Since the army-led takeover of the Egyptian
state in July 1952, there have been four historic cases in which
military courts tried civilian workers for protesting in demand of basic
labor rights. Most recently, on Saturday a military trial began of 26
Alexandria Shipyard Company employees on charges of instigating strikes.
These
four trials exemplify the extent of the military judiciary’s
far-reaching arm over civilian workers, regardless of whether they are
employed by army-owned industries or civilian facilities. In these
cases, military tribunals have issued sentences including incarceration,
suspended prison sentences and even the historic execution of two
textile workers from the Nile Delta town of Kafr al-Dawwar in September
1952.
While that execution, which constituted the harshest verdict
against civilian workers, happened nearly 64 years ago, the other three
trials have taken place over the past six years alone, including cases
against workers at the Helwan Engineering Industries Company in 2010,
the Petrojet Company in 2011 and the Alexandria Shipyard Company in
2016.
ALEXANDRIA SHIPYARD COMPANY
The Alexandria Military Court held its first hearing in the trial of 26 civilian workers from the
Alexandria Shipyard Company
on June 18, and the defendants are due to return to court on June 21 on
charges of instigating strikes and obstructing production and
operations. The Alexandria Shipyard was originally established as a
state-owned facility in the 1970s, but the Defense Ministry took it over
in 2007.
The shipyard workers staged a
sit-in late last month to demand payment of the
national monthly minimum wage of
LE1,200 per month, overdue profit-shares, annual Ramadan bonuses and
health insurance coverage, along with the dismissal of the company’s
chief administrator and the re-operation of the shipyard’s stalled
production lines.
As of May 26, 13 of the workers were jailed, while the remaining 13 had not yet handed themselves in.
Military prosecutors are charging the protesters with violating Article 124 of
Egypt’s Penal Code, which
stipulates penalties of three months to one year in prison and/or fines
of up to LE500 for civil servants who deliberately refrain from
performing their duties at work.
According to their lawyer, Mohamed Awad
of the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR), the
defendants will have the right to appeal the final verdict.
While a
majority of the nearly 2,500 shipyard employees had conducted a sit-in
at the Port of Alexandria on May 22 and 23, “they did not engage in any
form of strike action, not even a partial strike or a slowdown” which
could have obstructed or negatively affected operations, claims Awad.
Instead,
work at the shipyard ground to a complete halt as a result of a lockout
imposed by company authorities and military police on May 24, which
remains in effect to this day, Awad says. “If anybody is obstructing the
company’s operations, it is the company’s administration, which
continues to lockout its workers,” he argues.
Article 204 of the
2014 Constitution stipulates
that “civilians shall not stand trial before military courts except for
crimes that constitute a direct assault on military installations, the
Armed Forces, its camps or all else under their authority … including
military factories.”
Awad points out that given this
constitutional provision, the shipyard workers do not belong in military
court, as their non-violent actions did not constitute a work stoppage
or a direct assault on the military’s interests.
The authorities
are sending “a warning to all other companies [owned by the military]
and their workers: ‘We can take similar actions against you if you think
of protesting, or organizing for your demands’,” Awad claims.
“The
rest of the shipyard workers are fearful,” the lawyer continues. “Many
feel their livelihoods may be threatened, or that they may be referred
to military trial for any future form of protest.”
PETROJET
Military police arrested five civilian workers from the state-managed
Petrojet Company outside
the Petroleum Ministry on June 1, 2011 when they staged a sizeable
sit-in to demand full-time contracts and the reinstatement of fired
coworkers.
On June 6, the five protesters became the first workers
to stand military trial on charges of violating a law criminalizing
labor strikes and sit-ins that was issued by the interim-ruling Supreme
Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in April 2011, shortly after former
President Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power.
SCAF’s decree,
which was drafted to be enforced during a state of emergency,
stipulates penalties of up to one year in prison and fines of up to
LE500,000 for strikes or other actions that obstruct production or
operations at either private or public-sector companies. The decree
makes no mention referring civilians to military tribunals.
Operating
under the general of authority of the Petroleum Ministry, Petrojet is a
civilian facility with a civilian workforce, but its employees stood
trial before the Nasr City Military Court.
ECESR lawyers who were involved in
the defense say
that military prosecutors charged the five workers with violating the
SCAF decree, but also accused them of violating the Military Justice
Code, which facilitated the extraordinary referral to military court.
Legally, however, the military court had no jurisdiction to try the workers, the ECESR lawyers claim.
Nonetheless, on June 29, 2011 the court issued a suspended one-year prison sentence for each of the protesters.
The
sentences could be enforced if judicial authorities find the defendants
have committed similar infractions since the verdict was issued, the
lawyers explain. Further penalties could also be added to the initial
sentence if the defendants are found to be repeat offenders.
HELWAN ENGINEERING
In
August 2010, a military court tried eight civilian workers from the
army-owned Helwan Engineering Industries Company after they protested
for improved workplace safety standards.
On August 3, hundreds of
workers had demonstrated against repeated industrial accidents at the
military factory, including the explosion of a gas cylinder that killed
one worker and injured six others.
Military prosecutors jailed the
protesting civilian workers and charged them with instigating strikes,
obstructing production, industrial sabotage, assaulting a company
official and disclosing military secrets.
The Nasr City Military
Court held the first hearing on August 22. After a trial that lasted
only eight days, on August 30 the court found five of the defendants
guilty of damaging factory equipment, sentencing them to suspended
prison sentences ranging from six months to a year and fining them
LE1,000 each. The three other workers were found innocent of all
charges. The court also acquitted all eight workers of the charges of
striking and assaulting the factory manager.
Amnesty International condemned the trial,
calling on Egypt to refrain from trying civilian workers before
military tribunals. Instead, the “Egyptian authorities should do their
utmost to improve working conditions and safety in the workplace,"
Amnesty argued.
KAFR AL-DAWWAR
Egypt’s
first military trial of civilian workers took place just three weeks
after the army’s July 23, 1952 revolution. The ruling Free Officers
movement deployed army units and riot police forces to quell protests
staged by textile workers in Kafr al-Dawwar on August 13 of that year.
Workers
at the privately owned Misr Spinning and Weaving Company were engaged
in partial strike actions to demand the dismissal of the company’s
manager, the establishment of a local trade union and the reinstatement
of fired coworkers.
Along with labor unrest within company, street protests and riots erupted outside the factory’s gates, along with acts of arson.
Media reports from
the time indicate that an exchange of gunfire from disputed locations
outside the textile company resulted in seven fatalities — including
three members of the security forces and four local residents and
workers — along with dozens of injuries.
Troops arrested 567 workers from the company, and military prosecutors charged 29 people with instigating strikes and rioting.
The
first hearing was held on August 15. In just three days, the military
tribunal issued its verdict. Of the 29 defendants, 13 were found guilty —
11 were sentenced to lengthy terms in prison, while Mostafa Khamis and
Mohamed al-Baqari were sentenced to hang with no right of appeal, and
very little in terms of the right to legal defense beyond a
state-appointed defense lawyer.
In September, they were executed.
According to historians Joel Beinin and Zachary Lockman in their book,
Workers on the Nile, Khamis’s last words before he was hung on September 7, 1952 were, “I am wronged. I want a retrial.”
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Photos courtesy of Tahrir News and Associated Press respectively 
