Round Everyone Up Part 2.
Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2018 6:20 pm
On the morning of February 18, 2018, a police force raided the house of photographer Ahmed Tarek, in the Nahia district of Giza Governorate. His mother says, "A number of individuals entered Ahmed's room and closed the door, and interrogated him for more than half an hour."
On the afternoon of Tariq's arrest, his lawyer went to ask about him in the Kerdasa police station, as one of the officers had told Tareq's mother while he was being taken to a place unknown to her. However, the police station of Kerdasa denied his presence and denied his arrest. His family filed a complaint about his disappearance by the police to the public prosecution and relevant bodies to no effect.
The prosecution ordered the arrest of Salma Alaeddin, the director, and a photographer, and decided to detain film editor Tareq Ziadeh for 15 days for producing the film, which showed a number of public figures who made statements, described by investigations to be "offensive against the state". Those figures includied Azza Suleiman, Abdul Khaliq Farouk, Ghazali Harb, Hamdi Qeshta, Mazin Hassan, Ilham Eidaros, Masoum Marzouq, Mamdouh Hamza, Amr Badr, Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Anwar Sadat.
On Friday evening, February 16, 2018, the security forces arrested Mu'taz Muhammad Shams al-Din, aka. Mo'taz Wednan, and a number of his relatives while they were in one of their cars, before leaving his relatives to an unknown location, most probably a national security headquarters. This followed the publication by Arabic Huffington Post a dialogue recorded with the Judge Hisham Geneina, that was filmed at his home, concerning the arrest of the team of Sami Anan, the former chief of staff of the Egyptian army, and the candidate excluded from the presidential elections of 2018. In that interview Geneina said things considered by the state to be a violation of the law, upon which the ministry of the interior arrested Hisham Geneina and handed him over to the Public Prosecution for interrogation.
Lawyers really are a pest. Two years ago a few lodged a legal action about the islands. They were all rounded up and one, Malek Adley, a prominent human rights lawyer, was charged with ‘plotting a coup and spreading false information.”complete rot and fabrication. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36231986. He was released after 116 days (not clear whether he was ever formally charged – how can you be released if you were formally charged?) he is prevented from traveling out of Egypt. If they didn’t stop he and others there would be a lot seeking political asylum in the west – and with a lot to sell. https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/c ... malek-adly (a good detailed website on legal abuses and incompetence). In January he did a press conference giving very specific examples of how the Presidential nomination/election was corrupt. http://www.egyptindependent.com/egypt-p ... cking-bid/. Last year he was the lawyer to Presidential hopeful, and quite decent person, Khaled Ali on the trumped up charge that was designed to disqualify him from the 18 election. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egyp ... SKBN18K2I6. He looks pretty normal to me – definitely brave, enterprising and hard-working – unlike the rest of his ‘profession’.
In the last week the police/prosecutors have been catching up on work from 3 years ago. In 2015 Anas Al-Mahdi was shot dead by the Egyptian police forces in May 2015 during an anti-military coup protest which was taking place inside the Cairo University. The rest of the story is a bit vague unclear except that both parents have now been rounded up. https://www.scribd.com/article/38016698 ... -By-Police This is insane - and cruel.
On April 6 Adel Eissa, a freelance photojournalist, Ahmed Abdel Gawad, a photographer with the pro-government daily al-Shorouk, and blogger Mohamed Ibrahim were detained after reporting on government opposition figures and irregularities in Egypt's recent presidential election. https://cpj.org/2018/04/egypt-arrests-3 ... -hours.php
Its also going on in Alex, but not getting the detailed international attention, with jailing of lawyers and also strikers (at a military owned shipyard) https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/mi ... ort-egypt/
Of course there is lots more and a lot we will never know about. Its clear its systematic, planned and led from the top – these are not errant actions. But what does it mean? To me its pretty clear that the police and military are out of control as are the courts. But why? The major stability issue is the terrorists and unemployment. Maybe this extreme behaviors shows that the Junta’s perceptions are more extreme than the reality. Why the round ups continue after the Presidential elections shows a either poor judgment about threats or an obsession with conformity and servility.
The silence of Western governments and the absence of a debate in the UN are appalling. The indifference of tour companies, hotel chains and airline companies is of a similar vein but their only interest is money – until an internet campaign against them starts. The silence of scores of resident UN agencies is unforgivable – but exactly what they have always done. http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/06/12/u-n ... iolations/
The Egyptian Government grossly overstated terrorism arguments/arrests in the last year or so ignore that Sinai has been out of control for a decade, Libya is now the source for more terrorists, as ISIS has failed in Syria and Iraq they have migrated to Gaza/Egypt. The outlawing of the Brotherhood has split it into a 10% group (or less) of young troublemakers – or worse and a 90% group of pacifists yet all the Brotherhood roundups are of older or geriatric types.
I think a deal of what going on is more Egyptian military fetishism about obedience – which is not unconnected with their insecurities. As well police/security service/military intelligence/state prosecution power is out of control.
On the afternoon of Tariq's arrest, his lawyer went to ask about him in the Kerdasa police station, as one of the officers had told Tareq's mother while he was being taken to a place unknown to her. However, the police station of Kerdasa denied his presence and denied his arrest. His family filed a complaint about his disappearance by the police to the public prosecution and relevant bodies to no effect.
The prosecution ordered the arrest of Salma Alaeddin, the director, and a photographer, and decided to detain film editor Tareq Ziadeh for 15 days for producing the film, which showed a number of public figures who made statements, described by investigations to be "offensive against the state". Those figures includied Azza Suleiman, Abdul Khaliq Farouk, Ghazali Harb, Hamdi Qeshta, Mazin Hassan, Ilham Eidaros, Masoum Marzouq, Mamdouh Hamza, Amr Badr, Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Anwar Sadat.
On Friday evening, February 16, 2018, the security forces arrested Mu'taz Muhammad Shams al-Din, aka. Mo'taz Wednan, and a number of his relatives while they were in one of their cars, before leaving his relatives to an unknown location, most probably a national security headquarters. This followed the publication by Arabic Huffington Post a dialogue recorded with the Judge Hisham Geneina, that was filmed at his home, concerning the arrest of the team of Sami Anan, the former chief of staff of the Egyptian army, and the candidate excluded from the presidential elections of 2018. In that interview Geneina said things considered by the state to be a violation of the law, upon which the ministry of the interior arrested Hisham Geneina and handed him over to the Public Prosecution for interrogation.
Lawyers really are a pest. Two years ago a few lodged a legal action about the islands. They were all rounded up and one, Malek Adley, a prominent human rights lawyer, was charged with ‘plotting a coup and spreading false information.”complete rot and fabrication. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36231986. He was released after 116 days (not clear whether he was ever formally charged – how can you be released if you were formally charged?) he is prevented from traveling out of Egypt. If they didn’t stop he and others there would be a lot seeking political asylum in the west – and with a lot to sell. https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/c ... malek-adly (a good detailed website on legal abuses and incompetence). In January he did a press conference giving very specific examples of how the Presidential nomination/election was corrupt. http://www.egyptindependent.com/egypt-p ... cking-bid/. Last year he was the lawyer to Presidential hopeful, and quite decent person, Khaled Ali on the trumped up charge that was designed to disqualify him from the 18 election. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egyp ... SKBN18K2I6. He looks pretty normal to me – definitely brave, enterprising and hard-working – unlike the rest of his ‘profession’.
In the last week the police/prosecutors have been catching up on work from 3 years ago. In 2015 Anas Al-Mahdi was shot dead by the Egyptian police forces in May 2015 during an anti-military coup protest which was taking place inside the Cairo University. The rest of the story is a bit vague unclear except that both parents have now been rounded up. https://www.scribd.com/article/38016698 ... -By-Police This is insane - and cruel.
On April 6 Adel Eissa, a freelance photojournalist, Ahmed Abdel Gawad, a photographer with the pro-government daily al-Shorouk, and blogger Mohamed Ibrahim were detained after reporting on government opposition figures and irregularities in Egypt's recent presidential election. https://cpj.org/2018/04/egypt-arrests-3 ... -hours.php
Its also going on in Alex, but not getting the detailed international attention, with jailing of lawyers and also strikers (at a military owned shipyard) https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/mi ... ort-egypt/
Of course there is lots more and a lot we will never know about. Its clear its systematic, planned and led from the top – these are not errant actions. But what does it mean? To me its pretty clear that the police and military are out of control as are the courts. But why? The major stability issue is the terrorists and unemployment. Maybe this extreme behaviors shows that the Junta’s perceptions are more extreme than the reality. Why the round ups continue after the Presidential elections shows a either poor judgment about threats or an obsession with conformity and servility.
The silence of Western governments and the absence of a debate in the UN are appalling. The indifference of tour companies, hotel chains and airline companies is of a similar vein but their only interest is money – until an internet campaign against them starts. The silence of scores of resident UN agencies is unforgivable – but exactly what they have always done. http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/06/12/u-n ... iolations/
The Egyptian Government grossly overstated terrorism arguments/arrests in the last year or so ignore that Sinai has been out of control for a decade, Libya is now the source for more terrorists, as ISIS has failed in Syria and Iraq they have migrated to Gaza/Egypt. The outlawing of the Brotherhood has split it into a 10% group (or less) of young troublemakers – or worse and a 90% group of pacifists yet all the Brotherhood roundups are of older or geriatric types.
I think a deal of what going on is more Egyptian military fetishism about obedience – which is not unconnected with their insecurities. As well police/security service/military intelligence/state prosecution power is out of control.
