Saturday, February 28, 2015
183 Brotherhood supporters sentenced to death - on charges of killing 16 policemen
(Reuters) - An Egyptian court sentenced 183 supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to death on Monday on charges of killing police officers, part of a sustained crackdown by authorities on Islamists.
Video reveals how Egyptian police shot dead unarmed female protester - Shaimaa al-Sabbagh
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Ensure Credible, Impartial Investigation
EVIDENCE FROM WITNESSES
Azza Soliman, a 48-year-old lawyer and director of the Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance, told Human Rights Watch that she was at a café across the street with her son and watched the 25 to 30 protesters, some of whom carried flowers and were chanting. Before the dispersal began, she went out to greet friends she saw among the protesters. Within about five minutes, Soliman said, she heard sirens and saw security force personnel, some wearing masks and carrying shotguns, approach the protest and fire both teargas and shotguns in the direction of the protesters.
Osama Hammam, a photographer who was covering the protest, confirmed to Human Rights Watch the details of an account he posted to Facebook, in which he described security forces firing teargas and shotguns at the protest without warning.
“The demonstration was simply 30 people carrying some roses, half of them were old guys, and the street was empty,” he wrote to Human Rights Watch. “And the police were on the sidewalk on the opposite side.”
Human Rights Watch stabilized and enhanced the video to analyze the moment of the third shot. In the enhanced video, al-Sabbagh can be seen falling to the ground immediately after the shot is heard. Two protesters, one wearing a black jacket and identified as Sayyid Abou al-Ela, a fellow member of her party, and one wearing a green sweater, reach down to assist her. Two additional photographs from two different angles show al-Sabbagh falling at this moment and the men reaching down to help.
An Egyptian newspaper photographer who was taking pictures of the dispersal from a short distance away told Human Rights Watch that the man wearing the black mask, who was standing to his left, fired the shot that hit al-Sabbagh.
He said that the protesters, 20 to 25 people by his estimate, had been chanting slogans of the 2011 uprising – not against the authorities. The security forces had fired on the demonstrators with teargas and shotguns without warning within two minutes of the marchers’ arrival at Talaat Harb Square, he said.
The video clearly shows that the fourth and final shot – identical in sound to the previous three – was fired by the masked man toward an unseen location farther down Talaat Harb Street, in the direction of Tahrir Square, not toward al-Sabbagh. She can be seen at the same moment lying on the sidewalk as al-Ela tries to assist her.
The video then shows the masked man hand his shotgun to another member of the police in exchange for what appears to be a grenade launcher. The masked man then fires again toward the unseen location farther down Talaat Harb Street. Unlike the previous four shots, this weapon emits a different sound and a large muzzle blast containing gray smoke, suggesting that it fired a large projectile, such as a teargas grenade.
The shotgun the masked man carried appears to have been equipped with a launching cup attached to the barrel, which is used to fire teargas grenades and other projectiles if a specific cartridge meant for such purposes is loaded into the shotgun.
However, the launching cup would not have obstructed the man from “shooting through” with birdshot. Furthermore, no smoke or projectile is visible after the apparently fatal third shot fired in al-Sabbagh’s direction, suggesting that the shotgun was not loaded with tear gas at that time.
In an account of the incident posted on the Tahrir News website, al-Ela wrote that he heard the sound of birdshot hitting the windows of the Air France office after the shot fired in the protesters’ direction and saw al-Sabbagh bleeding from her face.
Al-Ela carried al-Sabbagh across Talaat Harb Street before another friend carried her through a nearby alley as the two tried to hail a car to take her to a hospital, he wrote. A police officer and a police brigadier general arrived and arrested al-Ela and at least three other men, as al-Sabbagh tried to hold al-Ela’s hand, he wrote.
Al-Ela confirmed his written account in a later interview with Human Rights Watch. He said that after the dispersal, police arrested a number of witnesses and others who were attempting to help al-Sabbagh and held them for two days.
On the second day, the prosecutor questioned them as if they were suspects, al-Ela said, and they provided their testimonies. According to the Popular Socialist Alliance Party, the prosecutor released seven people that day without bail, including the party’s general secretary, after charging them with breaking the law banning protests.
Al-Ela said he believed the men stationed in Talaat Harb Square that day included regular police and plainclothes detectives, masked men not wearing insignia, and members of the Central Security Forces, a paramilitary riot police force often charged with securing government buildings and embassies.
The police brigadier general seen pointing at the protesters was the highest-ranking officer present, he said.
Soliman, who witnessed the incident with her son, went to Zeinhom Morgue, where al-Sabbagh’s body was transported, to offer her testimony, according to an account she posted on Facebook and later confirmed in an interview with Human Rights Watch.
She went to the district prosecutor’s office, and when the prosecutor called Soliman, who was accompanied by a lawyer, he took her testimony but subsequently accused her of participating in what he described as an “unauthorized march” and threatened to arrest her.
The police report of the march, he told her, said protesters had used rocks and fireworks against the police, she told Human Rights Watch.
Soliman told Human Rights Watch that the prosecutor charged her with breaking the protest law and resisting the authorities and had also made similar charges against four other witnesses who came forward. She said it was unclear whether the prosecutor would pursue the charges or drop them.
Dozens of police officers and soldiers faced charges related to the killing of at least 846 protesters during the 2011 uprising, but only three low-ranking security force personnel were ever convicted and sentenced to prison.
Since the mass killings of July and August 2013, which left at least 1,150 protesters dead, the authorities have not brought charges against any member of the security forces for killing protesters.
The official Fact-Finding Committee tasked with investigating the 2013 incidents, which included the worst mass killing in Egypt’s modern history, completed its investigation in November 2014 and did not recommend any charges. The prosecutor general has not announced an investigation.
Given the Egyptian government’s failure to hold authorities responsible, Human Rights Watch has previously called for a commission of inquiry at the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate.
Ensure Credible, Impartial Investigation
EVIDENCE FROM WITNESSES
Azza Soliman, a 48-year-old lawyer and director of the Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance, told Human Rights Watch that she was at a café across the street with her son and watched the 25 to 30 protesters, some of whom carried flowers and were chanting. Before the dispersal began, she went out to greet friends she saw among the protesters. Within about five minutes, Soliman said, she heard sirens and saw security force personnel, some wearing masks and carrying shotguns, approach the protest and fire both teargas and shotguns in the direction of the protesters.
Osama Hammam, a photographer who was covering the protest, confirmed to Human Rights Watch the details of an account he posted to Facebook, in which he described security forces firing teargas and shotguns at the protest without warning.
“The demonstration was simply 30 people carrying some roses, half of them were old guys, and the street was empty,” he wrote to Human Rights Watch. “And the police were on the sidewalk on the opposite side.”
Human Rights Watch stabilized and enhanced the video to analyze the moment of the third shot. In the enhanced video, al-Sabbagh can be seen falling to the ground immediately after the shot is heard. Two protesters, one wearing a black jacket and identified as Sayyid Abou al-Ela, a fellow member of her party, and one wearing a green sweater, reach down to assist her. Two additional photographs from two different angles show al-Sabbagh falling at this moment and the men reaching down to help.
An Egyptian newspaper photographer who was taking pictures of the dispersal from a short distance away told Human Rights Watch that the man wearing the black mask, who was standing to his left, fired the shot that hit al-Sabbagh.
He said that the protesters, 20 to 25 people by his estimate, had been chanting slogans of the 2011 uprising – not against the authorities. The security forces had fired on the demonstrators with teargas and shotguns without warning within two minutes of the marchers’ arrival at Talaat Harb Square, he said.
The video clearly shows that the fourth and final shot – identical in sound to the previous three – was fired by the masked man toward an unseen location farther down Talaat Harb Street, in the direction of Tahrir Square, not toward al-Sabbagh. She can be seen at the same moment lying on the sidewalk as al-Ela tries to assist her.
The video then shows the masked man hand his shotgun to another member of the police in exchange for what appears to be a grenade launcher. The masked man then fires again toward the unseen location farther down Talaat Harb Street. Unlike the previous four shots, this weapon emits a different sound and a large muzzle blast containing gray smoke, suggesting that it fired a large projectile, such as a teargas grenade.
The shotgun the masked man carried appears to have been equipped with a launching cup attached to the barrel, which is used to fire teargas grenades and other projectiles if a specific cartridge meant for such purposes is loaded into the shotgun.
However, the launching cup would not have obstructed the man from “shooting through” with birdshot. Furthermore, no smoke or projectile is visible after the apparently fatal third shot fired in al-Sabbagh’s direction, suggesting that the shotgun was not loaded with tear gas at that time.
In an account of the incident posted on the Tahrir News website, al-Ela wrote that he heard the sound of birdshot hitting the windows of the Air France office after the shot fired in the protesters’ direction and saw al-Sabbagh bleeding from her face.
Al-Ela carried al-Sabbagh across Talaat Harb Street before another friend carried her through a nearby alley as the two tried to hail a car to take her to a hospital, he wrote. A police officer and a police brigadier general arrived and arrested al-Ela and at least three other men, as al-Sabbagh tried to hold al-Ela’s hand, he wrote.
Al-Ela confirmed his written account in a later interview with Human Rights Watch. He said that after the dispersal, police arrested a number of witnesses and others who were attempting to help al-Sabbagh and held them for two days.
On the second day, the prosecutor questioned them as if they were suspects, al-Ela said, and they provided their testimonies. According to the Popular Socialist Alliance Party, the prosecutor released seven people that day without bail, including the party’s general secretary, after charging them with breaking the law banning protests.
Al-Ela said he believed the men stationed in Talaat Harb Square that day included regular police and plainclothes detectives, masked men not wearing insignia, and members of the Central Security Forces, a paramilitary riot police force often charged with securing government buildings and embassies.
The police brigadier general seen pointing at the protesters was the highest-ranking officer present, he said.
Soliman, who witnessed the incident with her son, went to Zeinhom Morgue, where al-Sabbagh’s body was transported, to offer her testimony, according to an account she posted on Facebook and later confirmed in an interview with Human Rights Watch.
She went to the district prosecutor’s office, and when the prosecutor called Soliman, who was accompanied by a lawyer, he took her testimony but subsequently accused her of participating in what he described as an “unauthorized march” and threatened to arrest her.
The police report of the march, he told her, said protesters had used rocks and fireworks against the police, she told Human Rights Watch.
Soliman told Human Rights Watch that the prosecutor charged her with breaking the protest law and resisting the authorities and had also made similar charges against four other witnesses who came forward. She said it was unclear whether the prosecutor would pursue the charges or drop them.
Dozens of police officers and soldiers faced charges related to the killing of at least 846 protesters during the 2011 uprising, but only three low-ranking security force personnel were ever convicted and sentenced to prison.
Since the mass killings of July and August 2013, which left at least 1,150 protesters dead, the authorities have not brought charges against any member of the security forces for killing protesters.
The official Fact-Finding Committee tasked with investigating the 2013 incidents, which included the worst mass killing in Egypt’s modern history, completed its investigation in November 2014 and did not recommend any charges. The prosecutor general has not announced an investigation.
Given the Egyptian government’s failure to hold authorities responsible, Human Rights Watch has previously called for a commission of inquiry at the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate.
After 400 days in prison, Al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste deported to Australia
Mada Masr
Australian Al Jazeera Journalist Peter Greste released and deported
Sunday - February 1, 2015
After 400 days in prison, Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste was released on Sunday afternoon and deported.
The Interior Ministry confirmed in a statement on its official Facebook page on Sunday afternoon that Greste was released and deported in accordance with Law 140 (2014), following the approval of the general prosecutor and the Cabinet.
Law 140 allows the deportation of foreigners at any point during their prosecution or detention at the request of their home countries.
Head of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information Gamal Eid said, “Of course we’re happy with the news of Greste’s release, but we were hoping that he would be released because he’s innocent or based on normal laws, rather than based on an unconstitutional law.”
The Australian Embassy and Egyptian Foreign Ministry arranged for Greste’s flight back to Australia on Sunday afternoon, according to the state-owned Middle East News Agency.
Greste's family confirmed his departure from Egypt in a statement on the official Facebook campaign for his release. His brother Andrew Greste said, “We’re ecstatic that Peter has been released and we now ask if the world could respect his privacy, to give him time to appreciate his freedom before he faces the media.”
The released journalist's parents Lois and Juris announced a press conference in Brisbane, Australia to provide more information, adding that they would be available for limited interviews.
Al Jazeera issued a press release following the decision, expressing joy for Greste's family, but asserting that they would continue to campaign for the release of his two colleagues and the clearing of their names in absentia.
“We will not rest until Baher and Mohamed also regain their freedom. The Egyptian authorities have it in their power to finish this properly today, and that is exactly what they must do,” Mostefa Souag, acting Director General of Al Jazeera Media Network said.
Judicial sources said the deportation law doesn't apply to dual nationals, suggesting Fahmy would have to surrender his Egyptian citizenship in order to be released.
Mohamed, who has no foreign citizenship, has no chance of being released under this law.
Greste and his colleagues Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were arrested on December 29, 2013, and prosecuted in the case widely known as the “Marriott cell.”
The three faced charges of airing false information harmful to national security, aiding a terrorist group, and harming Egypt’s image abroad.
On June 23, the court sentenced Greste and Fahmy to seven years in prison and Mohamed to 10.
Greste was detained in solitary confinement for a month before charges were formally brought against him.
Australian Al Jazeera Journalist Peter Greste released and deported
Sunday - February 1, 2015
After 400 days in prison, Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste was released on Sunday afternoon and deported.
The Interior Ministry confirmed in a statement on its official Facebook page on Sunday afternoon that Greste was released and deported in accordance with Law 140 (2014), following the approval of the general prosecutor and the Cabinet.
Law 140 allows the deportation of foreigners at any point during their prosecution or detention at the request of their home countries.
Head of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information Gamal Eid said, “Of course we’re happy with the news of Greste’s release, but we were hoping that he would be released because he’s innocent or based on normal laws, rather than based on an unconstitutional law.”
The Australian Embassy and Egyptian Foreign Ministry arranged for Greste’s flight back to Australia on Sunday afternoon, according to the state-owned Middle East News Agency.
Greste's family confirmed his departure from Egypt in a statement on the official Facebook campaign for his release. His brother Andrew Greste said, “We’re ecstatic that Peter has been released and we now ask if the world could respect his privacy, to give him time to appreciate his freedom before he faces the media.”
The released journalist's parents Lois and Juris announced a press conference in Brisbane, Australia to provide more information, adding that they would be available for limited interviews.
Al Jazeera issued a press release following the decision, expressing joy for Greste's family, but asserting that they would continue to campaign for the release of his two colleagues and the clearing of their names in absentia.
“We will not rest until Baher and Mohamed also regain their freedom. The Egyptian authorities have it in their power to finish this properly today, and that is exactly what they must do,” Mostefa Souag, acting Director General of Al Jazeera Media Network said.
Judicial sources said the deportation law doesn't apply to dual nationals, suggesting Fahmy would have to surrender his Egyptian citizenship in order to be released.
Mohamed, who has no foreign citizenship, has no chance of being released under this law.
Greste and his colleagues Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were arrested on December 29, 2013, and prosecuted in the case widely known as the “Marriott cell.”
The three faced charges of airing false information harmful to national security, aiding a terrorist group, and harming Egypt’s image abroad.
On June 23, the court sentenced Greste and Fahmy to seven years in prison and Mohamed to 10.
Greste was detained in solitary confinement for a month before charges were formally brought against him.
Saturday, January 31, 2015
Court upholds 3 year jail sentences against 3 liberal activists for peacefully protesting
Associated Press
Egypt court upholds verdict against 3 prominent activists
January 27, 2015
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's highest appeal court on Tuesday upheld convictions and three-year prison sentences for three prominent activists for violating the country's draconian law on protests, their lawyer said.
The three — Ahmed Maher, Ahmed Douma and Mohammed Adel — have already spent over a year in jail, following their arrest on charges of breaking a 2013 law that criminalizes political gatherings of more than 10 people without government permission and imposes tough penalties on violators.
The decision by Cairo's Cassation Court left the three without any other legal options, said Tarek al-Awadi, their lawyer. The court also ordered the three to be on probation for three years after serving their sentences.
The decision is likely to fuel more criticism of the protest law, even among allies of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and the police's heavy-handedness in implementing it.
The criticism was reignited after Saturday's killing of a female protester who died as police dispersed a small rally on the eve of the anniversary of the 2011 protests that led to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. On Sunday, at least 20 people were killed, including 3 policemen, in violent protests.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday that at least 11 cases of journalists being detained, a reporter beaten by protesters and two photographers injured by birdshot, were documented by local groups on the anniversary.
Images of Shaimaa el-Sabbagh, with blood running down her face as she was lifted off the ground by a colleague amid a security chase, struck a nerve with Egyptians who have grown accustomed to violent clashes with police.
The protest she took part in was peaceful and small, organized by a leftist political party that had been allied with el-Sissi and the military in the 2013 overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Her killing also raised calls for abolishing or amending the protest law, which also gives police the right to use force to disperse protesters.
Thousands have been arrested according to the law, mostly Islamists.
*Photo by Mohamed Omar, Courtesy of Daily News Egypt
Egypt court upholds verdict against 3 prominent activists
January 27, 2015
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's highest appeal court on Tuesday upheld convictions and three-year prison sentences for three prominent activists for violating the country's draconian law on protests, their lawyer said.
The three — Ahmed Maher, Ahmed Douma and Mohammed Adel — have already spent over a year in jail, following their arrest on charges of breaking a 2013 law that criminalizes political gatherings of more than 10 people without government permission and imposes tough penalties on violators.
The decision by Cairo's Cassation Court left the three without any other legal options, said Tarek al-Awadi, their lawyer. The court also ordered the three to be on probation for three years after serving their sentences.
The decision is likely to fuel more criticism of the protest law, even among allies of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and the police's heavy-handedness in implementing it.
The criticism was reignited after Saturday's killing of a female protester who died as police dispersed a small rally on the eve of the anniversary of the 2011 protests that led to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. On Sunday, at least 20 people were killed, including 3 policemen, in violent protests.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday that at least 11 cases of journalists being detained, a reporter beaten by protesters and two photographers injured by birdshot, were documented by local groups on the anniversary.
Images of Shaimaa el-Sabbagh, with blood running down her face as she was lifted off the ground by a colleague amid a security chase, struck a nerve with Egyptians who have grown accustomed to violent clashes with police.
The protest she took part in was peaceful and small, organized by a leftist political party that had been allied with el-Sissi and the military in the 2013 overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Her killing also raised calls for abolishing or amending the protest law, which also gives police the right to use force to disperse protesters.
Thousands have been arrested according to the law, mostly Islamists.
*Photo by Mohamed Omar, Courtesy of Daily News Egypt
Police arrest 518 protesters on 4th anniversary of January 25 Uprising
Agence France-Presse
516 'Brotherhood elements' arrested on Egypt anniversary
More than 500 backers of Egypt's blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood were arrested as clashes erupted on the anniversary of its 2011 uprising, a minister said Monday, in the biggest police sweep for months.
Twenty people, mostly demonstrators, were killed Sunday when protesters clashed with security forces after Islamists called for rallies against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government as Egypt marked the fourth anniversary of the toppling of ex-strongman Hosni Mubarak.
Supporters of Mubarak's successor, Islamist Mohamed Morsi, have regularly clashed with security forces since he was ousted by then army chief Sisi in July 2013.
Rights groups have repeatedly denounced the use of "excessive force" by the authorities to crush opposition rallies.
"We arrested 516 elements from the Muslim Brotherhood group who were involved in firing ammunition, planting explosives and bombing some facilities" on Sunday, Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said.
The arrests were the biggest police sweep targeting Morsi supporters in a single day since Sisi came to power after a landslide election victory last May.
Ibrahim said 20 people were killed Sunday in clashes, most of them in Cairo's northern district of Matareya, adding two policemen were among the dead.
A health ministry official said among the dead was a protester killed in the northern city of Alexandria in similar clashes.
Late on Monday the interior ministry said it had deployed more police forces to Cairo's Matareya district where fresh skirmishes were reported.
Sunday's death toll from clashes was the biggest in a single day since Sisi came to office.
Three suspected militants also died when they mistakenly blew themselves up while planting explosives in the Nile Delta region.
-'EXCESSIVE FORCE' -
The authorities have blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for the violence that has rocked Egypt since Morsi's ouster, including bombings and shootings targeting security forces.
However, more than 1,400 people have been killed in a government crackdown against Morsi's supporters, while over 15,000 have been imprisoned since he was toppled.
Dozens have also been sentenced to death in trials which the United Nations says are "unprecedented in recent history".
The Brotherhood has denied government accusations of involvement in attacks on security forces, mostly claimed by jihadist groups.
Egypt's deadliest militant group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, said in a video issued Monday that it executed a policeman kidnapped in Rafah bordering the Gaza Strip earlier this month.
The United States, Britain and Human Rights Watch condemned Egypt's deadly use of force against protesters.
"Four years after Egypt's revolution, police are still killing protesters on a regular basis," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director of HRW.
The New York-based HRW called for "an independent investigation into the authorities' excessive use of force" to quell "apparently peaceful protests."
Ibrahim dismissed the criticism.
"This organisation has never been objective in its reports," he said, blaming the Brotherhood for Sunday's violence.
US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki urged the "security forces to show restraint and to provide a safe environment in which Egyptians can peacefully express their views."
The British Foreign Office said it was "deeply concerned by the use of deadly force by the police against demonstrators".
Tensions had surged on the eve of the January 25 anniversary, when a female demonstrator was killed in clashes with police during a rare leftwing protest in Cairo.
Shaima al-Sabbagh died of birdshot wounds when police opened fire to disperse a march, fellow protesters and HRW said.
An 18-year-old female protester was also killed on Friday in clashes in Alexandria.
- MUBARAK SONS WALK FREE -
Sisi has been regularly accused by activists and rights groups of installing a regime that is more repressive than Mubarak's.
His supporters deny the allegations, pointing to his popularity among a large section of Egypt's population weary of four years of turmoil and economic crisis.
Ibrahim also said that Mubarak's sons Alaa and Gamal -- symbols of corruption during their father's rule -- had been released from jail pending a retrial in a graft case, four years after their arrest.
When asked by a reporter when they were actually released, Ibrahim said: "How does it concern you when they were released?"
Their release so close to the anniversary of the 2011 revolt presents a dilemma for Sisi, who is accused by opponents of reviving Mubarak-era practices.
Sisi's police kill at least 20 protesters commemorating January 25 Uprising
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Prosecutors Should Investigate Excessive Use of Force
Female protesters lead march against police brutality & murders
Al-Bawaba News
Egypt women rally against police killings
January 29, 2015Jihad Abaza
Protesters held signs commemorating Shaimaa Al-Sabbagh and Sondos Abu-Bakr, both of whom were killed by police forces during demonstrations before the fourth anniversary of the 25 January Revolution.
Police forces stood alongside pro-ministry interior protesters who were also standing in Talaat Harb Square, according to a Daily News Egypt reporter who was present at the scene.
The commemoration was initially held to be a “women’s stand in the site of Shaimaa Al-Sabbagh’s killing,” but men had also joined which lasted approximately 45 minutes.
The initiative for the stand began through a small group of women, who did not belong to any political movements or parties, the event page for the stand said.
Police forces shot Al-Sabbagh as she stood in a small “protest of flowers” in Talaat Harb square commemorating the 25 January Revolution on 24 January, while police forces shot Abu-Bakr as she marched in a protest in Alexandria the day before.
*Photo by Mohamed El-Shahed, courtesy of AFP
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