Egypt arrests/deports 200+ Uighur students

VOA News
More Than 200 Uyghur Students Detained in Egypt

July 14, 2017

Officials in Egypt continue to detain and send ethnic Uyghur students to China.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports the students were studying at Al-Azhar Islamic University in Cairo.
RFA and VOA are each part of the United States government-supported Broadcasting Board of Governors.

Uyghurs are a mostly Muslim ethnic group in China and Central Asia. Most live in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China.

RFA reported in May that Chinese officials had begun ordering Uyghurs studying outside of China to return to their hometowns.

A Uyghur student at Al-Azhar told RFA at the time that classmates who had returned to China seem to have disappeared.

“We haven’t been able to contact any of them,” the student said.

More than 200 Uyghurs, many of them religious students, have been detained in Egypt since July 4. Some were seized in restaurants or at their homes. Others were stopped at airports while trying to flee to safer countries, sources told RFA.

The Middle East Monitor reported that as many as 80 Uyghur students may have been seized on Wednesday. They were arrested for alleged problems with their Egyptian residency papers, the Monitor said in its report.

Criticism of China's treatment of Uyghurs

Human rights and Uyghur exile groups have condemned China for violating the rights of the Uyghurs and for breaking a United Nations treaty.

The agreement bars forced repatriations.

Sandra Jolley is with the United States Commission on International Religious Freedoms. She told RFA that the Egyptian government’s actions violate international rules against torture.

Such rules protect people who may face “imprisonment, torture and death should they be deported to their homes,” Jolley said.

She and others are urging the Grand Imam at Cairo’s Al-Azhar Islamic University to help stop the forced repatriations of Uyghurs.

Dr. Ahmed El-Tayeb currently serves as the school’s Grand Imam.

“He has a powerful voice. He leads Al-Azhar, and he should accept some role in protecting the students who attend this very prestigious university,” Jolley said.

Call for protection

A group of Uyghur students living in Cairo have also appealed to El-Tayeb. In a letter, they asked him to prevent future deportations.

“Our only sin is that we want to learn and study religion,” the students said.

The Arabic-language news service HuffPost Arabi received a copy of the letter.

Last week, Al-Azhar said in a statement that no Uyghur students had been arrested on the university’s grounds or while in any buildings connected with the school.

ITUC demands that Egypt ensures full investigation into Giulio Regeni's murder

International Trade Union Confederation
Egypt: Justice for Murdered Researcher Giulio Regeni

The ITUC has called on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to ensure a full investigation into the murder of PhD student Giulio Regeni in Cairo 

January 24, 2017

Twenty-eight-year-old Regeni, a student at Cambridge University researching Egypt’s independent trade union movement, was brutally tortured and murdered on 25 January.

Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary, said, “This atrocity, against an innocent young researcher, must be fully investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice. The heavy-handed tactics of Egypt’s police, the string of disappearances in recent months and the mounting repression of civil society show that President Sisi’s government is heading in the wrong direction.

The prospects for fundamental democratic rights and freedoms, including the right to freedom of association for the country’s workers, are receding by the day. We call upon the government to change course, to support and protect human rights and avoid yet more bloodshed and the possibility of further mass unrest.”

Italy: Parliament to host Giulio Regeni memorial scholarship campaign

Mada Masr
Italian Parliament to host Giulio Regeni memorial scholarship campaign event

January 19, 2017

Italy’s Parliament has announced it will host an event for the campaign working to establish a scholarship fund in the name of slain researcher Giulio Regeni, which would allow an Egyptian student to study at the United World College (UWC) of the Adriatic to obtain the two-year International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma.

The campaign organizers have told Mada Masr that they will launch their fundraising efforts during the parliamentary event, relying on crowdfunding to supply the necessary money for the 2018 scholarship and a matching funds program through which institutions and corporations can donate money to ensure the scholarship’s continuation.

Regeni, the 28-year-old student whose body was found in a ditch in a Cairo suburb on February 3, 2016 exhibiting signs of torture, studied at UWC-USA in New Mexico.

The idea was suggested by Regeni’s former UWC-USA classmates, Federico Torracchi and Lorenzo Bartolucci, according to the Italian La Repubblica newspaper.

The scholarship fund “sends a message that counters hatred,” Bartolucci told La Repubblica. “Giulio wanted to improve people’s lives. We want to remind people about who he was and what he did before he died.”

Regeni, a Cambridge University doctoral student, was researching labor issues and writing his PhD dissertation on Egypt’s independent trade union movement. He was conducting field research in Egypt through a one-year visiting scholar program at the American University in Cairo. He went missing on January 25, 2016, as he was traveling from his apartment in Cairo’s Dokki neighborhood in the direction of Tahrir Square amid a heavy security presence for the fifth anniversary of the January 25 revolution.

Regeni’s body was found bearing signs of torture, evident from cigarette burns, cuts, bruises and his de-nailed fingers — all hallmarks of Egyptian security forces’ torture practices. However, Egypt’s Interior Ministry has repeatedly denied responsibility for his torture and death and sought to distance themselves from the case, causing strained diplomatic relations between Egypt and Italy.

The initial police investigations to emerge from Egypt claimed that Regeni had died in a traffic accident, despite subsequent autopsy reports, which confirmed he was tortured over a period of several days.

Egypt’s Interior Ministry later claimed security forces had shot and killed five members of a gang that it claimed often stole the identities of foreign nations and with whom Regeni’s personal belongings were allegedly found. However, the family members of the five men strongly denied these claims.

Italian politicians and investigators have persistently urged Egyptian authorities to hand over all evidence concerning the case, and to cooperate more fully on ascertaining details concerning his death.

United World Colleges has played a prominent role in providing Egyptian students with education opportunities for the last 30 years.



*Photo by Riccardo Antimiani, courtesy of CameraPress/Redux

Sisi's troops involved in increasing numbers of kidnappings

Washington Post
Egyptian groups: Government has been kidnapping students, activists

June 13, 2015

Erin Cunningham and Heba Habib

CAIRO — They have been taken from their homes, the streets, even from schools. Some have turned up dead, while others have just vanished.

They are Egypt’s disappeared: dozens of students and activists kidnapped in what human rights advocates say is an escalation of the government’s campaign against dissent.

Egyptian activists say they have documented a disturbing rise in forced disappearances over the past two months, cases in which victims are taken without warrants and police deny knowledge of their whereabouts. The detainees often show up later in court or are released without explanation. At least two who were recently seized by security forces were later found dead, according to rights groups.

“People have disappeared in Egypt before but definitely not at this rate,” said Khaled Abdel Hamid, spokesman for the rights group Freedom for the Brave.

The group says that security forces have kidnapped 163 people since April and that 64 of them have since been released.

Another rights organization, “3adala” (Justice), said it had confirmed 91 disappearance cases in April and May and that 38 people are still missing. The discrepancy in the tallies is attributable to different verification methods and contact networks, as well as the opaque nature of Egypt’s security apparatus, activists say.

Last month, the Cairo-based Alkarama rights group announced that it had asked the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to intervene in connection with seven cases of forced abductions in Egypt.

The U.N. group has said in statements that it has sought since 2011 to visit the country but that Egyptian authorities have not responded to its requests.

The Interior Ministry did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the allegations of mass detentions.

“We normally find out [about the abductions] through witnesses” who report seeing people dragged away by police or plainclothes agents on the streets or from their homes, Abdel Hamid said.

In one instance, he said, a woman watched as Ahmed al-Ghazali, a member of the left-leaning April 6 Youth Movement, was detained by men she presumed were plainclothes police officers.

During a melee in which Ghazali was shoved into an unmarked van, according to the woman, his phone fell out of his pocket. The woman picked it up and used it to contact his friends and family, the activist said.

Other times, sympathetic police officers leak information to relatives or lawyers searching for the missing. Sometimes, fellow prisoners with access to a lawyer spot the missing detainees and help get word out to the community of activists.

Authorities don’t normally alert relatives when a missing detainee is about to appear before a judge.

According to Abdel Hamid, rights groups, with their webs of contacts, often receive anonymous phone calls notifying them that a disappeared person is about to turn up in court.

In recent weeks, the detainees who have seen a judge have been charged with engaging in unlawful political activities or demonstrations. The suspects are often appointed a public defender.

The now-banned April 6 Youth Movement had called for a general strike on June 11 to protest Egypt’s deteriorating economic conditions. Many of its leaders have been targeted for arrest, rights groups say.

“It’s a scare tactic to keep people in line,” Abdel Hamid said of the disappearances.

The state’s increased offensive against its political opponents started in the summer of 2013, when the military ousted the elected president, Mohamed Morsi — a response to massive street protests against the Islamist leader’s rule.

But Morsi’s overthrow polarized the country. His supporters demonstrated in the streets, and security officers responded forcefully, gunning down unarmed protesters on several occasions. President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, who was defense minister at the time, gained widespread support for his bid to crush the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hailed.

But the crackdown soon widened to include secular and leftist activists as well as rights advocates and employees of nonprofit groups. In the months after Sissi’s takeover, from July 2013 to May 2014, the government detained, charged or sentenced more than 41,000 people, according to Human Rights Watch.

Egypt is experiencing “repression the likes of which it hasn’t seen in decades,” Joe Stork, the deputy Middle East and North Africa director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement this past week.

The New York-based group said Sissi “has provided near total impunity for security force abuses . . . and severely curtailed civil and political rights.”

When freelance photographer Esraa al-Taweel disappeared June 1, her father feared the worst. She had left her house in a Cairo suburb to have dinner with two friends, he said. But neither she nor her companions returned home.

Her family launched a frantic search for Esraa, 23, who was crippled last year when security forces shot her as she was photographing a demonstration. They ended up at a local police station.
“They told us she was not there,” said her father, Mahfouz al-Taweel.

But several low-ranking police officers later whispered to him that she had indeed been detained, he recounted. Some activists say they suspect that police may have arrested her because she had a camera, which she often carried with her.

“They said the officers would never tell us,” Taweel said of the police recruits.

“She is handicapped and needs treatment,” he added. “I just want to know where my daughter is.”

On Thursday, Freedom for the Brave received information that one of Esraa’s companions, a student named Omar Ali, had been seen at the maximum-security Aqrab prison outside Cairo by a fellow detainee. Word was spread through trusted sources and surreptitious phone calls, the activists said. The group has been unable to determine what Ali might be charged with.

“In my entire career as a lawyer, I had never encountered [forced disappearances] until now,” said Amro Hassan of the Cairo-based Association for Free Thought and Expression, a nongovernmental group that advocates freedom of expression in Egypt. “I’m still trying to understand it.”

Mohamed Zarea is the head of the Human Rights Association for the Assistance of Prisoners and has defended and assisted detainees for nearly two decades. He said he dealt with 40 cases of forced disappearances in the mid-1990s, when Egypt was grappling with a violent Islamist insurgency.

“Most of the people who disappeared were radical Islamists,” he said, adding that the victims vanished for years at a time — or in some cases were never found. “What happens now is someone is kidnapped and then sent to court later on trumped-up charges.”

The periods during which the current detainees disappear are much shorter, he said.

In online spreadsheets and on Facebook, activists have circulated lists of those who have reportedly gone missing over the past two months. They include young and old, teachers and students, fathers and sons.

“Taken into a microbus and detained,” one entry reads.

Another, compiled by the prominent activist Mona Seif, catalogues the arrest of the family of April 6 Youth Movement member Nour al-Sayyed Mahfouz.

“All three blindfolded & detained from their home,” it reads, referring to Mahfouz, her father and her brother. In a news story linked to the entry, Mahfouz’s mother says the police took the three.

There is a June 1 note on the Sinai-based rights activist Sabry al-Ghoul: “Reportedly died after being detained by the military."


*Photo by Mohamed Abd El Ghany, courtesy of Reuters 

3,000 civilians tried before military courts in 5 months

Mada Masr

3000 civilians tried in military courts in 5 months: No to Military Trials campaign

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Omar Said 

The No to Military Trials for Civilians campaign said on Monday that 3000 civilians were tried in military courts in the last five months, since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi passed new legislation treating certain state facilities as military institutions.

The findings formed part of the campaign’s fourth annual conference, which included testimonies from those who have been through military trials and their families.

Campaign member Sara al-Sherif says this constitutes a “dramatic” increase in an already endemic practice, presenting a greater challenge for the campaign, as public outrage has been more recently directed at harsh rulings by civilian courts.

She says people claim, “civilian judiciaries issue death penalties and life sentences without restriction, in contrast to verdicts by military judiciaries that are swift and will never be worse than what is already practiced in civilian courts,” but maintains this is not accurate, given the nature of military courts and the verdicts they have issued.

Lawyer Ahmed Heshmat raises concerns over the independence of military courts in the first place.

“The law that enabled military courts to try civilians stipulated that this judiciary is independent, but it is not independent at all. Military judges are employees of the Defense Ministry, and as such they have to adhere to the demands of their superiors.”

“Verdicts issued by military courts should be approved by the military leader or his deputy, and he has the right to request the amending of a sentence, or a retrial if the defendants were acquitted,” he adds.

Heshmat also questioned the legal procedures for military trials. Verdicts by military courts are all issued as if the defendants are present, even if they are actually absent.

Since Sisi’s decree, the number of civilians referred to military courts has increased, especially among students arrested on campuses for protesting, many of who have been handed lengthy prison sentences. Universities are now considered military institutions under the new law.

An activist in the “Horreya” (freedom) campaign, concerned with the detention of students, Seif al-Islam Farag, said that the campaign has recorded the cases of 160 students referred to military tribunals, including 48 students from Mansoura University, 31 from Al-Azhar University and 14 from Monufiya University.

He added that the sentences against many of these students are not based on reality, as in the example of student Ahmed Shokier, who was sentenced to life in prison, when he had actually passed away one month before the incident for which he was convicted took place. Another student in Port Said was referred to 11 military tribunals.

Mother of 16-year-old Youssef Shaaban, who was arrested in September, says her son was tortured to make him confess to crimes he didn’t commit, including killing a police officer. The grieving mother says she is not able to visit her son in prison as no one knows his whereabouts.

Father of 19-year-old Ain Shams student Mohamed al-Araby, said that he was surprised when five police officers stormed his house and arrested his son. They said his son had published a video concerning the military and would face charges of “spreading false news about the Armed Forces.” The father was told his son would return home in a few hours, but he never came back.

“Days later, I found a lawyer asking for a lot of money to defend my son who was facing a military trial. When I went to military prosecution, they said there is no need to hire a lawyer, as the case would be heard by a misdemeanor court and not a criminal one. I have just realized that the case was referred to criminal court,” Araby’s father added.

Araby himself spent many weeks in military prison before he was referred to Tora, with signs of torture on his face, according to his father.

The No to Military Trials campaign organizers pleaded with local media to raise the issue of military trials for civilians, which they say threatens everyone under the new legislation.

Military court sentences 21 students to 15 years imprisonment

Mada Masr

Military court sentences 21 student protesters to 15 years in prison

Wednesday February 11, 2015 

On Wednesday, the North Cairo Military Court sentenced 21 students to 15 years imprisonment each.

Ten of these students were present in court during the sentencing, while another 11 were sentenced in absentia.

These 21 students of Sadat City University had stood trial on charges of protesting without a permit and vandalizing public property on campus.

The office of the Prosecutor General referred these students to a military tribunal in light of the presidential decree which stipulates that "attacks against public institutions, facilities and public properties fall under the jurisdiction of the military judiciary."

The events in question date back to October, prior to Presidential Decree 136/2014 which was issued on October 27, when security forces arrested ten students on the aforementioned charges, and filed these same charges against another 11 students.

Prosecutors in the Nile Delta city of Tanta, who had initially filed criminal charges against these 21 students, moved to refer them to a military tribunal following the issuing of Presidential Decree 136/2014.

One of the lawyers for these students, Mohamed Eissa, told Mada Masr that the referral of his clients to a military trial "was fraught with problems from the very beginning, as the arrests took place prior to the issuing of this decree which grants military courts jurisdiction over their case."

Subsequently, the lawyer pointed out that the referral of these students to a military trial violates the principle of non-retroactivity of legislation, especially when such legislation violates a defendant's rights.

According to Eissa, several of the lawyers for these 21 students sought to file a legal appeal citing the military court's lack of jurisdiction in this case, due to the fact that the law was issued after the students were arrested and charged.

However, other defense lawyers and even family members agreed to have these students stand trial before the military court, as they were under the impression that military courts mete out justice more thoroughly than civilian courts.

The differences amongst the defense team led Eissa and other lawyers to take another legal path.

Eissa's camp filed a legal appeal before the State Council Court against Presidential Decree 136/2014, and specifically against the referral of the 21 students to a military court.

The State Council Court has accepted the lawyers' motion, and has set February 24 as the date for the preliminary session through which to examine this legal appeal as well as assessing the constitutionality of this presidential decree.

Eissa concluded: "The law has been amended so as to allow appeals against verdicts issued by first degree military courts. However, upon looking into the appeals of the military judiciary we find that all previous verdicts issued by military courts have subsequently been upheld."

Student dies from injuries sustained following police raid of campus

Aswat Masriya

Egypt: Student Dies Due to Wounds Sustained During On-Campus Violence

 October 21, 2014

Alexandria — A student at the University of Alexandria was reported dead on Tuesday morning due to wounds sustained during on-campus violence last week.

Omar Abdel Wahab, a sophomore at the university's faculty of law, was admitted into the university hospital following his injury last Tuesday. He is the first student to die as a result of on-campus violence during the current academic year, which started on October 11.

University campuses have witnessed unprecedented violence throughout the past academic year, with at least 16 students killed amid on-campus protests, according to the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression's Student Observatory.

The pro-Mohamed Mursi "Students against the coup" movement has been organising protests against the former Islamist president's military ouster throughout the past academic year. Protests have often devolved into clashes with security forces.

"Students against the coup" in the University of Alexandria mourned the death of Abdel Wahab. In a statement released on Tuesday, the movement vowed that the deceased student's blood "will not go in vain."

A number of students from the University of Alexandria organised a demonstration protesting Abdel Wahab's death and calling for retribution on Tuesday, an eye-witness told Aswat Masriya.

The Ministry of Interior said on October 14 that two policemen were wounded in clashes between students who "belong to the Muslim Brotherhood" and the security forces inside Alexandria University.

The security forces arrested 37 students, the ministry added in a statement. It accused around 250 protesting students of vandalising one of the gates and pelting security personnel outside the university with rocks.

Mohamed Ramadan, an Alexandrian lawyer defending 16 students arrested on background of the violence which took place in the University of Alexandria on October 14, told Aswat Masriya that all 16 defendants were "randomly arrested" from the scene of the violence, denying that any of them has political affiliations.

The 16 defendants are accused of murdering Abdel Wahab, the attempted murder of another student who was injured in the violence, illegal assembly and protesting without notice, Ramadan said. They were detained for 15 days on Thursday.

Before the start of the academic year, the cabinet discussed measures to be adopted during the year to quell any possible tension.

Minister of Higher Education Sayed Abdel Khalek hired a private security company on September 24 to guard 12 public universities during the coming academic year.

Strict security measures adopted by Falcon Security Services at the university gates nevertheless triggered violence from the students, who became frustrated with their delayed entrance into campus.

The Cairo-based Democracy Index reported on Saturday the occurrence of 58 student protests during the first week of the new academic year, at the rate of almost 10 protests per day.

AFTE reported the arrest of over 200 students during the past week in a report released on Saturday. AFTE said that 186 students remain detained. Those arrested include 70 students arrested from their homes, AFTE had earlier reported.

Eight domestic civil society organisations condemned the arrest of students during the first three days of the year in a statement released last Tuesday. International Watchdog Human Rights Watch also condemned the students' arrest in a separate statement on the same day, calling for their release.

Police use excessive force in attempt to crush student protests

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Egypt: Security forces use excessive force to crush student protests 

17 October 2014

Testimonies gathered by Amnesty International indicate that Egyptian security forces used excessive force to crack down on student demonstrations at Alexandria University this week, injuring at least 35 students and leaving three other students in a critical condition. Two security officers were injured during the clashes according to official figures. 

Students interviewed by Amnesty International described how protests that started peacefully on university grounds later descended into violence. Security forces stationed outside the university’s main gate fired tear gas and shotgun pellets at a crowd of students, some of whom hurled ‘hmarich’ (fireworks), Molotov cocktails and stones.

It is not clear how the clashes began but as they intensified, security forces broke down the main gate storming the university premises, chasing students and continuing to fire at them.

“The Egyptian security forces have a bleak record of using arbitrary and abusive force against protesters including students. The lack of accountability for such violations, including unlawful killings, gives them the green light to carry on brutalizing protesters,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

The demonstrations at Alexandria University began in the early afternoon on 14 October when around 500 students gathered to protest against security measures introduced by the university’s new security agency ‘Falcon’. The agency has been contracted by the Ministry of Higher Education to maintain security in 15 universities across Egypt.

The new security measures imposed include searches at the university gates, stricter policies on male and female students mixing and the power to stop and search students on the university campus at any time. The students were also protesting against the unfair trials and prolonged detention of fellow students arrested during previous demonstrations.

One student told Amnesty International how security forces stationed outside the main gate had shot at students protesting on campus nearby. “They started firing tear gas followed by shotgun pellets.

The pellets were raining down on us and I could see students around me getting injured. We were suffocated by the tear gas and ran away moving further inside the university campus,” he said.

Another student recounted how security forces who had broken down the main gate chased students who sought refuge in the Mechanical Engineering department building.

“They were even following us with their armoured vehicles inside the university campus,” he said.

“They started to shoot pellets and I saw my friend Abdel Rahman Abdel Aziz shot in his mouth and eye, I carried him inside the Mechanical Engineering building with the help of other colleagues to seek protection, but the security forces followed us and continued to shoot tear gas and pellets inside the building.”

Another student who was inside the building told Amnesty International: “We were inside on the ground floor of the Mechanical Engineering department building. Security forces were shooting pellets and tear gas inside the building, they broke the glass of the windows of the ground floor and continued firing tear gas. They also fired pellets through gaps in the iron bars of the door to the building.”

Evidence collected by Amnesty International indicates that the security forces shot tear gas inside the building and used firearms and pellets, randomly against students when it was not necessary. One of the students injured during the incident, Omar Abdelwahab, is in a critical condition after sustaining pellet shots in his neck and both eyes.

“The government must act urgently to rein in the security forces,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

Any use of force in the policing of demonstrations, even when they have turned violent or are regarded by the authorities as illegal, must comply with international law.

The use of force by security forces is prohibited by international law except as strictly necessary and to the extent required for them to perform their duty. Firearms may only be used as a last resort in self-defence or to protect others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury. Tear gas should not be fired at protesters inside buildings.

Widespread student protests against the repressive practices of the current government have rocked Egypt since the academic year began on 11 October and have been met by a fierce response from the authorities. At least 200 students across the country have been arrested during demonstrations and 90 have been injured according to Marsad Tolab Horreya (Student Freedom Observatory), an Egyptian student group that has been documenting violations during university protests.

At least 150 students were arrested during the protests at Alexandria University. Twenty-two remain in detention on vague or groundless charges including participating in protests without authorization.

 All those arrested merely for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, must be released immediately and unconditionally with all charges against them dropped.

“Across the world, universities have provided a fertile ground for debates and dissent. This should be praised as a sign of a vibrant youth activism rather than crushed,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

Where there is sufficient evidence of violent criminal activity against any protester, they must be tried only on recognizably criminal charges in proceedings that conform to international standards on fair trials.

Sixteen of the detained students have been accused of attempting to murder two students who were injured during the protests. The 16 students are also facing charges such as injuring two police officers, protesting without authorization, destroying public property and belonging to a banned group. These are felony crimes under Egyptian law and may be punished by up to 15 years in prison.

The six other students detained are accused of belonging to a banned group, protesting without authorization, possessing weapons and destroying public property. These are considered misdemeanours punishable by up to three years in prison.  The prosecutor ordered the detention of the two groups on 16 October for 15 days. 


*Photo courtesy of AFP/Getty Images

Well over 110 students jailed for protesting against new security measures

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Egypt: Release Arrested University Students

Raids Aim to Suppress Campus Dissent

October 14, 2014

 
(Beirut) – Egyptian authorities should release more than 110 university students arrested since the start of the school year on October 11, 2014. The arrests were apparently aimed at preventing a revival of campus protests that have erupted repeatedly since the overthrow of the former president, Mohamed Morsy, in July 2013. The arrests and subsequent activities appear to be solely directed at the students’ peaceful exercise of the right to free assembly.

Security forces arrested at least 71 students in 15 governorates on October 11, according to the Students for Freedom Observatory, an activist group formed this year to track worsening restrictions on campus political activities. The group said many students were seized from their homes in pre-dawn raids that involved uniformed police, plainclothes officers, and heavily-armed special forces units.

Police arrested another 44 on October 12 after protests erupted at universities across the country, and a further 17 on October 13. Authorities have released 14 students, the observatory said, but ordered many others detained for 15 days pending investigation. One institution, Monofeya University, ordered five students suspended for organizing protests, the Observatory said.

“This mass arrest of students is a pre-emptive strike on free speech and free assembly,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director. “Universities should be safe zones for the exchange of ideas, including political debates.”

Most of those arrested apparently had participated in protests calling for academic freedom and the release of previously detained students, as well as expressing opposition to Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former defense minister who removed Morsy and was elected president in June.

In the 2013-2014 academic year following Morsy’s ouster, at least 14 students died in protest-related violence, according to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram. Authorities delayed this academic year to mid-October to prepare for demonstrations. In June, al-Sisi issued a presidential decree that allows him to directly appoint university and faculty deans. Following a 2011 change made by Egypt’s post-revolutionary military rulers, university faculty had elected their own leadership. University deans can now dismiss faculty members for “crimes that disturb the educational process.” Cairo University, the country’s preeminent secular higher education institution, has banned all political activity. The government has hired the private security firm Falcon to guard entrances at 12 universities.

Saturday’s campaign of arrests appeared to unfold the same way across Egypt.

Police arrived at the home of Mustafa Tarek, 21, at around 2:30 a.m. on October 11, his brother, Mohamed, told Human Rights Watch. Tarek, a recent graduate in engineering from Mansoura University, had helped organize a boycott of the university’s final exams this year to protest the beating of students by campus security guards. The university was forced to reschedule the exams, his brother said.

Around two dozen uniformed and plainclothes police entered the family apartment, located near the university, and refused to show Tarek’s father a warrant when he asked for one, Mohamed said. When Mohamed objected to the police entering Tarek’s bedroom, where Mohamed’s four-year-old son was also sleeping, police punched him and his father, Mohamed said. After overturning furniture and searching drawers, the police took Tarek from the apartment. When Mohamed asked where they were taking him, the police told him that it was none of his business. Authorities questioned Tarek about whether he belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood or organized protests and ordered him detained for 15 days, Mohamed said.

Police took Islam Abdullah, 21, from his family’s home in the Shehadiyya district of Damietta at around 1:30 a.m. on October 11, according to his father, Gamal. Around 10 to 15 policemen wearing uniforms and plainclothes, some armed with assault rifles, woke the family and took Abdullah to the street, where two microbuses were waiting, the father said.

Abdullah, a fourth-year commerce student at Damietta University, is student union deputy president. His father said he did not know whether his son had participated in protests. After police arrested Abdullah, Gamal said he went to the city’s main state security building to wait. At around 3 a.m., he said, he saw police march Abdullah, his hands handcuffed in front of him, into the building. Gamal said he has received no further information about his son.

Also at around 3 a.m. on October 11, in Cairo’s Sayyida Zeinab district, police knocked on the door of Ibrahim Salah’s family apartment, according to Salah’s mother, Aisha. They asked Salah, who answered the door, for his university and personal identification cards, then searched the apartment, overturning drawers and furniture. The group included police officers and special forces troops who wore masks, she said.

After police found a clothespin that said “The Martyr Abdel Rahman Hassan,” Salah, a 23-year-old engineering student in his second year at Helwan University, told them that it referred to a friend. The officers took Salah’s mobile phone and laptop and did not respond when Aisha asked where they were taking her son. They marched Salah from the apartment, she said.

Aisha said that Salah’s older brothers visited the local police station and prosecutor’s office, but authorities have not provided any information about where he is being held or what charges he might face. A police officer told a lawyer for the family that it would be better if he did not follow them as they took Salah away, Aisha said.

“I just don’t want my son to be hurt, he’s a very good person, he doesn’t deserve that,” she said. “I’m so scared for him, I’m so scared for his sake. But I stood my ground, I didn’t break down.”

In another arrest at the same time, state security officers came to the family apartment of Ahmed Yasser, a 22-year-old computer science student in his fourth year at Helwan University, at around 3 a.m. on October 11, his sister Inas told Human Rights Watch. Three men carried weapons, including a man who stood at the door with an assault rifle, she said.

The officers who searched the apartment, in Cairo’s Medinat Nasr district, said they had come because Yasser was calling for protests on October 12, according to Inas. Yasser, a vocal supporter of Morsy, had once belonged to the university’s student union and had organized “anti-coup” protests calling for the release of detained students, Inas said.

Police had earlier arrested him at a protest in May 2014, and a court sentenced him to five years in prison for protesting illegally, belonging to a banned group, and insulting the army and police. Authorities had released Yasser during the trial and had not re-arrested him following his conviction, Inas said.

On October 12, she said, prosecutors ordered Yasser, now held in Madinat Nasr’s First Police Station, to be held for 15 days pending investigation.


*Photo by REUTERS

University students revolt against private security firm on 2nd day of classes

Mada Masr
University students revolt against private security firm on second day of classes

Sunday, October 12, 2014 

The Nasr City prosecution has ordered the detention of three Al-Azhar University students on Monday for their role in clashes on campus pursuant to demonstrations against security forces yesterday, the second day of classes.

The students face charges of rioting and inciting others to riot, belonging to a terrorist organization, illegal assembly, thuggery and vandalizing public property.

Clashes broke out at four Egyptian universities as students demonstrated against the on-campus presence of the private security firm Falcon. The security guards fled the altercation and allowed the police to intervene.

At A-Azhar University, students reportedly destroyed Falcon’s offices on the campus and broke the newly installed electronic gates.

On Sunday, the second day of school started exceptionally. Long queues of students formed in front of Falcon’s gates. News reports stated that Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated students attacked security personnel in several faculties, but there were widespread demonstrations against the strict policies implemented by new private security company Falcon and university guards.

At Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Students Against the Coup organized a march to demand the release of their arrested colleagues and the return to school of those who were expelled last year. The students also protested against the strict policies of the new security company and destroyed its office on campus. Later, police entered the campus, arrested five students and closed several streets in the vicinity.

At Ain Shams University, students protested the long queues at the gates and the new procedures implemented by Falcon, in collaboration with the university’s guards, who closed the doors to Zafarana castle in the middle of campus, as well as the faculties of science and computer science.  

At Cairo University, students organized a march that toured campus and chanted against Falcon and military rule, which they said has led to a state of chaos. Falcon security personnel fled the scene and five CSF and Special Forces tankers entered the campus to disperse the protest, arresting several students.

Students were also reportedly arrested yesterday from their houses in anticipation of activity on campuses. In a statement, the Freedom for the Brave student movement described the arrests as outrageous.

The spokesperson for Students against the Coup at Zagazig University, Ahmed Nassef, told Mada Masr that recent events indicate the state’s concern about a growing student movement, which, according to him did not stop throughout the last school year and expanded to several major squares off campus. “Our protests are peaceful, but self defense is a right guaranteed by the law,” added Nassef. 

The Ministry of Higher Education contracted Falcon Security to guard and secure 15 universities, according to the website of the private security company. Falcon Chief Executive Sherif Khaled informed Mada Masr that their one year renewable contract with the ministry authorizes the company to provide security services for a number of universities, including Cairo, Ain Shams, Helwan, Al-Azhar, Alexandria, Beni Suef, Zagazig, Mansoura, Assiut, Fayoum, Banha and Minya.

Khaled refused to disclose the amount of money agreed upon for Falcon’s services due to client confidentiality, but stated that the Head of Cairo University Gaber Nassar allocated LE50 million last year for security, adding that the company does not even get 10 percent of that amount for securing one campus.

The first members of Falcon security personnel appeared yesterday at campus gates, searching students and demanding their identification cards, which resulted in long queues.

Reports showed that clashes occurred between Falcon personnel and the university guards and police were called to resolve the situation. 

Students can now be expelled for criticizing Dictator Sisi

Mada Masr

Students could be expelled for criticizing President Sisi

Friday, August 29, 2014

The boards of two public universities have now decided to expel any student who insults or defames President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Following a precedent set by the University of Beni Suef, the board of Ain Shams University agreed on Thursday to expel any student who insults Sisi.

Quoted on the privately owned Sada al-Balad news website, vice president of Ain Shams University, Mohamed al-Toukhi, stated: “The university shall refer to a disciplinary hearing any student who insults any symbol of the state, not merely President Sisi.”

"This is not a punitive measure to expel any student at will,” Toukhi claimed.

Students would instead be expelled as soon as the disciplinary board determined their responsibility for “wronging” state officials with insults, he added.

In another statement to privately owned newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, Toukhi claimed that such insults against state officials are a violation of university regulations.

On Friday, privately owned Al-Mougaz news website published a critical response to the new university rules, from the head of the student union at Zaqaziq University.

Student union president Mohamed Sherbini commented that expulsion for criticizing Sisi or other state officials “is an injustice against students.”

Sherbini added that he believed students should only be expelled if they actively interrupt the academic year, or are found responsible for destroying university property.

Organized primarily by Islamist-leaning students since the July 3 ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi, a host of protests in and around university campuses have resulted in arrests of hundreds of students, along with the deaths and injuries of tens of others during security crackdowns.

The presidents and boards of several public universities have called on the Ministry of Interior to deploy police forces both inside and around campuses to quell opposition student protests.

In statements to state-owned newspaper Al-Akhbar Al-Youm on Friday, the Minister of Endowments called on universities, especially the Islamic Al-Azhar University, to remove professors affiliated to or sympathetic with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Minister Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa commented that “extremists” and “affiliates of the terrorist society” must be purged from universities ahead of the academic year.

Public universities are scheduled to begin their academic year on September 27.

Gomaa added that this should apply to both professors and deans sympathetic to the Brotherhood.

In Al-Masry Al-Youm, Gomaa was quoted as saying that action must be taken against the group known as “Academics Against the Coup” whose names and identities are purportedly known to Al-Azhar University’s board.



*Caricature by Adam Zyglis

2 journalists shot, 1 student killed in police crackdown on Cairo University protest

Committee to Protect Journalists

Two journalists injured covering clashes in Egypt

New York, April 15, 2014--Two Egyptian journalists were shot by live ammunition on Monday while covering clashes in Cairo between security forces and university students supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood, according to news reports. At least one student was killed in the clashes, news reports said.

Amr Abdel-Fattah, photographer for the independent TV channel Sada El-Balad, was shot in the back and underwent surgery at a local hospital, according to news reports. He is in stable condition. Khaled Hussein, reporter for Al-Youm al-Saba'a, was shot in the chest, according to the independent daily. He underwent surgery and is in critical condition, reports said. Both journalists were taken to Qasr El-Einy Hospital.

While being taken to the hospital, Hussein said the police had fired at him, according to a video published by Al-Youm al-Saba'a.

Ahmed Mamdouh, a student and protester who helped take the journalists to the hospital, told CPJ the police used live ammunition to shoot at the journalists and protesters. Independent photojournalist Amru Salahuddien also wrote a post on Facebook that said police had used live ammunition. Al-Youm al-Saba'a published photos showing damage to the outer doors and walls of Cairo University.

The Interior Ministry denied police used live ammunition and said Muslim Brotherhood protesters had shot at journalists, according to news reports.

"We call on the Egyptian government to ensure that journalists can safely cover demonstrations," said Sherif Mansour, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. "Authorities can take the first step toward quelling the violence by fully investigating the attacks on Amr Abdel-Fattah and Khaled Hussein and holding those responsible to account." 

Al-Dustour daily reporter Mayada Ashraf was shot dead while covering clashes in Cairo last month, according to news reports.

 

Female victim blamed for mob sex assault in Cairo University

Mada Masr 
Victim blamed after sexual assault at Cairo University

March 18, 2014

A case of mass sexual assault on a female student at Cairo University on Monday has led to a storm of accusations on TV channels and social networking sites.

This alarming incident has also raised questions and concerns regarding Egyptian society’s toleration of sexual harassment and its apparent acceptance of physical assaults on women nationwide.

On Tuesday, women’s rights activists and anti-harassment volunteer groups began preparations for a protest outside Cairo University on Thursday, while the (state-controlled) National Council for Women called on the government to enforce stricter legislation criminalizing sexual harassment and assault. 

A female law student was mobbed by a group of male students, groped and sexually assaulted, shortly after she entered the campus on Monday. The victim sought to escape from her attackers by hiding in the women’s bathroom, yet even then a gang of students surrounded her inside, awaiting her exit.

It was only after she was trapped inside the bathroom, apparently crying and in a state of great distress, that university security guards moved to disperse the assailants from around the bathroom and escorted the girl off campus.

Gaber Nassar, president of Cairo University, spoke with privately owned ONtv satellite channel on Monday, and claimed that such an incident of sexual “harassment” at the University is atypical and “exceptional.” He added that Cairo University is a respectable institution that upholds a respectable dress code.

Nassar contradicted himself, saying, “there is no justification for harassment,” yet he went on to imply that the student had brought this assault upon herself as a result of the tight clothing she was wearing.

He added that the student in question was wearing a black robe covering her body, but took it off after entering the campus. Amateur video footage shows the victim dressed in a long-sleeved pink sweater and black pants.

The incident was captured on camera and Nassar claimed the male students involved would be investigated. However, it isn't clear what legal measures have actually been taken, as he added that lawyers were scrutinizing video footage to ascertain if a crime had taken place. Originally, the University denied the incident had occurred.

On Tuesday, TV presenter Tamer Amin went even further in his justification of the assault. His program “Min al-Akher” on the Rotana Egypt satellite channel came under fire following comments he made.

The renowned TV presenter criticized Cairo University’s statement regarding “the personal freedom of attire.”

Amin said, “Clothing is not a personal freedom unless it is worn at home or in private; not in places like public universities or schools. An employee cannot go to work dressed in their shorts, for example.”

The TV presenter went on to blame the victim even further by claiming that the female student in question was “dressed like a belly dancer.” Amin asked, “How was it that university guards allowed her to enter campus in such garb, which exposed more than it covered?”

Amin further justified the mob’s sexual assault by claiming that the “student was dressed like a slut,” and thus it was her attire which aroused, encouraged and instigated the assault against her.

On social networking site, Twitter, user Mohamed al-Khateeb wrote that harassment is not only a crime that happens in dark alleyways at night, it also happens on university campuses during the daytime.

A host of female Twitter users denounced Amin as “an animal,” while many others called on the Rotana Channel to sack him from his job for his sexist comments condoning harassment and assaults against women.

Many other Twitter users commented that harassment is rampant in Egypt because of unemployment, lack of affordable apartments and the general inability to afford marriage expenses.

Other users pointed out that sexual harassment and assaults are perpetrated by prepubescent boys and married men even though they do not suffer from the aforementioned problems.

Sexual harassment and assaults continue to plague Egypt’s streets on a daily basis — and, as mentioned on social networking sites — do not appear to be based solely on womens’ attire. Women wearing the head veil (hijab) or full face-veil (niqab) are often subjected to the same mistreatment and assaults as those who don’t.

According to a 2013 report by UN Women, 99.3 percent of women have said they have experienced sexual harassment or assault at some point in their lives. 

Clashes across Egypt leave at least 4 dead, scores injured

REUTERS

Clashes across Egypt leave at least 4 dead, scores injured 

Friday, Dec. 27 2013

MAGGIE FICK

Muslim Brotherhood supporters and police clashed across Egypt on Friday, leaving at least four dead in protests after the army-backed government declared the group a terrorist organization.

The violence broke out after Friday prayers and the health ministry said 87 people were wounded in the clashes, which flared in Cairo and at least four other cities.

An 18-year-old Brotherhood supporter was shot dead in the Nile Delta city of Damietta. A second man was killed in Minya, a bastion of Islamist support south of Cairo, and a third person was killed in the capital, the interior ministry said, without providing further details.

A young man was killed late on Friday, the state news agency reported, after clashes broke out in the southern city of Aswan between security forces firing tear gas and Brotherhood supporters who burned two police cars.

Security forces detained at least 265 Brotherhood supporters nationwide, including at least 28 women, the ministry also said.

The widening crackdown has increased tensions in a country suffering the worst internal strife of its modern history since the army deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July.

Security forces have killed hundreds of his supporters and lethal attacks on soldiers and police have become commonplace.

The Brotherhood was declared a terrorist organization after 16 people were killed in a suicide attack on a police station on Tuesday, although the group condemned the attack and it was claimed by a radical faction based in the Sinai Peninsula.

The Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies had called for protests in response to the government decision.

GUNFIRE

Police fired birdshot and tear gas at student protesters at Al-Azhar university’s Cairo campus. Gunfire was heard in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, where demonstrators threw fireworks and rocks at police who used teargas, a Reuters witness said.

A number of police officers were injured in the clashes, the interior ministry said. A senior police officer in the city of Minya was injured during clashes between police and demonstrators that began when Brotherhood supporters threw stones at a local police station and attempted to break in, state-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported.

Some analysts say Egypt faces a protracted spell of attacks by Islamist radicals as well as eruptions of civil strife.

A student supporter of the Brotherhood was killed late on Thursday in what the interior ministry described as a melee between supporters and opponents of the Brotherhood in Cairo.

On Friday, a furniture store was set on fire by residents of a Cairo suburb after police stormed inside and arrested three employees, having received complaints that the men had firearms and were Brotherhood members.

The government has said the violence will not derail a political transition plan whose next step is a mid-January referendum on a new constitution.

Officials have issued a new round of harsher warnings against anyone taking part in protests in support of the Brotherhood, saying they will be punished under anti-terrorism laws that envisage five years imprisonment.

Jail terms for those convicted under the terrorism law can stretch up to life imprisonment and Brotherhood leaders face the death penalty.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy on Thursday and “expressed concern” about the terrorist designation of the Muslim Brotherhood and recent detentions, the State Department said.

The Brotherhood, which won every election since Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011, has been driven underground since the army deposed the freely elected Mursi in July.

Thousands of Brotherhood members and supporters have since been jailed. Mursi and other top leaders are also behind bars. Despite the pressure, the Brotherhood has continued near-daily protests against the Egyptian authorities.

In a statement condemning the government’s freezing of the funds of Islamist charity groups, the Brotherhood accused the government of spreading Christianity by empowering Coptic Christian charities over Islamic ones.

Police arrest & investigate student for atheist Facebook group

AhramOnline
Egypt security investigates student for forming 'atheist' Facebook group

Suez Canal University filed a complaint against a 20 year-old commerce student who started a Facebook group for atheists 

Monday, Oct. 28, 2013

National security officials in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia are conducting investigations into a university student who allegedly set-up a Facebook group calling for atheism.

Police arrested the 20-year old student of the Faculty of Commerce, Suez Canal University, following a report submitted by the university's administration saying he had formed a group for atheists on the social networking site.

The accused student appeared before the prosecution, who transferred him to national security for further investigation.

In December 2012, an Egyptian court sentenced activist Alber Saber to three years in jail for posting the anti-Islamic film Innocence of Muslims on his Facebook page. He was released after paying bail.

Article 98 of Egypt's penal code says anyone convicted of offending religion in any form can face up to six years in prison.

Islamist teacher punishes 2 schoolgirls, cutting their hair

Associated Press

Egyptian father: Daughter punished for not veiling

October 20, 2012

HAGGAG SALAMA

LUXOR, Egypt (AP) — A teacher in southern Egypt punished two 12-year-old schoolgirls for not wearing the Muslim headscarf by cutting their hair, the father of one girl said Wednesday, in an incident that stokes concerns over personal rights following the rise of Islamist political movements.

The governor of Luxor province where the incident occurred called the teacher's actions "shameful" and said she had been transferred to another school. But rights groups say that some Islamic conservatives have been emboldened by the success of groups like Muslim Brotherhood and the ultraconservative Salafi trend in parliamentary and presidential elections and have been increasingly brazen about forcing their standards on other Egyptians.

The incident follows a surge in legal cases against Egyptians, mostly Christians, who allegedly showed contempt for religion. The trial of one, Alber Saber, opened Wednesday but was postponed.
It also comes amid a fierce debate over how the role of religion will be defined in the country's new constitution. The preponderance of Islamists on the panel drafting the document has alarmed liberals and religious minorities.

In the village of Qurna in Luxor province, 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of Cairo, Berbesh Khairi El-Rawi said the teacher forced the two girls to stand with their hands above their heads for two hours and then cut their hair in their school.
El-Rawi, the father of one of the two girls, told The Associated Press that he filed a complaint after the Oct. 10 incident with the prosecutor's office in Luxor. He had no further comment.

The prosecutor's office declined to comment on the case. Provincial governor Ezzat Saad confirmed the teacher had been transferred for a "shameful" act but did not otherwise comment.

The teacher, Eman Abu Bakar, could not be reached. She told the Egyptian semi-official newspaper al-Ahram that the amount of hair she cut off of the girls' heads "did not exceed two centimeters" (one inch).

Abu Bakar was quoted as saying she only resorted to cutting her students' hair after warning them repeatedly to cover their heads. After these repeated warnings, a student handed her a scissors from his bag, and that he and other students asked her to "implement" her threats.

In a photo published by Al-Ahram, Abu Bakar is shown wearing the niqab, a garment that covers everything but a woman's eyes.

Most Muslim women in Egypt wear the headscarf, but increasing numbers now wear the more conservative niqab.

Ziad Abdel Tawab of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights said the incident was alarming but not surprising.

"Whether in schools or outside schools, the general sentiment is that any abusive action, if it is justified as protection of Islam, is tolerable," he said.

Meanwhile, a Cairo court postponed proceedings in the trial of 27-year-old Coptic Christian activist Alber Saber, who faces charges of insulting religion, to November 14.

Saber was arrested last month after neighbors complained he had posted an anti-Islam film that has sparked protests across the Muslim world to his Facebook page, but investigators didn't find them. Nonetheless, Saber was put on trial and now faces a six-year prison sentence and fines.

His lawyer Ahmed Ezzat said in an emailed statement that all proceedings against Saber have involved serious legal breaches that should result in the nullifying of any evidence put forward against him.

Ezzat also said that after Saber's arrest on September 13, a police officer incited others detained in the station to attack Saber, resulting in detainees beating him and cutting him with a razor blade. A police officer at the station denied the report, speaking anonymously as he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui of Amnesty International said in a statement Wednesday that blasphemy cases like the one against Saber "set a dangerous precedent for the Egyptian authorities' tolerance of freedom of expression in the country."

"Criticism of religions and other beliefs and ideas is a vital component of the right to freedom of expression," Sahraoui said. "Laws - such as blasphemy laws - that criminalize such criticism violate human rights."

The rights group said that Saber's lawyers "fear for his safety in prison and outside if released. They also fear for the safety of his mother and sister who have been threatened and forced to leave their home which was surrounded by angry mobs."

In another incident that raised concerns over the freedom of expression, a top parliamentarian suspended the editor-in-chief of a state-owned newspaper for publishing a report deemed an offense to the military.

Ahmed Fahmy, the head of the Islamist-dominated Shura Council upper house of parliament, named a replacement for Gamal Abdel-Rahim after his paper, al-Gomhuria, published a Wednesday report claiming that authorities would soon bar the country's former top military leaders from traveling abroad pending an investigation into alleged corruption and the deaths of protesters during their 17 months in power.

The paper quoted an unnamed judicial source. The report was later denied by the Ministry of Justice, and a member of the armed forces protested what he called an "offense" to the military, the state Middle East News Agency said.

The move to replace Abdel-Rahim prompted criticism from journalists and media watchdog groups. Although the state-owned media formally belong to the Shura Council, which appoints the editors, journalists say it is not the business of the council to take disciplinary measures for publishing offenses.

A group of Abdel-Rahim's colleagues gathered at the paper's offices to protest the decision and declared a strike. Abdel-Rahim told them that he will not abide by the decision. He said that Egypt's union of journalists should decide if there is to be an investigation into the matter.
Fahmy, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood's political party, could not be reached for comment.

The state-owned papers, run for years by secular-leaning editors, had a reputation as a mouthpiece for President Hosni Mubarak, who was deposed last year.

Gamal Eid, the head of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information media watchdog, said the decision was "arbitrary" and is a continuation of the same "mistakes" of the previous regime.



* Maggie Fick contributed reporting from Cairo

No concessions in government crackdown on strikes

Egypt Independent

No carrot, only stick: No concessions in government crackdown on strikes

Wed, 19/09/2012

Jano Charbel

The beginning of the academic year this week was inaugurated with a host of strikes by employees across sectors — public bus drivers, teachers and administrative educational employees, university workers, students and industrial workers.

Violent dispersals, arrests and harassment have cost President Mohamed Morsy and Prime Minister Hesham Qandil some criticism for holding their stick hard against the labor movement.

This crackdown poses a dilemma. Questions are increasing regarding what the new regime can do with ongoing labor unrest, empty coffers and the inability to respond by granting some economic concessions, as per official statements.

For some, the alternative is  to grant political and organizational concessions. But that strategy remains unclear.
 
DENOUNCEMENTS FROM BOTH ENDS

An independent group called the Popular Front for a Civil State issued a statement calling on authorities to hold security forces accountable for “forcibly breaking up a sit-in occupation at Nile University while threatening and terrorizing striking [Public Transport Authority] workers.” A number of human rights NGOs have issued similar statements.

Independent workers’ organizations including the Egyptian Democratic Labor Congress and the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions have also issued statements denouncing the crackdowns.

The trade union federation’s online statement, declared: “The government of Hesham Qandil and presidency of Mohamed Morsy have clearly displayed their enmity toward labor,” adding this was exemplified in “the arrest of striking workers and assaults on female workers at the hands of security services.”

The labor congress mentions that the state “has returned to its old habits.” The statement denounces “the referral of tens of striking teachers to disciplinary hearings and investigations” along with “the riot police’s siege of striking PTA workers in their garages” and the “arrest of a PTA strike leader.”

This statement also decries the “police attack” on tree-planting workers protesting at the Agriculture Ministry in Giza, which led to injuries for both male and female workers and seven arrests.

The state-owned media denounced the partial strikes led by PTA workers and teachers as “failed” strikes that harm the country’s economy, transportation and education. State newspapers have criticized strikers’ demands as being “unrealistic” or “unfeasible.” The state-controlled media has reiterated the regime’s inability to meet demands in light of depleted public coffers.

Members of the ruling Freedom and Justice Party — the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm — have also openly denounced industrial actions. Several weeks ago, Hassan al-Brince, a former MP and leading figure in the FJP, declared that workers’ protests and sit-ins outside the presidential palace are being organized by counter-revolutionary forces that aim to topple Morsy, giving the impression that he is unable to resolve their problems.

In an interview this week with a state-owned paper, Sabry Amer — an FJP parliamentarian and former chairman of the People’s Assembly Transportation and Telecommunications Committee — stated that PTA workers were committing “an act of treason” by striking and halting public transport.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION WORKERS

PTA workers launched a partial strike on 15 September, the first day of school. They announced they would escalate this into a comprehensive strike the following day, involving all 27 garages across greater Cairo. PTA workers have launched numerous strikes demanding they be made part of the Transportation Ministry rather than Cairo Governorate.

However, the strike, called for by the Independent Union of PTA workers, did not spill over into all the other garages, as had been announced. Some workers affiliated with the state-controlled General Union of Land Transport Workers did not heed the call.

On 16 September, hundreds of Central Security Forces troops were deployed outside the Mazallat and Imbaba garages, which were at the heart of the strike. These riot police forces stormed the Imbaba Garage and arrested Tareq al-Beheiry, an organizer and spokesperson for the independent PTA union.

His arrest led to the PTA strike wave spreading from two garages to nine the following day. Pending investigations by the public prosecutor, Beheiry was jailed for nearly three days before being released on 18 September.

Bus driver and strike leader Ali Fattouh says five garages were on total strike while 22 others were operating at 30 percent capacity, and about 7,000 to 8,000 workers out of 45,000 are now on strike.

“Beheiry was arrested and had trumped-up charges leveled against him because he is an independent unionist, our union’s official spokesman and a brave strike leader. It was a threat and a message directed against all us strikers. It was an attempt to intimidate us into calling off our strike,” says Fattouh.

Beheiry’s lawyer, Malek Adly, who works at the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, points out that “the strike is a right, not a crime.”

“The labor policies of Morsy and Qandil are even fouler than those of [former President Hosni Mubarak,” Adly says, explaining that Beheiry was the PTA workers’ chief negotiator with the Manpower Ministry. “PTA officials presented the police and prosecutors with falsified charges against this independent unionist, which is why he was arrested and interrogated. Even the Mubarak regime didn’t resort to such lowly tactics against independent union organizers.”

The Brotherhood is in the process of scrapping the Trade Union Liberties Draft Law, which was prepared under former Manpower Minister Ahmed Hassan al-Borai, the labor lawyer explains. The new minister, Khaled al-Azhary, is “working on a new trade union law prepared exclusively by the Brotherhood,” he says.

“The new regime is not presenting workers with social or economic rights, nor political or organizational rights. The regime is increasingly responding to strikes by security crackdowns,” Adly adds.

Fattouh says PTA workers embarked on strikes in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011 — during Mubarak’s rule — yet “no such punitive actions” were taken against them. “We’re not asking the state for money, we’re asking for a clear stance as to where the PTA stands, under whose jurisdiction,” he says. “We demand to be administered under the Transportation Ministry or as an independent authority.”

The bus driver sees a problem affecting all sectors. “All authorities are washing their hands,” Fattouh says. “As workers, we are all facing a bleak prospect. We have no real right to organize or strike.”

TEACHERS AND UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATORS

Teachers and administrative academic employees began nationwide protests on 8 September. These protests escalated into a large sit-in outside the Cabinet building on 10 September, followed by partial strikes in schools with the beginning of the academic year on 15 September.

Teachers and administrative employees had launched a nationwide strike last year, at the same time and with the same unmet demands. These include establishing a fixed minimum wage and incremental pay raises, giving full-time contracts for full-time work, restructuring the Education Ministry and purging it of corruption, and eliminating the phenomenon of private tutoring.

While about 5,000 out of a million teachers and administrative employees are reportedly striking, the strike has not affected all governorates.

More than 20 striking teachers have been referred to disciplinary hearings and, reportedly, several might be referred to prosecutors on charges of instigation and/or “disrupting the academic year.” On the third day of the strike, police tore down teachers’ tents and dispersed their sit-in outside the Cabinet.

Nonetheless, dozens of teachers regrouped and launched a new sit-in the following day, in defiance of the police. These punitive measures have been criticized by the independent teachers’ syndicates, which organized the actions, on the basis that they deny members the right to strike or protest.

One protester from Giza, who asked to remain anonymous, says the Education Ministry “claims it respects our right to protest, but not our right to strike... We’re not protesting and striking for the sake of bringing down the educational and academic system. We’re striving to improve our conditions and our students’ educational conditions,” he says.

In response to this second academic year of strikes and protests, the Cabinet declared it had secured US$1.3 billion to increase teachers’ salaries. Yet teachers claim that these pay raises, if issued, would not be given out before November. “We’ve seen little to no change since the revolution. Morsy claims that he stands with the teachers and working classes, yet we haven’t seen this translated into reality,” the teacher says.

During the days of the Mubarak regime, officials would give them no responses to grievances — now they receive responses but no actions, according to the teacher.

“We hope that Morsy will not resort to Mubarak regime policies,” the teacher says.



*This story was originally published in Egypt Independent's weekly Print Edition.
**Photo courtesy of Al-Masry Al-Youm