Total impunity for Sisi's security personnel who killed 900+ protesters four yrs ago

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Egypt: Rampant impunity for security forces illustrates dark legacy of Rabaa massacre

14 August 2017

Four years since security forces violently dispersed two sit-ins at Rabaa al Adawiya and al-Nahda squares in Greater Cairo, leaving at least 900 people dead and thousands more injured, Egypt is experiencing an unprecedented human rights crisis, said Amnesty International.

Not a single person has been held to account for the events on 14 August 2013, widely known as the Rabaa massacre. Instead, hundreds who attended the protests, including journalists and photographers who were covering the events, have been arrested and are facing an unfair mass trial. This vacuum of justice has allowed security forces to commit serious human rights violations, including using excessive lethal force and carrying out enforced disappearances, entirely unchecked.

“President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi’s regime has been determined to wipe out all memory of the massacre of the summer of 2013. The dark legacy of this failure to bring anyone to justice is that Egypt’s security forces today feel that they will not be held accountable for committing human rights violations,” said Najia Bounaim, North Africa Campaigns Director at Amnesty International.

“The Rabaa dispersal marks a defining turning point for human rights in Egypt. In the years since then, security forces have stepped up violations and varied their methods, carrying out enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions on a scale never seen before.”

Since 2015, at least 1,700 people are estimated to have been “disappeared” by state agents for periods ranging from a few days to up to seven months. Most victims are abducted from the streets or their homes and held incommunicado for months, cut off from their families and lawyers. Egyptian security forces have also carried out dozens of extrajudicial executions.

The Egyptian government’s efforts to erase all memory of the 2013 massacres appear to have had some impact. In August 2013, following the excessive use of lethal force by security forces at Rabaa, the EU Foreign Affairs Council agreed to suspend export licenses to Egypt of any equipment which could be used for internal repression.  Despite this, many EU member states have continued to supply the country with arms and policing equipment. The latest EU country report published last month also makes no mention of the Rabaa massacre or the impunity security services still enjoy.

Grossly unfair trials

Since the Rabaa massacre, the Egyptian authorities have led a bitter crackdown against political dissidents, rounding up thousands and sentencing hundreds to life in prison

or death, after grossly unfair trials. In many cases defendants were convicted in mass trials based on scant or dubious evidence. Most faced charges including participating in unauthorised protests, belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, damaging state and private property, possessing firearms and attacking security forces.

The prosecution authorities, who have an obligation to bring those responsible for the 2013 tragedy to justice, have proven unwilling to investigate and prosecute those responsible for these crimes. Instead of offering justice and remedy for victims, they have helped shield perpetrators from prosecution.

“The level of disparity between the rampant impunity enjoyed by security forces who took part in the Rabaa dispersal on one hand, and the mass persecution of Muslim Brotherhood supporters who participated in protest as well as journalists reporting that day, is shocking,” said Najia Bounaim.

According to official statistics, six security officers were killed during the Rabaa dispersal and three during the al-Fateh protest two days later, also in Cairo. At least 1,231 people are being prosecuted in two mass trials collectively charged with their killing.

At least 737 people were charged for participating in the 2013 sit-in in what is known as “Rabaa dispersal case”. Among them is the journalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, known as “Shawkan” who was arrested for taking photographs during the sit-in at Rabaa.

Many of those detained are held in appalling conditions including prolonged solitary confinement amounting to torture. They have frequently been beaten and denied access to lawyers, medical care or family visits.

In another emblematic case, known as the “Fateh mosque case”, at least 494 people are on mass trial for participating in a protest on 16 August 2013, while no investigation was conducted into the use of excessive lethal force by security forces that day that killed 120 protesters.

Those on trial include the Irish Egyptian national Ibrahim Halawa. The group are facing charges including participating in an unauthorised protest, belonging to a banned group, as well as murder and attacking the security forces. The prosecution failed to investigate claims by defendants that they were tortured by police to “confess” to crimes they did not commit.

The “Rabaa operations room case” involving four journalists from the RASSD news network - Youssef Talaat, Abdallah Al-Fakharany, Samhi Mostafa and Mohamed El-Adly – is another case that exemplifies the blatant injustice characterizing such trials.

The journalists were sentenced to five years in prison on 8 May 2017 after being convicted of charges including creating and overseeing media committees at the Rabaa sit-in to spread “false information and news”.  During the trial, their lawyers were unable to attend several crucial court sessions leaving them unable to prepare a proper defence. The court’s judgement also relied primarily on investigations by Egypt’s National Security Agency that were not substantiated by material evidence.

Court reduces 3-year sentences issued against 32 cement workers, to 2 months

Mada Masr
Appeals court reduces 3-year sentences for 32 Tourah Cement Company workers, upholds obstruction of justice charge

Monday, 19 June 2017

Jano Charbel

The three-year prison sentences handed to 32 Tourah Cement Company security workers earlier this month were reduced on Sunday to two months in a ruling by the Maadi Appeals Court.

Maadi Criminal Court announced the initial prison terms on June 4 on charges that asserted the workers had assaulted a police captain, obstructed justice and used violence to resist authorities.

According to the findings of the Maadi Appeals Court published by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANRHI), the court dismissed all criminal charges leveled against the 32 workers in its Sunday ruling, except the charge of resisting authorities, as it found them guilty of obstructing police efforts to apprehend a wanted worker by collectively assisting in his escape.

Lawyer Gamal Eid, the director of the ANRHI, stated that the appeals court’s Sunday ruling represented a move “from grave injustice, to lesser injustice.”

The appeals court’s Sunday ruling was based on Article 375 of Egypt’s Penal Code. “Anyone who uses force, violence, terrorism, threats or illegal measures to attack or attempt to attack authorities is liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years and a fine not exceeding LE 100,” the article asserts.

The workers are currently being held in the 15th of May prison, located on the outskirts of Cairo.

Those implicate in the case were among the 75 full-time security personnel that initiated a sit-in in March, demanding full-time contracts and retroactive payment of wages, as some had worked full time at the company for up to 10 to 15 years on temporary or part-time contracts.

Police arrested 32 workers of the workers on the Tourah Cement Company’s grounds on May 22. The prosecutor referred them to trial the following day, and the court proceedings commenced on May 28.

The Tourah Cement Company – which had requested the deployment of police forces to disperse the workers’ sit-in protest – has not stated whether it will meet workers’ demands for full-time employment and benefits and reinstate those that have been arrested.

Lawyer Haiytham Mohamadein expressed skepticism that those who had been involved in the sit-in would be allowed back into the company, let alone be reinstated to their former jobs with full-time contracts and benefits. Mohamadein said that the Tourah Cement Company is seeking to employ new security workers through a private contracting company.

A host of organizations and individuals, both in Egypt and abroad, have expressed solidarity with the imprisoned Tourah Cement Company workers in a petition calling for the release of the 32 detainees.

Messages of international solidarity also have poured in from dozens of trade unionists and labor activists from Australia, Austria, Canada, Spain, UK, USA, among other countries.

The Tourah Cement Company workers are the latest labor group to be arrested and referred to trial for industrial action. In April, police arrested 16 protesting Telecom Egypt Company workers in Cairo, while in January police forces forcefully dispersed a sit-in at the IFFCO Oils Company in the Suez Governorate, briefly arresting scores of workers.

In December 2016, police were deployed to disperse two sit-ins at the privately owned Egyptian Fertilizers Company (EFC) and the Egyptian Basic Industries Corporation (EBIC), both of which are owned by the billionaire Nassif Sawiris.

In September 2016, police conducted dawn raids at the apartments of bus drivers from the Public Transport Authority who had been planning a partial strike, detaining six drivers, two of whom may still face trial. In May 2016, military police surrounded a sit-in led by Alexandria Shipyard Company workers and imposed a lockout on the company. Twenty-six civilian workers were referred to military trial.

32 Cement Workers Sentenced to 3 yrs in Prison - For Peacefully Protesting

Mada Masr
Court sentences 32 workers from Tourah Cement Company to 3 years imprisonment for protesting

Sunday June 4, 2017

Jano Charbel

Thirty two Tourah Cement Company workers were sentenced to three years in prison by the Maadi Misdemeanors Court on Sunday. They were arrested after security forces broke up a sit-in at the company in May.

The workers faced charges of assaulting a police captain, obstructing justice and using violence to resist authorities. All defendants are currently being held in at the 15th of May prison.

According to lawyer Haitham Mohamedein the defense team will appeal against Sunday’s verdict within 10 days of the verdict.

He told Mada Masr that although the trial was held before justices from the Maadi Misdemeanors Court, they convened at the Tourah Police Academy. The trial, which took place over two sessions was initially scheduled for May 28, however it was adjourned until Saturday after police personnel failed to transport the defendants to the trial.

“The workers’ families and friends were not allowed to attend these trial, and there were no journalists present during,” he added.

They were arrested after staging a sit-in in March that lasted several weeks before it was forcefully dispersed by security forces on May 22. Seventy five security personnel initiated the protest to demand full-time contracts and the retroactive payment of wages as some have worked full-time at the company for up to 15 years on temporary or part-time contracts.

Mohamedein criticized the court for issuing the harshest penalties against the protesting workers. He told Mada Masr last week that the charges are trumped-up and baseless, adding that “the Interior Ministry appears to have decided that it wants to extend the legal proceedings.”

The workers’ defense team and media reports claim that the judge presiding over this trial condemned them for initiating the sit-in, even before the conclusion of the court’s hearings. “A judge should only express their decision while issuing a verdict,” Mohamedein told Mada Masr.

The judge is also reported to have claimed that labor strikes are criminal, despite the fact the none of the charges were related to striking as there had been no work stoppages or slowdowns, and even though Article 15 of the Constitution safeguards the right to strike.

A petition protesting the workers arrests has been endorsed by 12 labor unions, political parties and groups and over 250 individuals. It claims that the detainees were physically abused, treated in a degrading manner and had their personal belongings stolen while in custody.

A worker who had been protesting at the company told Mada Masr last week, on condition of anonymity, that four of the detained workers had been hospitalized. They could not confirm the exact reasons for this, “as we have not been able to speak directly with our detained coworkers since their arrests, and because they were not brought to their court session.”

Mohamedein said that the workers had been “entirely peaceful and nonviolent” and, responding to accusations that they assaulted an officer, he explained that no medical report had been filed or evidence filed.

The protest followed the company’s refusal to compensate the family of a security guard who was killed during an altercation with people thought to be stealing property from company grounds. The company board claimed the deceased security guard was not entitled to any compensation or insurance because he was a part-time employee.

The board’s claim flouted a previous court verdict. In May last year, the workers filed a lawsuit against the company before the Appeals Court, which ruled that they were entitled to the company’s profit-sharing scheme, healthcare and other employment rights.

The recent crackdown on labor-related protests in Egypt has seen security forces break up several sit-ins and protesting workers stand trial. In April police arrested 16 protesting Telecom Egypt workers and December 2016 saw security break up sit-ins at two of billionaire Nassif Sawiris’ companies.

In an ongoing case 26 Alexandria Shipyard Company workers are currently standing military trial, accused of inciting workers to strike. The military trial of these civilian workers has been adjourned 12 times, and is currently scheduled to take place on June 20.

Mubarak is free again; What does this say about Egypt?

Washington Post
Hosni Mubarak is free again. What does this say about Egypt?

Tuesday March 28, 2017

Mieczyslaw Boduszynski 

After six years of procedural and legal maneuvers, former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is free. The top Egyptian appeals court acquitted him of involvement in the killing of protesters during the 2011 popular revolt. Mubarak’s expected freedom comes as many leaders of that revolt languish in Egyptian prisons. The other members of Mubarak’s regime put on trial in 2011 have also been set free. How did we get to this place?

In the weeks and months following the toppling of the former Egyptian strongman in 2011, calls for justice on Cairo’s Tahrir Square turned into unified demands for prosecutions of Mubarak and other officials responsible for human rights abuses and economic crimes.

By August 2011, Mubarak, his sons and a number of his top officials were on trial, accused of corruption and ordering security forces to use lethal force against protesters during the revolution.

The sight of Mubarak in the defendant’s cage became a defining image of the Arab Spring. The trial stunned Egyptians, many of whom doubted until the last minute that their autocratic leader would be brought to justice.

Egypt is not unique. Oppositions throughout the world have to balance the desire for justice with the political constraints inherent in the absence of an all-out revolution, coup or military victory.

Retributive measures are frequently replaced with more lenient policies. The possibilities for accountability are determined by the distribution of power among key actors prevailing at the moment of transition. The greater the strength of old elites vis-à-vis the new ones, the less likely are criminal trials and other forms of retributive justice.

The Mubarak trial began primarily in the context of a revolutionary moment in which the power of the “street” was at its peak and the then-ruling military council faced intense popular pressure to prosecute Mubarak and his top officials. Yet, even when the revolutionary logic was at its height, protesters had to contend with the Supreme Council of Armed Forces’s (SCAF) determination to use its powers to protect its privileges and to move the country toward elections on its own terms.

The Mubarak trial was one of concessions made by the SCAF in a bid for legitimacy. After the parliamentary elections of December-January 2011-2012 conferred electoral legitimacy upon the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the party sought to negotiate the terms of the forthcoming handover of power with the SCAF in anticipation of the central role it hoped to play in governing the country.

Yet, the military allowed the trial to go forward, and even after 2013, President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi appeared in no hurry to free Mubarak. Why?

Interest in ensuring stability, building its legitimacy and protecting its extensive economic and political privileges drove the military’s approach. Key military figures, al-Sissi included, have also attempted to co-opt the “spirit” of the revolution, which was broadly popular, for their own purposes.

For example, the military has simultaneously detained and repressed young revolutionary protesters while at the same time going to great lengths to attempt to co-opt the revolutionaries and the revolution, even giving special medals to the martyrs who died during the uprising. The military’s decision to allow the trial to move forward was part of broader goals than just stability and momentarily pacifying protesters.

Indeed, the military sought longer-term legitimacy from the “street” by co-opting the revolution and buying support for an early transition plan. As such, the military largely conceded to demands for justice in an ad hoc, reactive way, such as allowing for Mubarak’s prosecution after days of large demonstrations.

The decision to place Mubarak and his associates on trial was a clear response to rising public pressure — and it also created a lasting perception of the trial as political spectacle. That political perception underscored how hastily prepared the trial was.

It was not clear until the last moment that the trial would actually go forward. Public pressure was central to Mubarak’s trial in the first place — and it raised questions as to whether any judge would be able to render a verdict without regard to public opinion.

Judges were fully aware that anything less than a guilty verdict would lead to massive street demonstrations. Despite this public pressure for a conviction, state officials effectively blocked the prosecutor from gathering sufficient evidence to establish Mubarak’s alleged role in ordering the killings.

As the initial symbolic force of the trial started to wane, its shallow nature did not escape the notice of those who paid the highest price for it. As a mother of one of the victims said, “We didn’t ask them for financial compensation or pensions. They are doing that only to pacify people’s anger. All we want is fair trials.” Beyond popular anger at the shortcomings of the Mubarak trial remained broader concerns about more far-reaching reforms.

The shortcomings of the Mubarak trial, and his ultimate acquittal, may lead one to argue that the prospects for transitional justice were inherently limited in the aftermath of a popular, but still incomplete, political revolution. The truth is that the Mubarak trial was possible precisely because its genesis was associated with a time when the revolutionary logic of the Egyptian transition ruled.

Under its subsequent, negotiated, logic (and then its rollback after 2013), the possibilities for transitional justice greatly diminished. The sight of Mubarak being rolled into the defendant’s cage to be tried for his crimes was a powerful symbol of what 2011 represented for Egyptians and other Arabs.

Never before had an Arab leader been held accountable in such a visible way. Yet, the fact that the trial was ultimately shallow, and that the conviction was ultimately overturned, is an equally potent indicator of just how short the revolution fell of accomplishing its goals of justice.



*Artwork by Carlos Latuff, courtesy of Latuff Cartoons

Egypt's judiciary is the counter-revolution

Mubarak acquitted & released from army hospital; Meanwhile, 1,000s of political detainees languish in their prison cells


Thanks to Sisi's judiciary...Dictator Mubarak is acquitted & released from "detention" in luxury hospital ward

Justice for 800+ murdered protesters - Egypt's very independent judges acquit Mubarak & his entire regime, along with all police forces

 *Artwork by Carlos Latuff (2012 & 2014) courtesy of Latuff Cartoons

Toppled dictator Mubarak freed after 6 yrs in luxury hospital ward

The Guardian
Hosni Mubarak: Egypt's toppled dictator freed after six years in custody 

Ex-president acquitted this month on all charges of murdering protesters before he was ousted in Arab spring uprising in 2011

Ruth Michaelson

Friday 24 March 2017

Egypt’s former dictator Hosni Mubarak has left the Cairo military hospital where he had been held in custody for much of the past six years, and returned to his home in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis, his lawyer said.

Mubarak, 88, was acquitted by Egypt’s highest appeals court on 2 March of conspiring to kill protesters in the final verdict in a long-running case that originally resulted in him being sentenced to life in prison in 2012 over the deaths of 239 people in Arab spring protests against his rule. A separate corruption charge was overturned in January 2015.

He left the Maadi military hospital on Friday morning and returned to his home, where he had breakfast with his family and a number of friends, according to a report in the privately owned newspaper al-Masy al-Youm. His lawyer, Farid al-Deeb, told the paper that Mubarak thanked those who had supported him throughout his trial.

The strongman, who ruled Egypt for nearly three decades, often appeared in a frail state during his court appearances, attending on a stretcher and wearing dark sunglasses, but the appearances put paid to repeated rumors of his death.

  

Mubarak was also healthy enough to appear at the window of his hospital room to wave to supporters gathered outside on occasions including his birthday and the anniversary of Egypt’s 1973 war with Israel.

For those who worked to topple the former dictator, Mubarak’s freedom marks a grim moment in Egypt’s modern history. Yet some reacted with little more than resignation as his release became imminent, numbed by the years of political turmoil since his fall.

Mubarak’s democratically elected successor, Mohamed Morsi, was overthrown in a popularly backed military coup in 2013. Many see echoes of Mubarak’s style of leadership in Egypt’s current leader, the former general Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.

“I’m neither sad nor disappointed,” said Tarek el-Khatib, whose brother, Mustafa, was killed in the struggle to topple Mubarak. “I’d have been surprised had things happened otherwise. Politically, everything flew in this direction and paved the way for the normality of this moment.”

Over the past six years there have been repeated efforts to punish family members and business associates who profited from Mubarak’s regime, largely without lasting consequence. Mubarak’s sons, Alaa and Gamal, were freed in October 2015, with a judge stating that they had served adequate jail time on charges of corruption and embezzlement of public funds.

The notorious steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz, formerly the secretary general of Mubarak’s now defunct National Democratic party, was named as an honorary leader of a political party in 2016, although he had previously served three years on corruption charges.

Despite describing the revolution that ended Mubarak’s rule as “a turning point in Egypt’s history,” Sisi and his military-backed government are regarded as the autocrat’s political heirs.

“I think that Mubarak’s release was something expected as his students are ruling the country,” said Mahienour el Massry, an activist and lawyer who served 15 months in prison under Sisi’s rule. “The same regime, the same corruption, the same brutality.

“Mubarak might be released, but in the eyes of those who believe in the revolution he will always be a criminal killer and the godfather of corruption,” she said. “This might be another round that we have lost, but we will keep on fighting to change the inhuman regime that releases criminals and imprisons innocent people.”

Others were less hopeful. Mubarak’s freedom meant the families of those killed were “now praying for divine justice”, said Mohsen Bahnasy, a human rights lawyer who served as a member of the commission of inquiry into military abuses committed during the 2011 revolution.

Egypt’s highest appeals court previously rejected demands by the families of those killed during the uprising to bring civil suits against Mubarak for his role in the deaths of protesters. An official inquiry later concluded that 846 people died and a further 6,467 were injured during the revolution, as Egyptian security forces violently suppressed the protests which packed Cairo’s central Tahrir Square.

“The Mubarak acquittal is of significant symbolic value in that it reflects an absolute failure of Egyptian judicial and legal institutions to hold a single official accountable for the killing of almost 900 protesters during the January 25 revolution. It is indicative of a deeper, compounded crisis of transitional justice,” said Mai el Sedany, a legal expert with the Washington thinktank the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.

“This is a clear message to all Egyptians that no one will be held accountable for any corruption or oppression in this country – the state is loyal to its men and will continue to be,” said Khatib. “Don’t dream of any revolution again.”

Mubarak’s release comes amid an economic crisis following years of political tumult and worsening security. Egyptians complain of empty pockets and rumbling bellies as inflation exceeds 30% and the government tightens its belt in return for loans from the International Monetary Fund.

“The economic crisis we are living in and the high prices take priority over everything, as does the fear of terrorism. That is what preoccupies ordinary citizens, not Mubarak,” said Khaled Dawoud, an opposition politician who opposed the Islamists but also condemned the bloody crackdown on them.

“When you see the group of people who show up and cheer and support him, you are talking about 150, 200 people,” he said, referring to occasional shows of support outside the Maadi hospital when Mubarak was there.


*Additional reporting by Sharif Abdel Kouddous in Cairo*
*Photos by Mohamed Abd El Ghany and Youssef Boudlal courtesy of Reuters

Judiciary grants Mubarak final acquittal; Counter-revolution complete

The Guardian
Mubarak acquitted in final ruling on Egypt's Arab spring deaths

Former Egyptian president cleared of involvement in death of protesters during 2011 uprising that ended his reign

Egypt’s top appeals court has found Hosni Mubarak innocent of involvement in the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that ended his 30-year rule, marking the final ruling in a landmark case.

Mubarak was the first of the leaders toppled in a wave of Arab uprisings to face trial. In scenes that captivated Egyptians, he appeared in a courtroom cage on charges ranging from corruption to complicity in the murder of protesters.

The case has traced the trajectory of Egypt’s Arab spring, with Mubarak originally sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for conspiring to murder 239 demonstrators during the 18-day revolt – an uprising that sowed chaos and created a security vacuum but also inspired hope for an era of democracy and social justice.

But an appeals court ordered a retrial that culminated in 2014 in the case against the former president and his senior officials being dropped. An appeal by the public prosecution led to Thursday’s final retrial by the court of cassation.

The 88-year-old ailing former leader resides in a Cairo military hospital, where he served a three-year sentence for a separate corruption case. The military overthrew Mubarak’s successor, the Islamist Mohamed Morsi, in 2013.

After a hearing that took most of the day, Judge Ahmed Abdel Qawi announced to cheers of approval from the Mubarak supporters who filled the courtroom: “The court has found the defendant innocent.”

 
The court also rejected demands by lawyers of the victims to reopen civil suits. That left no remaining option for appeal or retrial, according to a judicial source.

The families of those killed, who had attended the trial early on, were not present on Thursday. Their lawyers condemned the verdict as politically motivated.

“This ruling is not fair and not just. The judiciary is politicised,” said Osman al-Hefnway, a lawyer for the families.

Mubarak’s supporters cheered “long live justice” as the verdict was read out and unfurled posters of the former leader.



*Photos courtesy of Reuters and the Associated Press

Supreme court upholds law restricting street protests

REUTERS
Egypt's top constitutional court upholds law restricting street protests

Sat Dec 3, 2016  

Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court upheld on Saturday a law that effectively bans protests, settling a years-long court battle and protecting the law from further challenges.

The law was passed in 2013 amid persistent demonstrations calling for the reinstatement of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Mursi after the military overthrew him following mass protests against his rule.

It requires would-be protesters to notify the interior ministry of any public gathering of more than 10 people at least three days in advance, imposes jail sentences of up to five years for those who violate a broad list of protest restrictions, and allows security forces to disperse illegal demonstrations with water cannons, tear gas and birdshot.

The court's ruling keeps all of these elements of the law intact and there is no further appeal.

Egyptian rights organizations have said the law criminalizes all forms of peaceful assembly and gives the state a free hand to disperse peaceful gatherings by force.

Its strict enforcement has largely succeeded in ending the kind of mass demonstrations that helped unseat two presidents in three years as activists who have held even small, peaceful gatherings were detained.

The ruling means that hundreds of protesters arrested under the law will remain in prison.

"It was a surprise. We were hoping that the constitutional court would come down on the side of rights. There isn't a court in Egypt that has mercy on the people," prominent human rights lawyer Gamal Eid told Reuters.

The case was first brought to an administrative court in 2014 when a group of lawyers challenged parts of the law they said violated article 73 of the constitution.

The article allows the "right to organize public meetings, marches, demonstrations and all forms of peaceful protest while not carrying weapons of any type, upon providing notification as regulated by law."

But the court ruled on Saturday that only article 10, which grants the interior ministry authority to deny protest requests, was unconstitutional.

It upheld three other articles being challenged, including one which requires protesters to submit detailed information on the location and purpose of their gatherings and another stipulating jail sentences and hefty fines for illegal demonstrations, which the law defines broadly.


*Reporting by Haitham Ahmed, Mostafa Hashem and Mohamed Abdellah; Writing by Eric Knecht; Editing by Clelia Oziel

Egypt must end politicization of judiciary, ensure its independence & accountability

International Commission of Jurists

Egypt: authorities must end politicization of the judiciary and ensure its independence and accountability

October 12, 2016

 

The Egyptian authorities must end executive interference in judicial affairs and act to ensure that the judiciary is independent and that it serves to safeguard human rights and uphold the rule of law, the ICJ said today.


The statement came as the ICJ released its new report Egypt’s Judiciary: a Tool of Repression. Lack of Effective Guarantees of Independence and Impartiality.

The report documents the many ways in which the judiciary has been used as a tool to silence those suspected of opposing the Military and Executive.

This include prosecutors and judges initiating and continuing prosecutions on unfounded charges; adopting a presumption in favour of pre-trial detention; applying laws in violation of human rights standards and refusing to permit constitutional challenges to those laws; and failing to respect fundamental fair trial rights.

Convictions in Egypt are regularly based on poorly reasoned judgments and without individual findings of guilt.

“Egypt’s military and executive have subordinated the judiciary to their political will, making it a docile tool in their on-going, sustained crackdown on human rights in Egypt,” said Said Benarbia, ICJ MENA Director.

“In doing so, judges and prosecutors have abdicated their primary responsibility in upholding the rule of law. Rather than acting as a check on the arbitrary exercise of power, judges themselves have become complicit in violating the very rights they are mandated to protect,” he added.

Thousands of political opponents, human rights defenders, pro-democracy campaigners, journalists and individuals exercising their right to freedom of expression and assembly have been subjected to politicized prosecutions and convicted following unfair trials.

The report also documents how the military and the executive’s crackdown has extended to lawyers and judges suspected of opposing the authorities, the very individuals who are supposed to be the last line of defence of rights and freedoms.

The ICJ has found that the structural and systemic politicization of the Egyptian judiciary has been facilitated, in part, by the failure of the legal framework in force to provide for the necessary guarantees for judicial independence and accountability.

The report analyses how the composition, mandate and actions of the High Judicial Council (HJC), have undermined its ability to ensure respect of judicial independence.

The institutional and functional subordination of the Office of the Public Prosecutor to the Executive has meant politicized prosecutions against perceived opposition figures, and a failure to investigate and prosecute alleged human rights violations by police and military personnel.

The report also document how the wide jurisdiction of military and exceptional courts as well as the limited access to the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) have contributed to further undermining judicial independence.

The report contains 136 recommendations to the Egyptian authorities aimed at guaranteeing, in law and practice, the independence and accountability of the judiciary in Egypt.


*Photo courtesy of AFP

Free Alaa! Free the 1,000s of other political prisoners in Egypt

FREE ALAA ABDEL FATTAH!!

London street art, in solidarity with the imprisoned Egyptian blogger & leftist activist Alaa Abdel Fattah. 

Alaa has spent 2.5 years in Cairo's Torah Prison - half of his five year prison sentence - for partaking in a non-violent protest, back in November 2013.

Alaa is just one of the tens of thousands of political prisoners who have languished in the jail cells of Dictator Sisi - for peacefully expressing their opinions, or for opposing the military dictatorship.

FREE ALAA! 
FREE THE THOUSANDS OF OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS!

Egypt: State builds 19 new prisons since 2011 Revolution

Aswat Masriya
Egypt has built 19 new prisons in five years - Rights group

Monday, Sept. 5, 2016

Egypt has approved the construction of 19 new prisons since January 2011 amid an ongoing crackdown on freedoms, according to report released on Monday by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI.)

The number of prisons has risen in Egypt from 43 to 62 since 2011, when then-president Hosni Mubarak was ousted after a popular uprising against his rule.

Out of the 19 new prisons, 16 were built during the reign of Adli Mansour and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, two under the rule of Mohamed Mursi and one during the transitional period led by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. 

According to the report, prisons across Egypt are bursting at the seams due to “random arrests and unjust trials, in addition to the unfair laws passed after July 3, 2013,” when then-Defence Minister Sisi ousted Mursi following mass protests against the latter's rule. 

Hundreds have been arrested for breaking the controversial assembly law issued during the transitional months under then-Interim President Mansour. The law imposes restrictions on protests and stipulates that protesters must obtain a permit from the interior ministry beforehand.

The report also ascribed the government’s need for new prisons to the extension of pre-trial detention periods, which should not exceed two years, according to the law.

Photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, widely known as Shawkan, is among those who exceeded the legal maximum period in pre-trial detention, having spent over two years in prison before he was referred to court in December 2015.

There are no official statistics on the interior ministry’s website regarding the number of inmates in Egyptian prisons, but head of the Prison Authority Mostafa Baz said in a televised interview in May 2016 that the number of prisoners stands at 80,000.

However, a source at the Prison Authority, who preferred to remain anonymous, told ANHRI that Egyptian prisoners totaled over 106,000 prisoners, 60,000 of whom are political prisoners, despite security officials repeatedly asserting that Egyptian prisons were free of political prisoners and detainees.

According to the report, the post-July 3 period, as well as the period of sectarian violence during the early 1990s, are the only periods during which the number of political detainees exceeded that of criminal detainees in Egypt. 

The report said that the Egyptian regime needs to recognise the problems that arise from absence of law and accountability policy, saying that “stability may come through repression, or through justice and the rule of law, and the latter is more lasting.”

“The government builds new prisons, detains larger number of activists, at a time when the country suffers an economic crisis and is reluctant to build hospitals, schools and public libraries,” the report read.

*Photo of Torah Prison, courtesy of Reuters

Condemnation of death sentences against 3 journalists

Committee to Protect Journalists
Egyptian court recommends death penalty for three journalists

May 11, 2016


The Committee to Protect Journalists today strongly condemned an Egyptian court's recommendation to sentence three journalists to death. They were convicted of helping to smuggle secret documents to Qatari intelligence officers and the Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera. The journalists include two Al-Jazeera employees.

Judge Mohammed Shirin Fahmy on May 7 recommended the death penalty for six people -- including Ibrahim Helal, former news director at Al-Jazeera's Arabic news channel, Al-Jazeera producer Alaa Omar Mohammed Sablan, and Asmaa Al-Khatib, a former news editor for the pro-Muslim brotherhood news site Rassd -- convicted of espionage in connection with the leaked documents, according to press reports.

The other three defendants convicted Saturday are documentary film producer and Islamist political activist Ahmed Afifi, flight attendant Mohamed Kilani, and academic Ahmed Ismail.

The three journalists sentenced on May 7 were tried in absentia, and are not in Egypt. Afifi, Kilani, and Ismail are in state custody. Egypt's Mufti, an official tasked with offering religious opinions, must now give the court his non-binding opinion on all the provisional death sentences before a final sentencing hearing scheduled for June 18. All the verdicts are subject to appeal.

"Egypt's rulers have made no secret of their hostility to independent journalism. But for a court to sentence journalists to death would represent a new low," CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour said. "We call on Egyptian prosecutors not to contest any appeals filed by the journalists' lawyers."

The judge said he would deliver on June 18 a verdict in the case of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, whom the military ousted after mass protests in July 2013, and four other people charged in the same case.

Khaled Abdel Wahab Radwan, a former managing producer for the defunct Egypt 25 television channel - which was formerly owned by figures linked to the Muslim Brotherhood -- is among those awaiting a verdict on June 18. Radwan is in custody, according to news reports.

In a statement emailed to CPJ, Al-Jazeera condemned the May 7 ruling, calling it "unjust, shocking, and outrageous."

The Interior Ministry on March 30, 2014, published a video on the social media website Facebook in which Afifi confessed to hiding three bags of secret government documents in Ismail's home and implicated the others in what the court found was an operation to smuggle the documents to their buyers in the Qatari intelligence agency and Al-Jazeera.

Afifi repudiated this confession in January 2016, claiming he had been tortured, according to news reports.

Helal and Al-Khatib, speaking to CPJ from Qatar and Turkey, respectively, both denied having had any role in smuggling the documents. Helal said he believes his conviction was the result of his decision to publish on March 27, 2014, a memorandum dated May 2013 from Mahmoud Hegazy, then the head of Military Intelligence, to Morsi, recommending that the president work more closely with Hamas to maintain stability in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Helal also said he does not know the three defendants in custody who were sentenced along with the journalists.

The Ministry of Interior did not return phone calls or emails from CPJ seeking comment.

Justice minister forced to resign after claiming he'd jail the Prophet Mohamed

Ahram Online
Egypt's justice minister fired following comments on 'imprisoning prophet'

Ahmed El-Zend has been facing widespread criticism on social media for making comments that were considered to be blasphemous

Sunday 13 Mar 2016

Egypt’s Justice Minister Ahmed El-Zend was fired on Sunday little less than a year in office in the wake of widespread criticism of comments he made regarding the Muslim Prophet Muhammed that were considered to be blasphemous.

The decision was taken by Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, state-run news agency MENA said. However, Ismail's cabinet is yet to reveal the reasons for sacking El-Zend.

Last week, in response to a TV host's question on whether he would jail journalists, El-Zend said, "Even if he was a prophet, peace and blessings be upon him."

The 70-year-old then briefly uttered Islamic words of repentance before adding that "the culprit, whatever his description is... I am not talking about jailing a journalist or jailing a teacher, I am saying jailing a defendant."

El-Zend, who is infamous for making controversial media statements, has been facing a wave of criticism on social media after his comments went viral and were largely interpreted as an insult to the Prophet Muhammad, the most sacred figure among Muslims and whose sayings comprise a prime source of Islamic jurisprudence.
 
'Slip of the tongue'

"The thing that a Muslim or a non-Muslim is held culpable for is what is done willfully," El-Zend said when he called in to a TV show on Saturday, stressing that it was a slip of the tongue.

"I ask God Almighty for forgiveness over and over and over again... I know my apology will be accepted [by Prophet Muhammad]."

Al-Azhar, the highest seat of Sunni Islamic learning, issued a statement on Sunday warning against blasphemous comments regarding the Prophet, even those made unintentionally.

An Arabic Twitter hashtag calling for his trial went viral in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with numerous Muslim users expressing anger over his comment and heaping scorn on him even after his apology.

Prior to becoming justice minister, El-Zend was the head of the powerful Judges Club, of which the majority of Egyptian judges are members.

Before El-Zend’s sacking was announced, the Judges Club issued a statement saying that they stand by the justice minister in the face of the "systematic smear campaign against him."

Last May, El-Zend's predecessor Mahfouz Saber resigned as justice minister after saying that sons of garbage collectors should not be judges, which was widely seen as a classist statement and earned him heavy criticism in the days leading up to his resignation.



*Photo of (asshole) Judge Zend, courtesy of Al-Ahram

**Related links:

Egypt's justice minister had called for implementation of hardline Sharia law

HRW lambasts justice minister's incitement to kill 10,000 MB for every dead soldier

Video: Zend interview in which he refers to Egypt's judges as being "masters," while "the others are slaves." (ARABIC)
 

Egypt: 474+ people died at hands of police in 2015; Torture, abuse & extra-judicial murders remain rampant

France24

Egyptians furious over deadly police brutality

March 7, 2016 

 

_

 

Officer investigating Giulio Regeni murder was previously convicted of torture & murder

Mada Masr

Officer investigating Giulio Regeni death previously convicted of torture, murder

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

A senior police officer in charge of the preliminary investigation into the murder of visiting Italian student Giulio Regeni has a prior conviction for torturing a man to death and forging a police report, according to rights activists.

Alexandria Criminal Court sentenced Major General Khaled Shalaby to one year in prison in 2003 on charges of complicity in the abduction, torture, and murder of an Egyptian man, identified as Shawqy Abdel Aal, as well as falsifying official documents, according to human rights reports.

However, Shalaby, along with two fellow officers from Alexandria’s Montazah Police Station, was issued a suspended sentence.

Shalaby, who currently serves as chief of Giza’s General Directorate for Police Investigations, was involved in Egypt’s fact-finding committee investigating Regeni’s brutal murder.

He claimed Regeni died in a traffic accident, the privately owned Al-Shorouk newspaper reported, stating that there is no suspicion of foul play in the death of the 28-year-old Italian doctoral candidate. Preliminary findings revealed no signs of gunshot or stab wounds on Regeni’s body, Shalaby alleged.

When Regeni’s body was flown to Italy for an autopsy, however, coroners documented several stab wounds, along with cigarette burns, ripped-out nails, broken fingers, among other serious injuries.

Italy’s Interior Ministry reported that Regeni was subjected to “animal-like” brutality and torture.

At a ministerial press conference on Monday, Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar commented that he was "disturbed by the coverage of some media outlets,” who he accused of “jumping to conclusions."

"Some have implied that Egypt's security services are involved in this incident,” he noted, stating that the ministry “only received notice of Regeni's disappearance on January 27."

Regeni disappeared on January 25, the fifth anniversary of the 2011 uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak, as he was heading toward the downtown Cairo district of Bab al-Louq, nearby Tahrir Square, which was occupied by heavily armed police forces for the occasion.

Abdel Ghaffar went on to state that Egypt's security forces are conducting investigations with "complete transparency and professionalism" to help identify those responsible for Regeni's death.

On Monday, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told the Rome-based La Repubblica newspaper that Italy "will not settle for purported truths, as we have said on the occasion of the two arrests initially linked to the death of Giulio Regeni.”

Gentiloni was referring to Egyptian security forces’ reports that two suspects in Regeni’s death were arrested days ago. Scant information has been released on these suspects, who were described by Interior Ministry sources as criminals who are not linked to any terrorist organization.

1,117 strikes & labor protests across Egypt in 2015: Report

Mada Masr

1,117 labor protests across Egypt in 2015: Democracy Meter report

Monday, January 11, 2016

Jano Charbel

The NGO Democracy Meter issued its annual report on Egyptian industrial actions on Saturday, citing 1,117 labor protests throughout 2015. In other words, Egypt witnessed an average of around three labor protests during each day of the year, and approximately 93 such protests per month.

As high as this rate of labor unrest is, it represents a marked decrease in comparison to the numbers of industrial actions witnessed in the previous year. The Mahrousa Center for Socioeconomic Development (another NGO) documented 1,651 labor protests in the first half of 2014 alone.

Democracy Meter said the rate of strikes may have diminished in 2015 as a result of a state-sponsored campaign to ban these work stoppages for a year. The NGO also noted that the Ministry of Endowments was brought into play last year, sponsoring religious sermons to denounce the right to strike. Nonetheless, employees of the ministry also conducted several protests and strikes in 2015.

As in previous years, Democracy Meter said that last year's labor protests were primarily linked to wage disputes, contractual demands, physical assaults against employees, punitive dismissals and relocations, along with the closure of workplaces.

Nearly 30 different forms of labor protests were documented last year, including marches, sit-ins, occupations, blocking of streets and the filing of petitions. A total of 392 labor protest rallies were organized in 2015, according to the report.

As for strikes, these included partial strikes, slow-down strikes and comprehensive work stoppages, along with hunger strikes. Incidents of “boss-nappings" and the detention of workplace administrators were also reported, along with the phenomenon of worker suicides. A total of 207 work stoppages were cited in the study.

At least one worker committed suicide last year due to labor grievances, according to Democracy Meter, while another 11 attempted suicide.

In an infograph, the democracy indicator claimed that the 1,117 labor protests in 2015 took place in over 50 different sectors — from factory workers to civil servants, teachers, tourism industry employees, doctors and medical workers, along with many more.

The industrial production and factory sectors witnessed the greatest amount of labor unrest, followed by the governmental employees and civil servants sectors, and then teachers. Such industrial actions were reported in more than 439 different workplaces nationwide.

According to Democracy Meter, 26 out of 27 governorates witnessed labor protests last year, with Matrouh the only governorate in which no such protests were recorded.

 [Labor protests across Egypt in 2015] 

On a national level, Cairo and its environs witnessed the greatest number of labor protests in 2015, with 422 industrial actions. The Nile Delta witnessed 207, and the Suez Canal governorates 187.

2015 saw perhaps the largest street protest since 2013, when thousands of civil servants protested in August against the new civil service law introduced by presidential decree. Several other protests were also staged against this controversial new law.

Moreover, a large wave of strikes took place in October 2015 over the non-payment of a 10 percent bonus for employees in the public works sector, which was also decreed by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

In terms of labor trends, the report claims that the state-controlled Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) and other state entities launched a concerted attack against independent trade unions and sought to tighten their stranglehold upon them.

Many workers perceive the ETUF as continuing to serve as “a representative of the executive branch of government, rather than a representative of workers," Democracy Meter said.

The ETUF did not authorize a single strike in 2015. Since its establishment in 1957, the ETUF has only ever authorized two strikes.

Democracy Meter reported that dozens of workers were arrested last year in light of their labor protests — with courts sentencing 10 of these workers to prison terms. The NGO added that another 80 workers were fired from their jobs due to such industrial actions. Dozens of others were referred to disciplinary hearings or prosecution for engaging in strikes.

Many laborers perceive that the state’s crackdown as discriminatory, Democracy Meter said, pointing out that the state did not charge any of these low-ranking policemen with violating the protest law imposed in 2013.

*Photo of Mahalla strike courtesy of Libcom; Map & graph courtesy of Democracy Meter

Journalist Mohamed Abdel Moneim sentenced to 3 yrs. imprisonment

Mada Masr
Journalist Mohamed Abdel Moneim sentenced to 3 years imprisonment

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Journalist Mohamed Abdel Moneim was sentenced to three years imprisonment on Sunday, after a court found him guilty of partaking in an unauthorized protest dating back to April 24, 2015.

However, Abdel Moneim’s coworkers at the Tahya Masr news portal insist he was arrested while covering this protest, not participating in it.

Convening at the Police Academy, Cairo Criminal Court ruled that Abdel Moneim had breached the Protest Law by taking part in an unauthorized street protest. The court also ruled that the 22-year-old journalist was guilty of possessing weapons, Molotov cocktails, obstructing traffic, endangering the lives of civilians, as well as damaging both public and private properties.

The privately owned Al-Shorouk newspaper reported that the court had issued an identical sentence against two other defendants on Sunday: a 19-year-old student Essam Abdel Hakim, and 15-year-old student Abdel Rahman Sayyed.

The three-year sentence against the journalist was issued despite the in-court testimony of Tahya Masr's administrative chief who, according to Al-Shorouk, confirmed that Abdel Moneim was his employee, and had been covering the street protest in question.

Abdel Moneim’s boss added that the young journalist was objective in his coverage of protests, siding neither with the current administration, nor with the ousted regime of the Muslim Brotherhood.

According to state-owned Al-Ahram, the court did not recognize that Abdel Moneim was a journalist, as he is not an officially registered member of the Journalists’ Syndicate. However, there are several thousand journalists said to be operating in Egypt who are unable to enter this syndicate due its restrictive preconditions for membership.

As of last month, the Liberties Committee of the Journalists’ Syndicate announced that there are at least 32 journalists in detention across Egypt, from which at least 18 were arrested while reporting in public spaces.

The Liberties Committee has organized several petitions calling for the release of detained journalists and media staffers, along with several legal appeals, protests, and marches along with campaigns for improved treatment of jailed journalists.

According to the chief of the Liberties Committee, Khaled al-Balshy, at least 350 cases of assaults against journalists have been documented over the past two years.

In December 2015, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) listed Egypt as the world’s second worst jailer of journalists, second only to China.

Court orders release of Mubarak's sons after acquitting them of corruption charges

Associated Press

Egypt court orders release of Hosni Mubarak's sons

Gamal and Alaa Mubarak were detained in 2011 after their father stood down as president and will be freed due to time already served

Monday 12 October, 2015

A court in Egypt has ordered the release from prison of the sons of the country’s former president Hosni Mubarak, taking into account the time they have already served.

The Cairo criminal court ordered the release of Gamal, Mubarak’s one-time heir apparent, and his brother Alaa, a wealthy businessman, after they were both sentenced in May to three years in prison in a corruption case dubbed the presidential palaces affair by the Egyptian media.

They were first detained in April 2011, two months after their father stepped down during a popular uprising against his three decades in power, but were freed in January on bail before being convicted in May along with Mubarak, who is being held in a military hospital.

The trio’s conviction, which came after a retrial, was for embezzling millions of dollars in state funds over a decade, diverting money meant to pay for renovating and maintaining presidential palaces to upgrade their private residences.

Gamal and Alaa are also facing trial on insider trading charges, with the next hearing in October. They are expected to walk free later on Monday.

During sentencing in May, the three men were ordered to pay 125m Egyptian pounds (£10.4m) and return 21m Egyptian pounds they embezzled. After the hearing, judicial and security officials said those amounts had already been paid by the Mubaraks after their first trial.

Many Egyptians view the brothers as key symbols of an autocratic and corrupt administration that struck an alliance with the mega-wealthy at the expense of the poor.

The rise of the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who has vowed stability after four years of unrest and taken a tough line against dissent, has encouraged Mubarak supporters and upended the public perception and media depiction of the 2011 uprising.

Political activists are now often cast as troublemakers or foreign agents and hundreds of the young activists who sparked the revolt four years ago are either in prison on charges of breaking a new protest law or have left the country.


*Photo courtesy of ONA news agency

Following release of jailed Al-Jazeera journalists, Egypt must release all remaining media personnel languishing in prisons

Reporters Without Borders/RSF

RSF calls for release of six journalists sentenced to life imprisonment

Wednesday 30 September 2015

 

While Egypt’s president has just claimed on CNN that his country enjoys unprecedented freedom of expression, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) points out that tomorrow a court will begin hearing the appeals of six unjustly detained journalists who were given life sentences in April. RSF calls for their immediate and unconditional release.

Their appeals will be heard at the same time as those of a group of Muslim Brotherhood leaders with whom they were originally tried and convicted in what was known as the “Rabaa Operations Room”trial.

The six journalists were convicted of disseminating false news, inciting violence and chaos, and being part of an “operations room” aimed at orchestrating attacks against the government during demonstrations in Cairo’s Rabaa Adawiya Square in support of deposed President Mohamed Morsi.

The journalists worked for different media but all covered the demonstrations and all were critical of the government.

“The outcome of these journalists’ appeals will be decisive for the future of media freedom in Egypt,” said Alexandra El Khazen, the head of RSF’s Middle East and Maghreb desk.

“The fact that their appeals are being heard at the same time as those of the members of the Muslim Brotherhood group is extremely disturbing. We urge the Egyptian authorities to quash their convictions and free them because they were arrested just for doing their job as journalists to report the news.”

The six include two journalists with the Rassd news website – reporter Abdullah Alfakharany, who is one of the site’s founders, and Samhi Mostafa, its executive director. They were arrested in August 2013 along with Mohammed Al-Adly, a presenter on Amgad TV, a religious TV channel.

Hany Salah Al-Deen, the former news editor of the pro-Muslim Brotherhood TV channel Misr 25 and former editor of the Youm7 news website, was arrested in December 2013 at Cairo airport. The authorities closed Misr 25 after Morsi’s overthrow in July 2013.

Mossab Al Barbary, the head of the pro-Muslim Brotherhood TV channel Ahrar 25 and former Misr 25 manager, was arrested at Beirut airport, where he had gone on a business trip, and was deported to Cairo.

Hassan Al Qabbani, an editor with Rassd and with the newspaper of the Muslim Brotherhood party, Freedom and Justice, was arrested at his home in January 2015.

There are eight other journalists among those whose appeals will begin being heard tomorrow but RSF had not been able to establish any link between their arrests and their work as journalists.

Most of the journalists currently imprisoned in Egypt are directly or indirectly accused of supporting a banned organization, above all the Muslim Brotherhood, inciting violence and disseminating false information. The Muslim Brotherhood was declared a “terrorist organization” in December 2013.

With at least 20 journalists currently detained, Egypt is the world’s fourth biggest prison for media personnel (after China, Eritrea and Iran) and is ranked 158th out of 180 countries in RSF’s press freedom index.

___

*Read also:

CPJ urges Sisi to release all journalists jailed in Egypt

___

*Artwork courtesy of Ben Jennings