two Cairo newspapers the evening of February 1. Such suits had been filed against him during the Mubarak era, but none came to anything, he said.
Naguib Sawiris, a prominent businessman and founder of the secular liberal Free Egyptians Party, is on trial for contempt of religion under article 98(f) of the penal code, which punishes “whoever exploits religion in order to promote extremist ideologies by word of mouth or in any other manner, with a view to stirring up sedition, disparaging or contempt of any divine religion or its adherents, or prejudicing national unity.” Last June, he tweeted cartoons of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse in pious Islamic garb.
If found guilty, Sawiris can be punished “with imprisonment between six months and five years or by paying a fine of at least 500 Egyptian pounds.” The first hearing, scheduled for January 14, was postponed until February 11. Sawiris’ lawyer, Naguib Gobraiel, told Human Rights Watch he considers the charges an attack aimed both at Sawiris as a politician and as a Coptic Christian, a minority in Egypt.
“Muslim politicians consider him a strong political rival and think that if they get rid of him, they also get rid of the Copts,” he said.
LAWS INHIBITING FREE SPEECH
Egypt’s penal code includes numerous provisions that violate international law by providing criminal penalties of imprisonment for “insulting” public officials and institutions, including the president (article 179), public officials (article 185), “foreign kings or heads of state” (article 180), and foreign diplomats (article 182).
The United Nations Human Rights Committee, the expert body that provides authoritative interpretations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt is a party, states in General Comment No. 34, on Article 19 on Freedom of Expression, that “States parties should not prohibit criticism of institutions, such as the army or the administration.”
By this standard, article 184 of the Egyptian penal code, which criminalizes “insulting the People’s Assembly, the Shura Council or any State Authority, or the Army or the Courts,” is incompatible with international law and should be amended accordingly, Human Rights Watch said.
General Comment No. 34 continues: “The mere fact that forms of expression are considered to be insulting to a public figure is not sufficient to justify the imposition of penalties, albeit public figures may also benefit from the provisions of the Covenant. Moreover, all public figures, including those exercising the highest political authority such as heads of state and government, are legitimately subject to criticism and political opposition.”
Laws that criminalize “contempt” of religion or religious groupings are incompatible with norms of freedom of expression, the Human Rights Committee said. General Comment No. 34 notes that it is impermissible for “prohibitions of displays of lack of respect for a religion or other belief system, including blasphemy laws…to be used to prevent or punish criticism of religious leaders or commentary on religious doctrine and tenets of faith.”
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Israeli students to get $2,000 to spread propaganda
Electronic Intifada
Israeli students to get $2,000 to spread state propaganda on Facebook
Wed, 01/04/2012
Ali Abunimah
The National Union of Israeli Students (NUIS) has become a full-time partner in the Israeli government’s efforts to spread its propaganda online and on college campuses around the world.
NUIS has launched a program to pay Israeli university students $2,000 to spread pro-Israel propaganda online for 5 hours per week from the “comfort of home.”
The union is also partnering with Israel’s Jewish Agency to send Israeli students as missionaries to spread propaganda in other countries, for which they will also receive a stipend.
This active recruitment of Israeli students is part of Israel’s orchestrated effort to suppress the Palestinian solidarity movement under the guise of combating “delegitimization” of Israel and anti-Semitism.
The involvement of the official Israeli student union as well as Haifa University, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University and Sapir College in these state propaganda programs will likely bolster Palestinian calls for the international boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
PAYING STUDENTS TO SPREAD ISRAELI PROPAGANDA ONLINE
This is our opportunity, as Israeli students, to provide hasbara [state propaganda] that is correct and balanced, to help in the struggle against the delegitimization of the State of Israel and against hatred of Jews in the world.
That is one of the exhortations in a Hebrew document issued by NUIS, and translated by The Electronic Intifada, inviting Israeli students to apply for a program to help spread Israel’s message.
The project seeks to take advantage of the fact that “Many students in Israel master the Internet and are proficient at using the Internet and social networking and various sites and are required to write and express themselves in English.”
The paid scholarship will allow them to get training and then work from home for five hours per week for a year to “refute” what it calls “misinformation” about Israel on social networking sites.
Among the stated goals of the scholarships is “to deepen and expand hasbara activities of students in the State of Israel.” The document explains:
The Internet allows uncontrolled access to content from marginal groups and therefore can influence many audiences who are exposed to such information, particularly young people who are more easily influenced.
The Internet, then, is used as a major tool for the dissemination of anti-Semitism, hatred of Israel and of Jews and thus the Internet is also the place to battle against such sites, pull the ground from under them and to provide reliable and balanced information.
WORK FROM THE "COMFORT OF HOME"
The NUIS program document explains:
After training, the student will begin his activities. The student will do the activities in the comfort of his home, where every week he will be obligated to about 5 hours of activities for a period of one calendar year (not academic year). Students will be paid a total of NIS 7,500 [$2,000] to perform the tasks of the project, at least 5 hours weekly for a total of 240 hours of activities under the project umbrella.
What is completely missing from the program is any indication that criticism of Israel could be valid. Rather the National Union of Israeli Students apparently seeks to indoctrinate Israeli students that every criticism of Israel is “hate” and “anti-Semitism” and that the Internet should be seen as a battlefield on which they are foot soldiers.
USING E-LEARNING TOOLS FOR GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA
An interesting aspect of the NUIS program is that it uses the common open source virtual learning environment Moodle as its interface with program participants. This interface can be found at students.digitalchange.co.il.
Whereas Moodle was designed for education – to spread mind-opening learning beyond the constraints of geography – the Israeli innovation here is to use it for mind-narrowing propaganda: getting students to be uncritical, to not think for themselves, but rather to spread Israel’s state-sponsored propaganda.
SEE THE WORLD, SPREAD MORE PROPAGANDA
NUIS has also partnered with the Jewish Agency, the Israeli state body that encourages Jews from around the world to settle on stolen Palestinian land, to spread propaganda on college campuses around the world.
The Jewish Agency website announces, as translated from Hebrew by Dena Shunra for The Electronic Intifada:
For the first time in Israel – a unique, world-encompassing scholarship, in cooperation between the Student Union and the Jewish Agency.
Every year the Jewish Agency of Israel sends approximately 150 emissaries to various places around the world - North America, England, South Africa, Australia, Germany, Italy and South America, who engage in Jewish education and hasbara in three main streams - Hillel emissaries (to campuses around North America), community emissaries and youth movement emissaries.
Training for these overseas missions for successful applicants will take place at Haifa University, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University and Sapir College, after which the would-be missionaries “will set off for a one-year mission in the various Jewish communities around the world, and will also receive a scholarship of up to NIS 5,000 [$1300].”
Applications are open to Israeli citizens who have lived in the country for three years, those who have completed service in the Israeli army, and those who speak foreign languages, among other criteria.
A STUDENT UNION IN THE SERVICE OF THE STATE
In most countries student unions often find themselves at odds with state authorities, fighting for the rights of students. But it would appear that Israel’s “student union” does not so much represent students and fight for their rights, but represents the state in the state’s efforts to recruit students to do its political bidding.
In this sense, the NUIS functions in a very similar way to Israel’s “trade union” the Histadrut.
Israeli students to get $2,000 to spread state propaganda on Facebook
Wed, 01/04/2012
Ali Abunimah
The National Union of Israeli Students (NUIS) has become a full-time partner in the Israeli government’s efforts to spread its propaganda online and on college campuses around the world.
NUIS has launched a program to pay Israeli university students $2,000 to spread pro-Israel propaganda online for 5 hours per week from the “comfort of home.”
The union is also partnering with Israel’s Jewish Agency to send Israeli students as missionaries to spread propaganda in other countries, for which they will also receive a stipend.
This active recruitment of Israeli students is part of Israel’s orchestrated effort to suppress the Palestinian solidarity movement under the guise of combating “delegitimization” of Israel and anti-Semitism.
The involvement of the official Israeli student union as well as Haifa University, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University and Sapir College in these state propaganda programs will likely bolster Palestinian calls for the international boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
PAYING STUDENTS TO SPREAD ISRAELI PROPAGANDA ONLINE
This is our opportunity, as Israeli students, to provide hasbara [state propaganda] that is correct and balanced, to help in the struggle against the delegitimization of the State of Israel and against hatred of Jews in the world.
That is one of the exhortations in a Hebrew document issued by NUIS, and translated by The Electronic Intifada, inviting Israeli students to apply for a program to help spread Israel’s message.
The project seeks to take advantage of the fact that “Many students in Israel master the Internet and are proficient at using the Internet and social networking and various sites and are required to write and express themselves in English.”
The paid scholarship will allow them to get training and then work from home for five hours per week for a year to “refute” what it calls “misinformation” about Israel on social networking sites.
Among the stated goals of the scholarships is “to deepen and expand hasbara activities of students in the State of Israel.” The document explains:
The Internet allows uncontrolled access to content from marginal groups and therefore can influence many audiences who are exposed to such information, particularly young people who are more easily influenced.
The Internet, then, is used as a major tool for the dissemination of anti-Semitism, hatred of Israel and of Jews and thus the Internet is also the place to battle against such sites, pull the ground from under them and to provide reliable and balanced information.
WORK FROM THE "COMFORT OF HOME"
The NUIS program document explains:
After training, the student will begin his activities. The student will do the activities in the comfort of his home, where every week he will be obligated to about 5 hours of activities for a period of one calendar year (not academic year). Students will be paid a total of NIS 7,500 [$2,000] to perform the tasks of the project, at least 5 hours weekly for a total of 240 hours of activities under the project umbrella.
What is completely missing from the program is any indication that criticism of Israel could be valid. Rather the National Union of Israeli Students apparently seeks to indoctrinate Israeli students that every criticism of Israel is “hate” and “anti-Semitism” and that the Internet should be seen as a battlefield on which they are foot soldiers.
USING E-LEARNING TOOLS FOR GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA
An interesting aspect of the NUIS program is that it uses the common open source virtual learning environment Moodle as its interface with program participants. This interface can be found at students.digitalchange.co.il.
Whereas Moodle was designed for education – to spread mind-opening learning beyond the constraints of geography – the Israeli innovation here is to use it for mind-narrowing propaganda: getting students to be uncritical, to not think for themselves, but rather to spread Israel’s state-sponsored propaganda.
SEE THE WORLD, SPREAD MORE PROPAGANDA
NUIS has also partnered with the Jewish Agency, the Israeli state body that encourages Jews from around the world to settle on stolen Palestinian land, to spread propaganda on college campuses around the world.
The Jewish Agency website announces, as translated from Hebrew by Dena Shunra for The Electronic Intifada:
For the first time in Israel – a unique, world-encompassing scholarship, in cooperation between the Student Union and the Jewish Agency.
Every year the Jewish Agency of Israel sends approximately 150 emissaries to various places around the world - North America, England, South Africa, Australia, Germany, Italy and South America, who engage in Jewish education and hasbara in three main streams - Hillel emissaries (to campuses around North America), community emissaries and youth movement emissaries.
Training for these overseas missions for successful applicants will take place at Haifa University, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University and Sapir College, after which the would-be missionaries “will set off for a one-year mission in the various Jewish communities around the world, and will also receive a scholarship of up to NIS 5,000 [$1300].”
Applications are open to Israeli citizens who have lived in the country for three years, those who have completed service in the Israeli army, and those who speak foreign languages, among other criteria.
A STUDENT UNION IN THE SERVICE OF THE STATE
In most countries student unions often find themselves at odds with state authorities, fighting for the rights of students. But it would appear that Israel’s “student union” does not so much represent students and fight for their rights, but represents the state in the state’s efforts to recruit students to do its political bidding.
In this sense, the NUIS functions in a very similar way to Israel’s “trade union” the Histadrut.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Egyptian blogger sentenced to 2 years in prison
Al-Masry Al-Youm
Maikel Nabil sentenced to 2 years in jail
Wed, 14/12/2011
A military court on Wednesday sentenced Maikel Nabil, a blogger charged with insulting the military, to two years in prison and a fine of LE200, said activist Noor Ayman Nour from the advocacy group No to Military Trials for Civilians.
The ruling, made by the Supreme Military Court of Appeals, follows an appeal to an earlier verdict that sentenced Nabil to three years in prison. Since this is a military trial, the verdict cannot be appealed again.
Nabil's charges include insulting the armed forces, publishing false news and disturbing public security.
Nabil has been on hunger strike for 113 days to protest his detention and trial and has been surviving on water and milk.
The 26-year-old blogger has also refused to apologize to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
In a Facebook statement, Nabil wrote that some military officers asked him to write an apology in exchange for his release — an offer he turned down.
Last week, the International Federation of Liberal Youth granted Nabil its "Freedom Award" in recognition of his "firm commitment to freedom."
Nabil wrote a blog post in March titled "The army and the people weren't ever one hand," questioning the role of the military in the revolution and condemning its takeover while citing incidents in which the military was involved in arresting and torturing activists during the 18-day uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.
Military trials of civilians — particularly bloggers — have been increasingly criticized by activists and human rights watchdogs.
Maikel Nabil sentenced to 2 years in jail
Wed, 14/12/2011
A military court on Wednesday sentenced Maikel Nabil, a blogger charged with insulting the military, to two years in prison and a fine of LE200, said activist Noor Ayman Nour from the advocacy group No to Military Trials for Civilians.
The ruling, made by the Supreme Military Court of Appeals, follows an appeal to an earlier verdict that sentenced Nabil to three years in prison. Since this is a military trial, the verdict cannot be appealed again.
Nabil's charges include insulting the armed forces, publishing false news and disturbing public security.
Nabil has been on hunger strike for 113 days to protest his detention and trial and has been surviving on water and milk.
The 26-year-old blogger has also refused to apologize to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
In a Facebook statement, Nabil wrote that some military officers asked him to write an apology in exchange for his release — an offer he turned down.
Last week, the International Federation of Liberal Youth granted Nabil its "Freedom Award" in recognition of his "firm commitment to freedom."
Nabil wrote a blog post in March titled "The army and the people weren't ever one hand," questioning the role of the military in the revolution and condemning its takeover while citing incidents in which the military was involved in arresting and torturing activists during the 18-day uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.
Military trials of civilians — particularly bloggers — have been increasingly criticized by activists and human rights watchdogs.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Situation of free expression worsens in Egypt
REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS/RSF
International community urged to react as situation of free expression worsens in Egypt
Thursday 17 November 2011
Reporters Without Borders condemns the accelerating deterioration in the media freedom situation in Egypt in the run-up to the 28 November elections. In the latest development, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ordered a 15-day extension to blogger and activist Alaa Abdel Fattah’s pre-trial detention on 13 November.
The Supreme Council has constantly restricted freedom of information ever since President Hosni Mubarak’s removal on 11 February. It has summoned journalists and bloggers before military courts and has convicted and jailed netizens.
Now that the country is about to embark on a series of elections that will continue until March, the Supreme Council is showing less and less ability to tolerate fundamental freedoms. The democratic transition that Egyptians desire will not be possible without media freedom, which is now in grave danger.
Reporters Without Borders would like to remind everyone that a free press and the free flow of information are essential for democratic elections.
The Supreme Council has not only perpetuated Mubarak’s methods of controlling news and information but has reinforced them. The trials of civilians before military courts are now the norm. Arrests and convictions on charges of disturbing public order, defamation or spreading false information are being used to censor articles on sensitive subjects such as poverty, women’s rights and, especially, the armed forces. Several media were attacked and prevented from broadcasting footage of the violence on 9 and 10 October in the Cairo district of Maspero.
Reporters Without Borders urges the international community to react and to do whatever is necessary to protect freedom of expression in Egypt. To this end, it sent a letter and the attached summary of freedom of information violations in Egypt since Mubarak’s ouster to prominent international political figures and representatives of international bodies on 7 November.
The recipients included Navanethem Pillay (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights), Frank La Rue (United Nations Human Rights Council special rapporteur for the promotion and protection of freedom of opinion and expression), Catherine Ashton (European Union high representative for foreign affairs and security), Hillary Clinton (US secretary of state) and Sylvie Coudray (UNESCO director for freedom of expression, democracy and peace).
The letter and summary were also sent to the French foreign minister, the Arab League, the Human Rights Committee of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Egyptian embassy in Washington and the French embassy in Cairo.
International community urged to react as situation of free expression worsens in Egypt
Thursday 17 November 2011
Reporters Without Borders condemns the accelerating deterioration in the media freedom situation in Egypt in the run-up to the 28 November elections. In the latest development, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ordered a 15-day extension to blogger and activist Alaa Abdel Fattah’s pre-trial detention on 13 November.
The Supreme Council has constantly restricted freedom of information ever since President Hosni Mubarak’s removal on 11 February. It has summoned journalists and bloggers before military courts and has convicted and jailed netizens.
Now that the country is about to embark on a series of elections that will continue until March, the Supreme Council is showing less and less ability to tolerate fundamental freedoms. The democratic transition that Egyptians desire will not be possible without media freedom, which is now in grave danger.
Reporters Without Borders would like to remind everyone that a free press and the free flow of information are essential for democratic elections.
The Supreme Council has not only perpetuated Mubarak’s methods of controlling news and information but has reinforced them. The trials of civilians before military courts are now the norm. Arrests and convictions on charges of disturbing public order, defamation or spreading false information are being used to censor articles on sensitive subjects such as poverty, women’s rights and, especially, the armed forces. Several media were attacked and prevented from broadcasting footage of the violence on 9 and 10 October in the Cairo district of Maspero.
Reporters Without Borders urges the international community to react and to do whatever is necessary to protect freedom of expression in Egypt. To this end, it sent a letter and the attached summary of freedom of information violations in Egypt since Mubarak’s ouster to prominent international political figures and representatives of international bodies on 7 November.
The recipients included Navanethem Pillay (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights), Frank La Rue (United Nations Human Rights Council special rapporteur for the promotion and protection of freedom of opinion and expression), Catherine Ashton (European Union high representative for foreign affairs and security), Hillary Clinton (US secretary of state) and Sylvie Coudray (UNESCO director for freedom of expression, democracy and peace).
The letter and summary were also sent to the French foreign minister, the Arab League, the Human Rights Committee of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Egyptian embassy in Washington and the French embassy in Cairo.
Free Alaa - Cartoons by Carlos Latuff
Cartoons by Brazilian artist Carlos Latuff, calling for release of Blogger/Activist Alaa Abdel Fattah who is in prison pending investigations by military prosecutors. Alaa was wrongfully jailed on October 30, 2011.
Alaa has been jailed on trumped charges, he is being used as the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' scapegoat to cover up for their own crimes, assaults, and killings committed on October 9.
Egypt: Protesters killed in clashes with security forces
The Guardian
Egyptian protesters killed in clashes with security forces
Sunday 13 November 2011
Jack Shenker
Clashes between Egyptian security forces and protesters have left at least two civilians dead, following major demonstrations across the country.
In Damietta, a port town where the Nile meets the Mediterranean, the army used force to break up mass protests on Sunday which had brought the city to a standstill for several days. Local news reports indicated that at least two protesters were killed and 11 others injured during the violence. Witnesses told the Guardian that the death toll was considerably higher, but this could not be independently confirmed.
"The situation is very dangerous," said Shaaban ElBadahy, a teacher in Damietta. "Protesters have closed off all the ports and roads in the district and no one can enter or leave the city."
Residents were protesting against newly unveiled plans to expand the production of fertiliser in the area. An existing Egyptian-Canadian factory has been blamed for a series of environmental disasters including the depletion of local fish stocks, but its owners insist that they meet all relevant safety standards.
In Aswan, police used teargas against protesters angry over the killing of a local boat captain, who was shot dead by a police officer following an argument last week. Amid claims that protesters might try and shut down the power supply running from the Aswan dam to the rest of the country, the authorities declared a curfew and stepped up the security presence in Egypt's southern-most city.
The latest wave of violence adds further pressure on the military junta ahead of this month's parliamentary elections, with opposition to the ruling generals seemingly beginning to spread beyond Cairo and Alexandria and into rural areas.
On Sunday military prosecutors renewed the detention of two high-profile political prisoners, triggering further protests in the capital.
Alaa Abd El Fattah, a leading revolutionary figurehead, had his detention renewed for a further 15 days, meaning it is likely he will miss the birth of his first child who is due imminently. Maikel Nabil, a blogger who has now been on hunger strike for over 80 days, had his retrial adjourned to 27 November 27th and will remain in jail until then.
On Sunday evening demonstrators gathered at Cairo's Qasr el-Nil bridge over the Nile to express their rejection of the junta. The bridge was the location for one of the most significant street battles between protesters and police during the anti-Mubarak uprising earlier this year, and has become synonymous with revolutionary victory by the people over the security forces.
*Photo courtesy of Amr Nabil/Associated Press
Egyptian protesters killed in clashes with security forces
Sunday 13 November 2011
Jack Shenker
Clashes between Egyptian security forces and protesters have left at least two civilians dead, following major demonstrations across the country.
In Damietta, a port town where the Nile meets the Mediterranean, the army used force to break up mass protests on Sunday which had brought the city to a standstill for several days. Local news reports indicated that at least two protesters were killed and 11 others injured during the violence. Witnesses told the Guardian that the death toll was considerably higher, but this could not be independently confirmed.
"The situation is very dangerous," said Shaaban ElBadahy, a teacher in Damietta. "Protesters have closed off all the ports and roads in the district and no one can enter or leave the city."
Residents were protesting against newly unveiled plans to expand the production of fertiliser in the area. An existing Egyptian-Canadian factory has been blamed for a series of environmental disasters including the depletion of local fish stocks, but its owners insist that they meet all relevant safety standards.
In Aswan, police used teargas against protesters angry over the killing of a local boat captain, who was shot dead by a police officer following an argument last week. Amid claims that protesters might try and shut down the power supply running from the Aswan dam to the rest of the country, the authorities declared a curfew and stepped up the security presence in Egypt's southern-most city.
The latest wave of violence adds further pressure on the military junta ahead of this month's parliamentary elections, with opposition to the ruling generals seemingly beginning to spread beyond Cairo and Alexandria and into rural areas.
On Sunday military prosecutors renewed the detention of two high-profile political prisoners, triggering further protests in the capital.
Alaa Abd El Fattah, a leading revolutionary figurehead, had his detention renewed for a further 15 days, meaning it is likely he will miss the birth of his first child who is due imminently. Maikel Nabil, a blogger who has now been on hunger strike for over 80 days, had his retrial adjourned to 27 November 27th and will remain in jail until then.
On Sunday evening demonstrators gathered at Cairo's Qasr el-Nil bridge over the Nile to express their rejection of the junta. The bridge was the location for one of the most significant street battles between protesters and police during the anti-Mubarak uprising earlier this year, and has become synonymous with revolutionary victory by the people over the security forces.
*Photo courtesy of Amr Nabil/Associated Press
Monday, October 31, 2011
Photos: March against SCAF & its military tribunals
Some 3,000 Egyptians took part in a protest march against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF,) demanding the release of activist-blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah, along with thousands of other civilians sentenced to prison by military tribunals.The protest began at 7pm in Talaat Harb Square, downtown Cairo. Protesters then marched on Tahrir Square.
On the back of this protester - Free Alaa Abdel Fattah. No military tribunals, no more emergency law, down with military rule.
Thousands of protesters marched onwards to the district of Bab el Khalq - outside the police department where Alaa and others are jailed.
Even Suzanne Mubarak, and (ex-Interior Minister) Habib el-Adly were present at this protest march.
Youth activists posted stickers, and posters of Alaa on the entrance of the Military Police barracks, some even spray painted anti-SCAF stencils on the barracks' outer walls. 
Portrait of Alaa.
Free Alaa spray painted on the outer wall of the Police Department in Bab el Khalq, a row of riot police looks on.
Protesters demanded the release, or retrial, of thousands of civilians imprisoned by verdicts issued from military tribunals. Over 12,000 civilians have been referred to military courts since SCAF assumed power.
Slogans were chanted against the military junta, and the Ministry of Interior. In mockery, hundreds of activists dedicated a birthday song to SCAF-chief, Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi. Mubarak's lap-dog/general turned 76 years old today. 
Police/pigs observe the protest from the rooftop of their quarters. With their cameras and cellphones, some pigs even took surveillance videos and photos.
After some three hours, the protest march winded-up and headed back to Tahrir Square.
Egyptians Rally for Blogger Jailed for Defying Military Prosecutor
New York Times
Egyptians Rally for Blogger Jailed for Defying Military Prosecutor
October 31, 2011
ROBERT MACKEY
Egyptian activists rallied in Cairo on Monday night, demanding the release of an imprisoned blogger and an end to military trials for civilians. Supporters of the blogger, Alaa Abd El Fattah, chanted slogans demanding his freedom outside his cell.
Mr. Fattah was detained on Sunday after he responded to a summons from a military prosecutor but refused to answer any questions about a protest he attended on Oct. 9, which ended in violence and the deaths of 28 people, most of them Coptic Christians.
Although the authorities initially blamed that night’s violence on protesters, eyewitnesses claimed that soldiers had used excessive force, firing live ammunition and driving armored personnel carriers into crowds outside the headquarters of state television, known as Maspiro.
As the Committee to Protect Journalists explained on Monday, days before he was summoned by the military prosecutor, Mr. Fattah published an opinion piece in the independent daily Al-Shorouk in which he criticized the military’s investigation of the clashes, “saying it could not conduct an impartial investigation into its own activities.” Mr. Fattah’s article for the Egyptian newspaper also described what he witnessed at the protest, and at a Coptic hospital where the wounded and dead were taken after it. He referred pointedly to the soldiers now ruling Egypt as “Mubarak’s military.”
After his article was published, a counterrevolutionary blogger who goes by the name Ahmed Spider struck back at Mr. Fattah, charging that he had incited Christian protesters to attack soldiers. Mr. Fattah, who has been a leading figure in protests this year, has consistently maintained that protesters have used violence only in self-defense, when attacked.
On his way to the hearing on Sunday, Mr. Fattah told Reuters, “They committed a massacre, a horrible crime, and now they are working on framing someone else for it.” He added, “Instead of launching a proper investigation, they are sending activists to trial for saying the plain truth, and that is that the army committed a crime in cold blood.”
The Egyptian news site Ahram Online reported on Sunday that Mr. Fattah refused to submit to interrogation, “on the grounds that the military prosecution had no legitimate right to question civilians.”
Since Jan. 28, the third day of Egypt’s revolution, military tribunals have conducted about 12,000 trials of Egyptian civilians, resulting in more than 8,000 convictions. Mr. Fattah’s sister Mona Seif helps lead a group dedicated to ending military trials for Egyptian civilians.
Another activist, Bahaa Saber, who also defied the prosecutor’s authority, was released. A video posted on YouTube on Sunday showed Mr. Saber leading chants against the military as soon as he left the prosecutor’s office.
On Monday night, Mr. Saber again led chants against Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
Mr. Fattah’s father, a human rights lawyer, reminded Ahram Online that his son and Mr. Saber “were both detained for supporting the independence of the judiciary in 2006.”
“They both stood against Mubarak and were ready to pay a price and now they are doing the same,” the father said.
As a profile of the activist blogger in Ahram Online explained, Mr. Fattah was brought up in a family of leftists with a long history of political activism. His father, Ahmed Seif El-Islam Hamed, is a prominent lawyer and human rights activist who used to run the Cairo-based Hisham Mubarak Law Center. Ahmed Seif El-Islam was arrested in the 1980s and imprisoned for five years for his political activity.
Mr. Fattah’s mother, Laila Soueif, is an activist and a professor at Cairo University. An aunt, Ahdaf Soueif, is a novelist who suggested, in a scathing commentary on the Oct. 9 violence, that the men who rule Egypt wanted to provoke sectarian clashes to justify their continued grip on power.
Mr. Fattah’s wife, Manal Hassan, is also an activist, and the couple collaborate on a blog. As Ahram Online explained, they were living in South Africa until January, “when they took the first flight to Cairo to join Tahrir Square protesters as the revolution erupted.” The news site added:
Following Mubarak’s ouster and concomitant promises of democratic transition, the couple decided to return to Egypt on a permanent basis. Through their Twitter accounts, @alaa and @manal, the couple announced their intention to have a baby. The baby, they noted, would be named Khaled after Khaled Said, the young man from Alexandria beaten to death by police last year who became a posthumous icon of Egypt’s revolution.
Although she is due to give birth soon, Ms. Hassan marched for her husband on Monday night. That led another activist blogger, Lilian Wagdy, to write: “Today an unborn child marched with us to demand the freedom of his daddy. Khaled is perhaps the youngest revolutionary ever.”
Last week, when Mr. Fattah was in San Francisco to speak at the Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference, the White House said President Obama had pressed the head of Egypt’s armed forces to end military trials for civilians. Now, following Mr. Fattah’s arrest, American Internet activists have begun an online petition campaign asking Mr. Obama to call on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces “to immediately and unconditionally end emergency law and stop the military trial and detention of civilians.”
*Photo courtesy of Access
Egyptians Rally for Blogger Jailed for Defying Military Prosecutor
October 31, 2011
ROBERT MACKEY
Egyptian activists rallied in Cairo on Monday night, demanding the release of an imprisoned blogger and an end to military trials for civilians. Supporters of the blogger, Alaa Abd El Fattah, chanted slogans demanding his freedom outside his cell.
Mr. Fattah was detained on Sunday after he responded to a summons from a military prosecutor but refused to answer any questions about a protest he attended on Oct. 9, which ended in violence and the deaths of 28 people, most of them Coptic Christians.
Although the authorities initially blamed that night’s violence on protesters, eyewitnesses claimed that soldiers had used excessive force, firing live ammunition and driving armored personnel carriers into crowds outside the headquarters of state television, known as Maspiro.
As the Committee to Protect Journalists explained on Monday, days before he was summoned by the military prosecutor, Mr. Fattah published an opinion piece in the independent daily Al-Shorouk in which he criticized the military’s investigation of the clashes, “saying it could not conduct an impartial investigation into its own activities.” Mr. Fattah’s article for the Egyptian newspaper also described what he witnessed at the protest, and at a Coptic hospital where the wounded and dead were taken after it. He referred pointedly to the soldiers now ruling Egypt as “Mubarak’s military.”
After his article was published, a counterrevolutionary blogger who goes by the name Ahmed Spider struck back at Mr. Fattah, charging that he had incited Christian protesters to attack soldiers. Mr. Fattah, who has been a leading figure in protests this year, has consistently maintained that protesters have used violence only in self-defense, when attacked.
On his way to the hearing on Sunday, Mr. Fattah told Reuters, “They committed a massacre, a horrible crime, and now they are working on framing someone else for it.” He added, “Instead of launching a proper investigation, they are sending activists to trial for saying the plain truth, and that is that the army committed a crime in cold blood.”
The Egyptian news site Ahram Online reported on Sunday that Mr. Fattah refused to submit to interrogation, “on the grounds that the military prosecution had no legitimate right to question civilians.”
Since Jan. 28, the third day of Egypt’s revolution, military tribunals have conducted about 12,000 trials of Egyptian civilians, resulting in more than 8,000 convictions. Mr. Fattah’s sister Mona Seif helps lead a group dedicated to ending military trials for Egyptian civilians.
Another activist, Bahaa Saber, who also defied the prosecutor’s authority, was released. A video posted on YouTube on Sunday showed Mr. Saber leading chants against the military as soon as he left the prosecutor’s office.
On Monday night, Mr. Saber again led chants against Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
Mr. Fattah’s father, a human rights lawyer, reminded Ahram Online that his son and Mr. Saber “were both detained for supporting the independence of the judiciary in 2006.”
“They both stood against Mubarak and were ready to pay a price and now they are doing the same,” the father said.
As a profile of the activist blogger in Ahram Online explained, Mr. Fattah was brought up in a family of leftists with a long history of political activism. His father, Ahmed Seif El-Islam Hamed, is a prominent lawyer and human rights activist who used to run the Cairo-based Hisham Mubarak Law Center. Ahmed Seif El-Islam was arrested in the 1980s and imprisoned for five years for his political activity.
Mr. Fattah’s mother, Laila Soueif, is an activist and a professor at Cairo University. An aunt, Ahdaf Soueif, is a novelist who suggested, in a scathing commentary on the Oct. 9 violence, that the men who rule Egypt wanted to provoke sectarian clashes to justify their continued grip on power.
Mr. Fattah’s wife, Manal Hassan, is also an activist, and the couple collaborate on a blog. As Ahram Online explained, they were living in South Africa until January, “when they took the first flight to Cairo to join Tahrir Square protesters as the revolution erupted.” The news site added:
Following Mubarak’s ouster and concomitant promises of democratic transition, the couple decided to return to Egypt on a permanent basis. Through their Twitter accounts, @alaa and @manal, the couple announced their intention to have a baby. The baby, they noted, would be named Khaled after Khaled Said, the young man from Alexandria beaten to death by police last year who became a posthumous icon of Egypt’s revolution.
Although she is due to give birth soon, Ms. Hassan marched for her husband on Monday night. That led another activist blogger, Lilian Wagdy, to write: “Today an unborn child marched with us to demand the freedom of his daddy. Khaled is perhaps the youngest revolutionary ever.”
Last week, when Mr. Fattah was in San Francisco to speak at the Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference, the White House said President Obama had pressed the head of Egypt’s armed forces to end military trials for civilians. Now, following Mr. Fattah’s arrest, American Internet activists have begun an online petition campaign asking Mr. Obama to call on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces “to immediately and unconditionally end emergency law and stop the military trial and detention of civilians.”
*Photo courtesy of Access
Egypt: Military junta jail blogger who criticized them
Committee to Protect Journalists
Egyptian military officials jail blogger who criticized them
New York, October 31, 2011--Egyptian blogger Alaa Abd el-Fattah, jailed Sunday after he objected to interrogation by military prosecutors, should be released immediately and without condition, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
The military prosecutor's office summoned Abd el-Fattah for questioning concerning his coverage of the October 9 clashes between troops and Coptic Christian protestors, local and international news reports said. At least 25 people, including a journalist, were killed in the clashes.
Abd el-Fattah, a critic of Egypt's practice of subjecting civilians to military proceedings, objected to questioning by military prosecutors and demanded any case be handled by civilian authorities. The military prosecutor responded by ordering his detention for 15 days pending investigation, according to several news reports. On Sunday, the military prosecutor filed several charges against Abd el-Fattah, including "inciting violence against the military," "assaulting military personnel," "destroying public property," and "stealing military weapons," news reports said.
Abd el-Fattah and his wife and fellow blogger, Manal, have been outspoken detractors of the military regime on their blog, Manalaa. On October 20, Abd el-Fattah wrote an opinion piece in the independent daily Al-Shorouk in which he criticized the military's investigation of the clashes, saying it could not conduct an impartial investigation into its own activities. The piece detailed Abd el-Fattah's view of the October 9 clashes and the two ensuing days he spent at the morgue, encouraging victims' families to demand autopsy reports. Abd el-Fattah's article was sharply critical of the military, referring to it as "Mubarak's military."
Cameraman Wael Mikhael was killed by a gunshot to the head and two television studios were raided by security forces during the October 9 violence. CPJ reviewed Egyptian state television's coverage of the clashes and concluded that it was inflammatory.
"It is the height of hypocrisy for the ruling military council, the self-proclaimed guardian of the revolution, to try to intimidate critical voices through military trials and contrived criminal charges, instead of addressing some of the fundamental questions they are raising," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. "The military must release Abd el-Fattah immediately and drop all charges against him. Failure to do so belies claims that authorities have broken from the intimidation tactics of the past 30 years."
In 2006, Abd el-Fattah was detained for 45 days without charge after writing in support of reformist judges and better election monitoring, CPJ research shows.
Egyptian military officials jail blogger who criticized them
New York, October 31, 2011--Egyptian blogger Alaa Abd el-Fattah, jailed Sunday after he objected to interrogation by military prosecutors, should be released immediately and without condition, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
The military prosecutor's office summoned Abd el-Fattah for questioning concerning his coverage of the October 9 clashes between troops and Coptic Christian protestors, local and international news reports said. At least 25 people, including a journalist, were killed in the clashes.
Abd el-Fattah, a critic of Egypt's practice of subjecting civilians to military proceedings, objected to questioning by military prosecutors and demanded any case be handled by civilian authorities. The military prosecutor responded by ordering his detention for 15 days pending investigation, according to several news reports. On Sunday, the military prosecutor filed several charges against Abd el-Fattah, including "inciting violence against the military," "assaulting military personnel," "destroying public property," and "stealing military weapons," news reports said.
Abd el-Fattah and his wife and fellow blogger, Manal, have been outspoken detractors of the military regime on their blog, Manalaa. On October 20, Abd el-Fattah wrote an opinion piece in the independent daily Al-Shorouk in which he criticized the military's investigation of the clashes, saying it could not conduct an impartial investigation into its own activities. The piece detailed Abd el-Fattah's view of the October 9 clashes and the two ensuing days he spent at the morgue, encouraging victims' families to demand autopsy reports. Abd el-Fattah's article was sharply critical of the military, referring to it as "Mubarak's military."
Cameraman Wael Mikhael was killed by a gunshot to the head and two television studios were raided by security forces during the October 9 violence. CPJ reviewed Egyptian state television's coverage of the clashes and concluded that it was inflammatory.
"It is the height of hypocrisy for the ruling military council, the self-proclaimed guardian of the revolution, to try to intimidate critical voices through military trials and contrived criminal charges, instead of addressing some of the fundamental questions they are raising," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. "The military must release Abd el-Fattah immediately and drop all charges against him. Failure to do so belies claims that authorities have broken from the intimidation tactics of the past 30 years."
In 2006, Abd el-Fattah was detained for 45 days without charge after writing in support of reformist judges and better election monitoring, CPJ research shows.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Wall Street Protest Digs In, Spreads
Wall Street Journal
Wall Street Protest Digs In, Spreads
Oct. 3, 2011
By ANDREW GROSSMAN in New York and JACK NICAS in Chicago
As anti-Wall Street protests spread from New York to other U.S. cities, the activists beginning their third week inside a Lower Manhattan park urged participants to dress up as "corporate zombies" on Monday.
Organizers told the Associated Press that they would hold an anti-police brutality protest on the steps of City Hall, as well as a rally in support of union workers outside Sotheby's auction house on the Upper East Side. New York police arrested hundreds of demonstrators Saturday after a group blocked traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Over the weekend, budding copycat movements spread across the country, with smaller-scale protests planned via online social-networking sites. Protesters held sizable gatherings in Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles. In other cities, like San Francisco and Pittsburgh, protests were smaller or existed only in a planning stage.
A website, occupytogether.org, lists groups that are offshoots of the New York protest. Activists have begun organizing outside the U.S., including in Prague, Melbourne and Montreal. A map of the country displayed in the Manhattan park held by demonstrators identified 21 places where other protests were organized.
In New York, the protesters initially set out to occupy Wall Street but were rebuffed by police. Instead, the group set up in a nearby park, keeping the "Occupy Wall Street" moniker. The spread to other cities appears largely organic—the protests don't have a central organizer—and the idea came from a Canadian magazine and grew on social media websites.
Those protesting in New York have been circulating a list of grievances, most of which are aimed at corporations that they say are too powerful and often unethical. Among the complaints: bank executives received "exorbitant" bonuses not long after receiving taxpayer bailouts and companies have "poisoned the food supply through negligence" and "continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate better pay and safer working conditions."
Many of the protesters are young. Joblessness seems to be a persistent theme. A blog that has become popular has pictures of people's faces next to stories of economic woe and messages of support for the protesters.
"From 2006-2009 I owned a business with 12 employees," reads one, superimposed over a photo of a man and his young son, both smiling. "I closed my doors in 2009. I lost my home in 2010. I lived in my truck for six months. Now I rent a tiny room. I have no health insurance."
It's unclear how long the protests will last, or whether they will take hold in the other cities on par with the New York protests. Like the initial stage of the New York protest, much of the activity in the offshoot cities is still taking place online on Facebook.
Nathaniel Glosser, a 46-year-old Pittsburgh writer, is helping organize what he calls "the Occupy Pittsburgh movement."
Mr. Glosser, a veteran of anti-war marches, said he was inspired by what he saw in New York and started looking for people online who might do something like it in Pittsburgh.
"After several days of searching on the Internet, I found that there were several hundred people who had signed up on the Facebook group and then I just jumped in with both feet," Mr. Glosser said. "Most of the people who started this have very little organizing experience."
Mr. Glosser's group plans to meet at a Unitarian church on Wednesday and plans to hold its first rally on Oct. 15.
In Los Angeles, hundreds marched on City Hall on Saturday on the first day of protests. In San Francisco, about two dozen people camped out Sunday afternoon outside the Federal Reserve branch. Some had tents. Others played guitars. Their posters said: "Arrest the fat cats."
In Chicago, protesters occupied a narrow sidewalk outside the city's branch of the Federal Reserve Bank. They've been there around the clock for 10 consecutive days. At 3 p.m. Sunday, more than 100 gathered for an organizational meeting that was labeled the general assembly in which anyone can participate—a hallmark of the protests.
Organizers shouted instructions through a small orange cone: No violence, be friendly to police, continue "the revolution."
The protesters were diverse in race, gender, age and dress. Among the headwear in the crowd were beanies, ushankas, do-rags, fedoras, bandanas and one green helmet. Some wore boots, others were barefoot. Some offered handrolled cigarettes out of small vintage cases. Many gave their Twitter handle in addition to their name when introducing themselves.
James Cox, a 25-year-old waitress, discovered the movement on Twitter and showed up on the second day when there were just seven people. She has now slept on the sidewalk for a week and has become and organizer, keeping track of donated food and water.
Protesters in Chicago are putting the New York group's grievances to a vote, amending some and adopting others as is.
"We definitely stand in solidarity," said Mark Banks, a 30-year-old unemployed biochemist and Occupy Chicago spokesman. "But we're employing a very careful, inclusive process to make sure what they're trying to say is what we're trying to say."
"We are part of a global and spreading movement," shouted Micah Philbrook, a 33-year-old actor with shaggy white hair who serves a press liaison for the Occupy Chicago movement. To amplify the speakers' words, the crowd repeated each sentence.
"I'm a semi-disabled 58 yr old granny with little or no transportation but whenever it is decided on date & place for OUR rally, I will do my darnedest to be there!" wrote a woman name Marilyn McCarty on the Facebook page for a Birmingham, Ala., occupation, which does not yet have a set date or time.
*The Associated Press and Geoffrey Fowler contributed to this article.
Wall Street Protest Digs In, Spreads
Oct. 3, 2011
By ANDREW GROSSMAN in New York and JACK NICAS in Chicago
As anti-Wall Street protests spread from New York to other U.S. cities, the activists beginning their third week inside a Lower Manhattan park urged participants to dress up as "corporate zombies" on Monday.
Organizers told the Associated Press that they would hold an anti-police brutality protest on the steps of City Hall, as well as a rally in support of union workers outside Sotheby's auction house on the Upper East Side. New York police arrested hundreds of demonstrators Saturday after a group blocked traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Over the weekend, budding copycat movements spread across the country, with smaller-scale protests planned via online social-networking sites. Protesters held sizable gatherings in Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles. In other cities, like San Francisco and Pittsburgh, protests were smaller or existed only in a planning stage.
A website, occupytogether.org, lists groups that are offshoots of the New York protest. Activists have begun organizing outside the U.S., including in Prague, Melbourne and Montreal. A map of the country displayed in the Manhattan park held by demonstrators identified 21 places where other protests were organized.
In New York, the protesters initially set out to occupy Wall Street but were rebuffed by police. Instead, the group set up in a nearby park, keeping the "Occupy Wall Street" moniker. The spread to other cities appears largely organic—the protests don't have a central organizer—and the idea came from a Canadian magazine and grew on social media websites.
Those protesting in New York have been circulating a list of grievances, most of which are aimed at corporations that they say are too powerful and often unethical. Among the complaints: bank executives received "exorbitant" bonuses not long after receiving taxpayer bailouts and companies have "poisoned the food supply through negligence" and "continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate better pay and safer working conditions."
Many of the protesters are young. Joblessness seems to be a persistent theme. A blog that has become popular has pictures of people's faces next to stories of economic woe and messages of support for the protesters.
"From 2006-2009 I owned a business with 12 employees," reads one, superimposed over a photo of a man and his young son, both smiling. "I closed my doors in 2009. I lost my home in 2010. I lived in my truck for six months. Now I rent a tiny room. I have no health insurance."
It's unclear how long the protests will last, or whether they will take hold in the other cities on par with the New York protests. Like the initial stage of the New York protest, much of the activity in the offshoot cities is still taking place online on Facebook.
Nathaniel Glosser, a 46-year-old Pittsburgh writer, is helping organize what he calls "the Occupy Pittsburgh movement."
Mr. Glosser, a veteran of anti-war marches, said he was inspired by what he saw in New York and started looking for people online who might do something like it in Pittsburgh.
"After several days of searching on the Internet, I found that there were several hundred people who had signed up on the Facebook group and then I just jumped in with both feet," Mr. Glosser said. "Most of the people who started this have very little organizing experience."
Mr. Glosser's group plans to meet at a Unitarian church on Wednesday and plans to hold its first rally on Oct. 15.
In Los Angeles, hundreds marched on City Hall on Saturday on the first day of protests. In San Francisco, about two dozen people camped out Sunday afternoon outside the Federal Reserve branch. Some had tents. Others played guitars. Their posters said: "Arrest the fat cats."
In Chicago, protesters occupied a narrow sidewalk outside the city's branch of the Federal Reserve Bank. They've been there around the clock for 10 consecutive days. At 3 p.m. Sunday, more than 100 gathered for an organizational meeting that was labeled the general assembly in which anyone can participate—a hallmark of the protests.
Organizers shouted instructions through a small orange cone: No violence, be friendly to police, continue "the revolution."
The protesters were diverse in race, gender, age and dress. Among the headwear in the crowd were beanies, ushankas, do-rags, fedoras, bandanas and one green helmet. Some wore boots, others were barefoot. Some offered handrolled cigarettes out of small vintage cases. Many gave their Twitter handle in addition to their name when introducing themselves.
James Cox, a 25-year-old waitress, discovered the movement on Twitter and showed up on the second day when there were just seven people. She has now slept on the sidewalk for a week and has become and organizer, keeping track of donated food and water.
Protesters in Chicago are putting the New York group's grievances to a vote, amending some and adopting others as is.
"We definitely stand in solidarity," said Mark Banks, a 30-year-old unemployed biochemist and Occupy Chicago spokesman. "But we're employing a very careful, inclusive process to make sure what they're trying to say is what we're trying to say."
"We are part of a global and spreading movement," shouted Micah Philbrook, a 33-year-old actor with shaggy white hair who serves a press liaison for the Occupy Chicago movement. To amplify the speakers' words, the crowd repeated each sentence.
"I'm a semi-disabled 58 yr old granny with little or no transportation but whenever it is decided on date & place for OUR rally, I will do my darnedest to be there!" wrote a woman name Marilyn McCarty on the Facebook page for a Birmingham, Ala., occupation, which does not yet have a set date or time.
*The Associated Press and Geoffrey Fowler contributed to this article.
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