Thursday, October 27, 2011

Yemen regime allows peaceful protest in central Sanaa


Yemen
Yemeni security forces heavily deployed in Sanaa allowed a massive anti-regime rally on Thursday to cross the capital without intervening, for the first time since January, an AFP correspondent reported.
The protesters left Change Square, outside Sanaa University which has become the epicentre of anti-regime demonstrations, and marched towards Al-Zubairi Avenue in central Sanaa.
Over the past months, security forces had opened fire on protesters whenever they attempted to march towards the city centre.
A similar move last month sparked a wave of deadly violence that left dozens dead across the capital.
But security forces, led by President Ali Abdullah Saleh's nephew Yehya, allowed protesters calling for the embattled leader to be prosecuted to peacefully demonstrate.
"Free people of the world, Saleh must be brought to justice," they chanted, calling the leader "a war criminal."
The protest took place as Sanaa was quiet Thursday, following two days of deadly clashes in the capital and Yemen's second largest city Taez.
Yemen has witnessed one of the longest and bloodiest uprisings of the Arab Spring, with hundreds of Yemenis dead and thousands more wounded since January.

'Spy'-swap Egyptian prisoners return home


Israel has released 25 Egyptian prisoners in an exchange deal for a US-Israeli man accused of spying by Cairo and held in custody there since June.
The 25 prisoners, who had all been convicted of smuggling drugs or weapons or infiltrating Israel illegally, were greeted by crowds as they crossed into Egypt at the Taba border crossing after being transported there from prison in southern Israel earlier in the day.
TV footage showed some of the Egyptian men kneeling to kiss the asphalt after crossing through a blue metal gate at the border crossing.
Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros, reporting from Taba, said the prisoners were going to to a nearby hotel and would hold a news conference there.
Grapel was flown from Cairo to Ben Gurion airport in Israel accompanied by envoys for Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. Israel Hasson, an Israeli politician who travelled with Grapel on the flight, said before leaving the Egyptian capital that he looked fine and was smiling.
Al Jazeera's Tadros said the heads of various clans had checked lists to see if the names of those freed matched their faces. Among those released were teenagers that had been held for years, she said.
The exchange, reportedly mediated by the US, came after a successful Egyptian-negotiated swap between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas that freed Gilad Shalit, a captive Israeli soldier in return for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners of whom around 400 have so far been released.
Tadros said there was also a domestic reason for the deal, adding that Egypt was "trying to score some points" by securing the release of the prisoners from Israeli custody.
Grapel, 27, was volunteering at a legal aid group in Cairo when he was arrested and accused of spying for Israel during the uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's former president, in February. Israel denied the espionage allegations, as did Grapel's family and friends.
Grapel's arrest led to fears in Israel that relations with Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel in 1979, would sour following the fall of Mubarak.
Grapel made no secret of his Israeli background and entered Egypt under his real name. His Facebook page had photos of him in an Israeli military uniform.
Wounded in fighting
Grapel's sister, Michal, told Israel's Army Radio that their mother, who lives in Queens, New York City, had flown to the region to meet her son after he arrived in Israel.
She would fly back with him to the US where he is studying law, at an unspecified date, the sister said.
Grapel moved to Israel, where his grandparents live, as a young man. He did his compulsory military service in Israel during its 2006 war in Lebanon and was wounded in the fighting. He later returned to the US to study.
At the time of his arrest he was doing a legal internship with a local nonprofit organisation in Cairo and planned afterwards to return to the US for his final year of law school.

NTC says Qaddafi’s killers to face trial; Algeria and Mali call for peace in Libya

Muammar Qaddafi, who ruled Libya under a tight grip for 42 years, was killed on Oct. 20, 2011. (File Photo)
Libya’s ruling National Transition Council pledged on Thursday to bring the killers of deposed leader Muammar Qaddafi to trial, Al Arabiya TV said.

“With regards to Qaddafi, we do not wait for anybody to tell us,” NTC vice chairman Abdel Hafiz Ghoga.

“We had already launched an investigation. We have issued a code of ethics in handling of prisoners of war. I am sure that was an individual act and not an act of revolutionaries or the national army,” the top interim official said.

“Whoever is responsible for that (Qaddafi’s killing) will be judged and given a fair trial.”
Global disquiet has grown over how Qaddafi met his end at the hands of NTC fighters who hauled him out of a culvert where he was hiding following a NATO air strike.

Mobile phone videos show him still alive at that point.

In addition to Qaddafi’s killing by his capturers, a Youtube video showed a rebel trying to insert some kind of stick or knife into Qaddafi’s rear end.

Another video, showed Qaddafi’s son, Mutassim, captured, still alive and smoking a cigarette before his killing.

On Tuesday, Qaddafi, his son, and his ex-defense minister, Abu Baker Jaber, were buried in a secret location. The Libyan authorities said the burial was held in a secret location to prevent graves’ vandalism.

Meanwhile, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Wednesday expressed his “disgust” at the global media for its graphic coverage of the ousted leader’s death.

“Almost the entire Qaddafi family was killed. His body was shown on all the world channels. You could not watch without disgust,” news agencies quoted Putin as saying.

“What is that?” Putin exclaimed. “They show a bloodied man, wounded, still alive but getting beaten to death. And they splash that all over the screen.”

Algeria and Mali

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and his visiting counterpart from Mali, Amadou Toumani Toure, on Thursday said they would cooperate with the new Libyan authorities and called for peace there.

Bouteflika and Toure expressed their “readiness to cooperate with the new Libyan authorities” - whom they described as “brothers” – “in the mutual interest of their peoples and as a contribution to the strengthening of peace, security and stability in the whole region,” a joint statement said when Toure left.

The two heads of state “joined in their wishes for a rapid settlement of the crisis in this country, in line with the aspirations of the Libyan people, and respect for unity, integrity and sovereignty,” the text said, according to the APS news agency.

Last week, Algeria was urged by Britain and other foreign powers to cooperate with the Libyan authorities whose forces toppled and killed ousted leader Moamer Kadhafi over members of Kadhafi's family who have fled to Algeria and sought refuge there during the fighting.

Qaddafi’s daughter Aisha fled to Algeria late in August with her brother Hannibal, their mother Safiya – Qaddafi’s second wife − and his eldest son Mohammed. Aisha has since given birth to a baby girl.

Algeria has thus far given them refuge.

Toure’s four-day visit to Algeria was notably marked by the signing of plans for cooperation in several domains, ranging from energy and mines to water management and public works.

U.N. Security Council ends Libya’s no-fly zone and NATO’s military operations there

The 15-nation Security Council will meet to vote on a Russian-drafted resolution on Libya. (File)
The U.N. Security Council unanimously voted Thursday to end the mandate for international military action in Libya, closing another chapter in the war against Muammar Qaddafi

The 15-member council ordered an end to authorization for a no-fly zone and action to protect civilians from 11:59 pm Libyan time on October 31. The mandate was approved in March after Qaddafi launched a deadly assault on opposition protests.

NATO, which carried out the airstrikes that played a key role in the downfall of Qaddafi, says it is studying new ways to help the National Transitional Council, which had asked for an extension to the mandate.

The alliance’s decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, is due to meet Friday in Brussels to formally declare an end to its seven-month-old air war.

Security Council Resolution 2016 also eased an international arms embargo so that the NTC can acquire weapons and equipment for its national security.

It ended an assets freeze on the Libyan National Oil Corporation and virtually all restrictions on the central bank and other key institutions. It completely ended the ban on international flights by registered Libyan planes.
The 15-nation council met at 1400 GMT to vote on a Russian-drafted resolution, obtained by Al Arabiya.

The plan to cancel the mandate comes despite a request from Libya’s interim government for the Security Council to wait until the National Transitional Council makes a decision on whether it wants NATO to help it secure its borders.

Brotherhood backed El-Waly wins first post-revolution elections in Journalists' Syndicate


Journalist Mamdouh El-Waly has become the first post-revolution chairman of the Journalists' Syndicate after winning in elections that witnessed a large turnout. 

El-Waly got 1646 votes whereas his rival, journalist Yahia Qallash, got 1399 votes from 3101 total votes. Some 277 voters were found to be void.
El-Waly and Qallash have been members of the syndicate's board for many years. El-Waly is believed to be supported by the Muslim Brotherhood group, though he is not a member of the group. 
The syndicate's board election results were announced Wednesday night. The new syndicate's board is made up of 12 members, six of whom kept their seats while six are new members got in. 
This was the first election held at the Journalists' Syndicate without a regime candidate for a great many years. 

Egyptian official: Army did not open fire on protesters at Israeli embassy

Israeli embassy


A well-placed Egyptian security source has denied a report in Israeli newspaper Israel Today claiming that Egyptian commandos killed three Egyptians during protests at the Israeli embassy in Cairo.
The report quotes Israeli Knesset Member Israel Hasson as saying that while the commandos rescued six employees in the Israeli embassy from large anti-Israel protests last September, the unit opened fire on the protesters, killing three and injuring others.
The source stressed that Hasson’s statements are completely false, saying that the army did not open fire on a single person during the protests on 9 September.
Following on from the prisoner swap that saw suspected spy Ilan Grapel, a dual US-Israeli citizen, traded for 25 Egyptians imprisoned in Israel freed, the source said that four Israeli spies are in Egyptian custody. Israel, the source added, is seeking to negotiate their release. Top of the list is Ouda Trabin, whom Israel wanted to include in the Grapel deal.

Egypt court orders the freeze of assets of Mubarak and his family

Mubarak and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, have been charged with corruption, and all three are under arrest. (Photo courtesy of Al-Masry Al-Youm)

An Egyptian court endorsed the decision of the Illicit Gains Authority (IGA) to freeze the assets of former president Hosni Mubarak and members of his family, Al Arabiya reported on Thursday.

Mubarak and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, have been charged with corruption, and all three are under arrest. Mubarak is also charged with complicity in the killing of about 850 protesters during the 18-day uprising that ousted him from office.

Freezing of the assets of the Mubaraks will apply to his wife Susan Thabet, his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, their wives Heidi Rasekh and Khadiga al-Gamal, and two grandchildren, Omar and Farida.
IGA chief Assem al-Gohary is heading a committee responsible for repatriating assets siphoned abroad by the former president and his family, according to a report carried by Egypt’s al-Masry al-Youm daily.

Last week Gohary said the committee had learned that Mubarak’s sons have $340 million in Swiss banks, $300 million of which belongs to Alaa.

Switzerland has already frozen the assets of the Mubarak family and other figures from the former regime, which Gohary estimated at nearly $450 million.

The committee relayed the information to the IGA so it could take the necessary steps. The IGA froze the assets and asked the Court of Appeal to hold an urgent hearing to consider and support the decision.

Egypt’s attorney general froze the assets of the former presidential family on Feb. 20, in the aftermath of 18-day uprising that ousted Mubarak.

Mubarak’s youngest son and one-time heir apparent Gamal, 47, rose rapidly through the ranks of his father’s ruling National Democratic Party over the past decade to become the country’s most powerful politician.

The wealth of 49-year-old Alaa has been the subject of much speculation well before the political rise of his younger brother. There are allegations that he used his status to muscle in on profitable enterprises, taking a cut of profits without contributing to the funds invested or work done.

Arab mediators meet Assad over Syria unrest


An Arab League delegation has held talks with Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, amid reports of more deadly clashes betwen security forces and army deserters backing protesters demanding the president's resignation.
The delegation, led by Qatar's prime minister, arrived in Syria on Wednesday as tens of thousands of pro-government supporters packed into Omayyad square in the heart of Damascus, chanting "The people want Bashar al-Assad".
Delegates included the foreign ministers of Algeria, Egypt, Oman and Sudan, in addition to Nabil al-Arabi, the head of the Arab League.
State-run Syrian TV quoted Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr Al Thani, the delegation leader, as saying the meeting was "frank and friendly".
Al Thani also said the delegation felt that the Syrian government was eager to work with the Arab committee "in order to reach a solution".
"They are going to meet again on Sunday - and that puts more faith in that initiative than people had anticipated in the beginning. Now it doesn't mean that it will work, but at least it isn't failure from the first meeting," she said. Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from neighbouring Lebanon due to restrictions imposed by Syrian authorities, said there were issues the two parties agreed and disagreed on.
At an urgent session in Cairo on October 16, the 22-member Arab League called for "national dialogue" between Syria's government and the opposition by the end of October to help end the violence and avoid "foreign intervention" in Syria.
Syria has rejected previous Arab initiatives, and it was not clear if this would be different, or if the regime was trying to gain time to try to crush the uprising.
The meeting came as the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 15 more people, including nine government soldiers, had been killed on Wednesday in the latest clashes between Assad loyalists and forces backing anti-government protests.
"Nine servicemen, including an officer of the Syrian regular army, were killed by a rocket, fired by armed men, probably deserters. The soldiers were on a vehicle in Al-Hamrat village, on the Hama-Salamiyah road," the rights group said.
Clashes between security forces and soldiers who have deserted and joined the opposition have become more frequent in recent week, particularly in the centre of the country.
Convoy attacked
On Tuesday the rights group said seven security agents had been killed in the Maarat al-Noman clashes, after their convoy was attacked by army deserters backing protesters.
In Wednesday's violence the observatory said that four civilians, including an 18-month-old infant, had also been killed and 17 others wounded by security forces in the central Homs region, one of the bastions of the Syrian opposition.
Several districts in the area had been targeted by rocket-fire, the group said.
Another civilian had been killed by shots coming from a military checkpoint at Saraqeb, in the northwestern region of Idlib, while a 63-year-old man had been killed the eastern region of Abu Kamal, it added.
Protests against the Syrian regime erupted in March and have shown no signs of ending despite the rising death toll.
The UN estimates at least 3,000 people, including members of the security forces, have been killed since the protests started.
In Washington, US senators said the UN Security Council should refer credible charges of alleged crimes against humanity by Assad to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In a letter to Washington's UN envoy, Susan Rice, the legislators said it was time for the ICC to look into "deeply troubling and grave charges" against Assad amid the crackdown on protesters.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Five police officers referred to criminal court over killing of Salafist in Egypt


El-Sayed Belal

Five officers from the dissolved State Security have been referred to the Criminal Court for their alleged part in the torturing and killing of El-Sayed Belal, a young Salafist who was held by police on suspicion of being involved in the New Year's Eve bomb attack on the Two Saints Church in Alexandria.
Belal's corpse was found on 17 January, he is believed to have been tortured to death. Eight days later the January 25 revolution erupted, leading to the dissolution of the notorious State Security.
Four of the officers who were referred to the court – Osama El-Keneisy, Ahmed Mostafa, Hossam El-Shennawy and Mahmoud Abdel-Alim – remain at large.
The fifth, Mohamed El-Sheimy, was captured in the wake of the incident which evoked memories of Khaled Said’s death last year.
The five men also face charges of sodomy after other suspects said they were sexually abused.
The two policemen who beat Said to death were sentenced to seven years in prison earlier on Wednesday for manslaughter.

Qatar admits it had boots on the ground in Libya; NTC seeks further NATO help

Libya’s interim leader, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, said that Qatar had been a major partner in all the battles the National Transitional Council fought. (Reuters)
Qatar revealed for the first time on Wednesday that hundreds of its soldiers had joined Libyan rebel forces on the ground as they battled troops of veteran leader Muammar Qaddafi.

“We were among them and the numbers of Qataris on ground were hundreds in every region,” said Qatari chief of staff Major General Hamad bin Ali al-Atiya.

The announcement marks the first time that Qatar has acknowledged it had military boots on the ground in Libya.
Previously the gas-rich country said it had only lent the support of its air force to NATO-led operations to protect civilians during the eight-month uprising, which ended when Qaddafi was felled with a bullet to the head after being captured last week.

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting in Doha of military allies of Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC), Atiya said the Qataris had been “running the training and communication operations.”

“Qatar had supervised the rebels’ plans because they are civilians and did not have enough military experience. We acted as the link between the rebels and NATO forces,” he said.

Libya’s interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil told the meeting that Qatar had been “a major partner in all the battles we fought.”

He added that the Qataris had “planned” the battles which paved the way for NTC fighters to gradually take over Qaddafi-held towns and cities.

Libyans seek further NATO help

Libya’s interim leader urged NATO on Wednesday to maintain its involvement in the country until the end of the year, though the Western military alliance is keen to wind up its formal mission within days.

“We hope (NATO) will continue its campaign until at least the end of this year to serve us and neighboring countries,” Abdel Jalil told the Conference of Friends Committee made at a Doha conference of military allies of his National Transitional Council.

This request is aimed at “ensuring that no arms are infiltrated into those countries and to ensure the security of Libyans from some remnants of Qaddafi’s forces who have fled to nearby countries,” he added.

The NTC is also seeking help from NATO in “developing Libya’s defense and security systems,” Abdel Jalil told the conference.

With Qaddafi’s son and heir-apparent Seif al-Islam believed still at large and seeking to flee following his father’s killing last week, Jalil said he wanted NATO help in stopping Qaddafi loyalists escaping justice.

But at the Brussels headquarters of the alliance, whose air strikes and intelligence backed the motley rebel forces for eight months at substantial financial cost, NATO officials recalled that their U.N. mandate was to protect civilians, not target individuals.

A meeting of NATO ambassadors, postponed from Wednesday to Friday to allow for further discussion with the NTC and United Nations, was still due to endorse a preliminary decision to halt the Libya mission on October 31, a spokeswoman for the bloc said.

Asked if NATO ambassadors on Friday would stick to the decision to end the mission at the end of the month, spokeswoman Carmen Romero said: “That is the preliminary decision ... The formal decision will be taken this week.”

She added that, for the time being, “NATO continues to monitor the situation on the ground, and retains the capability to respond to any threats to civilians”.

Romero said NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was in consultations with the United Nations and the National Transitional Council about plans to conclude the mission.

NATO states took their decision last week based on military recommendations. The commander the Libya mission Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard said on Monday he saw virtually no risk of forces loyal to Qaddafi mounting successful attacks to regain power and NATO believed NTC forces were able to handle security threats.

War crimes complaint

Meanwhile Qaddafi’s family plans to file a war crimes complaint against NATO with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the alliance’s alleged role in his death, their lawyer said .

The 69-year-old ex-strongman was captured near the city of Sirte in circumstances that are still unclear, but it has been confirmed NATO aircraft fired on pro-Qaddafi vehicles driving in a convoy from the city.

Marcel Ceccaldi, a French lawyer who previously worked for Qaddafi’s regime and now represents his family, told AFP that a complaint would be filed with the Hague-based ICC because NATO’s attack on the convoy led directly to his death.

“The willful killing (of someone protected by the Geneva Convention) is defined as a war crime by Article 8 of the ICC’s Rome Statute,” he said.

He said he could not yet say when the complaint would be filed, but said it would target both NATO executive bodies and the leaders of alliance member states.

“Qaddafi’s homicide shows that the goal of (NATO) member states was not to protect civilians but to overthrow the regime,” Ceccaldi said.

“Either the ICC intervenes as an independent and impartial jurisdiction or it doesn’t, in which case force will overrule the law,” he said.

The NTC has announced an investigation into Qaddafi’s death.

International disquiet has grown over how Qaddafi met his end after NTC fighters hauled him out of a culvert where he was hiding following NATO air strikes on the convoy in which he had been trying to flee his falling hometown.

The ICC in June issued arrest warrants for Qaddafi, Seif al-Islam and the former regime’s intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, for “crimes against humanity” committed by troops under their orders, using “lethal force” to quell the uprising against his regime.

Local officials said Tuesday that Seif al-Islam and Senussi, who have so far evaded capture, were poised to cross into Niger where they were expected to seek refuge along with other former regime officials.

Demonstration in Tahrir Square on Friday for 'defending the revolution'


Political and revolutionary forces are calling for a demonstration on 28 October called the "Friday of defending the revolution" in the famous Tahrir Square, to demand the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces transfer power to civilians by April.
In a press release, the Youth Revolution Coalition said they will demand a transfer of power to an elected civilian government who will be responsible for overseeing and monitoring the drafting of the constitution and elections.
The group said they will also call for free and fair elections, sufficient security at elections, a decrease in the military's power and influence, social justice, trials for those who used violence and force against peaceful civilians, for the minister of information and everyone who took part in misinforming the public or hiding the truth about recent events be tried, and for the media to be freed from military control.
"It has been eight months since Mubarak stepped down and it has become apparent to everyone that the system has not fallen and the armed forces have failed in managing the transitional period," said the coalition in their press release.
"…we understand that the transitional period should liquidate the remnants of the ousted regime and transfer power to a new system chosen by the people, but all that has happened since 11 February are attempts to rebuild the old regime."

Qaddafi son Saif al-Islam, intelligence chief ‘want to surrender’ to ICC

Muammar Qaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam has proposed to hand himself in to the International Criminal Court after being on the run from Libyan rebel fighters, the NTC says. (Photo by Reuters)


Muammar Qaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam and former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi propose to hand themselves in to the International Criminal Court, a senior official with Libya’s National Transitional Council said on Wednesday.

“They are proposing a way to hand themselves over to The Hague,” Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters from Libya.

Spokesman for the Hague court Fadi El Abdallah said: “We don’t have confirmation about this now. We are trying to contact the NTC for more information.”

Saif al-Islam is wanted by the war crimes court, as was his late father. There is also a warrant out for Senussi.
Saif al-Islam has been on the run since Libyan forces overran his father’s home town Sirte at the weekend. He is thought to be somewhere near Libya’s southern border with Niger.

Mlegta said his information came from intelligence sources who told him that Saif al-Islam and Senussi were trying to broker a deal to surrender to the court through a neighboring country, which he did not name.

They had concluded that it was not safe for them to remain in Libya, or to go to Algeria or Niger, two countries where Qaddafi family members are already sheltering.

“They feel that it is not safe for them to stay where they are or to go anywhere,” Mlegta said.

In any case, they said that Niger was asking for too much money for them to stay.

In June the ICC issued arrest warrants for Qaddafi, Saif al-Islam and Senussi on charges of crimes against humanity after the U.N. Security Council referred the Libyan situation to the court in February.

All three were charged with crimes against humanity for the Libyan regime’s violent crackdown on protesters in February.

It was only the second time that the U.N. Security Council had referred a conflict to the ICC, the world’s first permanent war crimes court.

The Security Council referred the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region to the ICC in 2005.

Saif al-Islam was on Tuesday poised to cross into Niger along with Senussi, his father’s ex-intelligence chief, a Tuareg official said.

Niger has an obligation to co-operate in bringing to justice Libyan fugitives Saif al-Islam and Abdullah al-Senussi, wanted by the International Criminal Court, a court spokesman said Wednesday.

“There is definitely an obligation on Niger to co-operate as it is a state party to the Rome Statute,” the ICC’s founding document, said Fadi El Abdallah.

But he slapped down media reports suggesting either man wanted to hand himself over to the ICC, saying he had “no information or confirmation.”

“It is something we would have to follow up with the Council,” El Abdallah told AFP, referring to Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC).

The two are the most wanted fugitives from the slain despot’s ousted circle and are wanted by the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity, committed after the start of the uprising against Qaddafi’s regime in mid-February. The ICC issued arrest warrants against the three on June 27.

Both are widely expected to seek refuge in Niger following Qaddafi’s death last week.

Libya’s southern neighbor, which for years was one of the west African countries that benefited most from Qaddafi’s largesse, is already sheltering dozens of former regime officials, including another of Qaddafi’s sons.

Qaddafi, who lorded over the oil-rich north African nation for 42 years, met a violent end on Thursday following his capture by fighters of Libya’s new regime.

France may demand Senussi’s extradition if he is arrested by Niamey, since a Paris court sentenced him in absentia to life in prison for the 1989 bombing of a French UTA airliner that claimed 170 lives.

So far 32 members of Qaddafi’s entourage including his playboy former footballer son Saadi have taken refuge in Niger for “humanitarian” reasons.

Also among them are three generals and the head of Qaddafi’s personal bodyguards, Mansur Daou, according to the authorities who say they are under surveillance but have not been detained.

Lenient sentence for Khaled Said killers provokes anger and dismay in Egypt

Khaled Said
“Khaled is still unhappy.” With these few word the iconic ‘Kolena Khaled Said’ Facebook page summed up the seven-year passed down on the two policemen convicted for killing Said (Arabic for happy) last June. The brutal death in broad daylight of the 28-year-old Said was seen as one of the turning points that spurred an uprising on 25 January against the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak.
On hearing the sentence, Khaled Said’s mother, Laila Marzouk, was in a state of complete shock. She could not attend the session, which no one was aware would be for sentencing.
“I thought that they would be executed. I am shocked that they only got seven years. How can they brutally kill my son and get only seven years? Seven years is a sentence political activists get, how can a murderer receive the same sentence?” Mrs. Marzouk wondered in dismay.
“My heart is torn and I am in a state of shock but we will not be silent, God does not approve this,” She told Ahram Online. Mrs. Marzouk also wondered Why there was no media like before following the trial.
Marzouk also revealed that the families of two convicted policemen attacked Said’s relatives and supporters in the courtroom. “How do they dare to get angry at this sentence while the two policemen killed my son?” she said. “Thank God that I did not go because I am diabetic, they would have killed me as they killed my son.”
The fact that the police and military police left the courtroom Marzouk holds to blame for the assault on her family by the killers’ families. Marzouk, still uncertain over the legal information she has received, believes the two policemen could serve as little as three years in prison as they have already been detained for two. 
The internet saw a wave of dismayed and angry responses to the length of the sentence. “Khaled helped the revolution but the revolution did not help him,” was one post typical of the feelings running high. Calls were made for a protest march tonight from Tahrir Square to the High Court in Cairo as well as for the prosecutor-general, Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, to resign.
Renowned activist and the administrator of the ‘Kolena Khaled Said’ Facebook page Wael Ghoneim posted on Twitter: “It is our right to be angry but we are in a battle, the right of Khaled and every Egyptian like him will return.”
Mona Seif, a prominent human rights activist and founding member of the “No for Military Trials” campaign, wondered how the convicted policemen received seven years sentence for killing Said while young men are given the same prison term by military courts for weapons possession.
Human rights activist and lawyer Hafiz Abu Seada also took to Twitter to declare that he was preparing a legal memo that he will present to the general prosecution in order to appeal the sentence and change the charge from manslaughter to death by torture based on the anti-torture treaties to which Egypt is a signatory.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Human Rights Watch report warns Egypt not to cover up military killing of Coptic protesters


The Egyptian military’s intention to control the investigation of the use of force against unarmed Coptic Christian demonstrators during a night of clashes on 9 October 2011 raises fears of a cover-up, Human Rights Watch said today. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Egypt’s military rulers, should transfer the investigation from the military prosecution to a fully independent and impartial investigation into the killing of unarmed protesters by military forces. The violence left two dozen protesters and bystanders and at least one military officer dead.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 20 participants in the demonstration who consistently testified that between 6 and 7pm on 9 October at least two armored personnel vehicles (APCs) drove recklessly through crowds of demonstrators, in some cases appearing to pursue them intentionally. The protest of thousands of Copts had been peaceful until that point, and the military’s subsequent response was disproportionate. The large, heavy vehicles crushed and killed at least 10 demonstrators, as autopsies later showed.

“The military cannot investigate itself with any credibility,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “This had been an essentially peaceful protest until the military used excessive force and military vehicles ran over protesters. The only hope for justice for the victims is an independent civilian-led investigation that the army fully cooperates with and cannot control and that leads to the prosecution of those responsible.”

In the dozens of cases of torture by the military that Human Rights Watch has documented this year, the cases of seven women subjected to virginity tests by the military on 9 March and the excessive use of force by the military in policing demonstrations, there has been not one prosecution, Human Rights Watch said. These include hundreds of documented cases of torture, excessive use of force in policing demonstrations, and sexual assaults on female detainees through so-called virginity tests.

Gen. Adel al-Morsi, head of Egypt’s military justice system, said on 13 October that military prosecutors would investigate the violence on October 9, when Copts marched to the government television building known as Maspero to protest the authorities’ failure to punish the attack on churches. The Office of the Public Prosecutor confirmed that civilian prosecutors would play no role in any investigation. Military prosecutors and judges are serving members of the military and therefore subject to the chain of command, and ultimately receive instructions from the head of the SCAF, Defense Minister Field Marshall Tantawy, who is the ultimate executive authority in Egypt. The SCAF’s October 12 news conference, at which two generals denied any use of live ammunition or intention to run over protesters, shows why an investigation by the military, and subject to military command, is likely to perpetuate military impunity, Human Rights Watch said.

At the news conference, Generals Mahmoud Hegazy and Adel Emara made public the military’s narrative of the events at Maspero, absolving soldiers of any wrongdoing. Emara insisted that “the armed forces would never and have never opened fire on the people,” and the generals claimed that armed protesters had attacked the soldiers.

“The soldiers driving armored vehicles were trying to avoid protesters, who were throwing stones and Molotov cocktail bombs at them,” Emara said, adding that the soldiers were in an “unprecedented psychological state.”

“I can’t deny that some people may have been hit, but it was not systematic,” he concluded.

Consistent and credible witness testimony, as well as independent media and video footage, contradict the military’s version of events, Human Rights Watch said.

The military has arrested at least 28 people, almost all Copts, in connection with the clashes and brought them before military prosecutors. The prosecutors ordered their detention for 15 days, pending investigation.

At the insistence of human rights lawyers working with the families of victims, forensic medical doctors from the health ministry conducted 24 autopsies on 10 October, concluding in their preliminary reports that eight of the people had died of bullet wounds, two from blows to the head, and 13 from injuries and fractures inflicted by the vehicles. The 18th body had been slashed with a large knife. Autopsies were not performed on the bodies of eight other victims, which were in different morgues at that time and have since been buried.

The 9 October march started at around 4pm from the northern Cairo neighborhood of Shubra, home to many Coptic Christians, with thousands of mainly Coptic protesters marching to the government television building on the Nile River. This was the second demonstration within a week by Copts to protest the authorities’ failure to investigate the burning of a church in Marinab in the southern governorate of Aswan. The protesters also demanded the removal of the governor of Aswan, who appeared to justify the destruction of the church by saying it had been built without a permit.

Some residents along the route of the march pelted the demonstrators with stones, and some marchers retaliated, also throwing stones. The demonstrators eventually made their way to the state television headquarters on the Corniche, Cairo’s Nile riverfront drive. They joined another group of protesters already there, surrounded by military police and Central Security Forces (CSF). At that point, at around 6pm, witnesses said, shots were fired in the air and at the demonstrators, though the witnesses could not always identify the exact source. Armored personnel carriers careened down the Corniche, sometimes onto the sidewalks, crushing demonstrators.

Military officers raided and stopped the live broadcast of two independent TV news channels, Al Hurra and 25TV, whose offices are next to the state television building. The stations had been broadcasting footage of the clashes.

At the same time, the state-run Channel 1, Nile News, and Radio Misr broadcast reports claiming that armed Coptic demonstrators had shot and killed three military officers and calls for “honorable citizens” to “defend the army against attack”. Such calls could easily have been taken as a signal for citizens to attack Copts and therefore would have amounted to incitement to discrimination and violence against Copts, Human Rights Watch said.

Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), told Human Rights Watch that, a short time after the government channels broadcast the reports, he encountered groups of armed men in civilian clothes from the Boulaq neighborhood, next to Maspero, who said they had heard that armed Christians were attacking the army. Bahgat told Human Rights Watch that he witnessed attacks on Copts that evening by people in civilian clothes.

Under international law, the military, in its law-enforcement capacity, may arrest people who are committing violent acts or who assault police or army officers. It may also use force, but only as necessary and proportionate, to control a crowd. Evidence from video and witness statements do not indicate any justification for running people over at high speed with army vehicles. Deliberate use of firearms is lawful only if “strictly unavoidable to protect life,” a high standard to meet, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch also called for an investigation into attempts by the military and the information ministry to control media coverage, as well as the statements by state TV presenters that may have amounted to incitement to violence.

Egyptian authorities also should look into the underlying causes of the demonstration at Maspero and address legitimate grievances by Coptic Christians, Human Rights Watch said. These include discrimination in their right to worship and the failure to punish perpetrators and instigators of attacks on churches and other forms of sectarian violence. Human Rights Watch has examined three incidents of sectarian violence involving Muslim attacks on Christians and Christian churches since the February 2011 ouster of President Hosni Mubarak that have gone entirely unpunished.

An attack, on 30 September, on the Mar Girgis (St. George) church in Marinab, in Aswan governorate, prompted the march on 9 October. As in previous incidents, police and public prosecutors failed to investigate and insisted that differences be resolved in informal reconciliation deals between suspects and aggrieved parties.

This failure to investigate and prosecute perpetuates official policies of the Mubarak era, when authorities also failed to provide a remedy to victims of sectarian violence, resorted to extra-legal settlements to resolve disputes, and played down periodic outbursts of sectarian violence as private disputes unrelated to religious differences.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt is a party, obligates states to provide an effective remedy for human rights violations. Investigations into serious human rights abuses should be conducted promptly, with independence and impartiality.

“The generals seem to be insisting that they and only they investigate the Maspero violence, which is to ensure that no serious investigation occurs,” Stork said. “The military has already tried to control the media narrative, and it should not be allowed to cover up what happened on October 9.”


For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Egypt, please visit:

http://www.hrw.org/middle-
eastn-africa/egypt


Human Rights Watch report warns Egypt not to cover up military killing of Coptic protesters

The Egyptian military’s intention to control the investigation of the use of force against unarmed Coptic Christian demonstrators during a night of clashes on 9 October 2011 raises fears of a cover-up, Human Rights Watch said today. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Egypt’s military rulers, should transfer the investigation from the military prosecution to a fully independent and impartial investigation into the killing of unarmed protesters by military forces. The violence left two dozen protesters and bystanders and at least one military officer dead.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 20 participants in the demonstration who consistently testified that between 6 and 7pm on 9 October at least two armored personnel vehicles (APCs) drove recklessly through crowds of demonstrators, in some cases appearing to pursue them intentionally. The protest of thousands of Copts had been peaceful until that point, and the military’s subsequent response was disproportionate. The large, heavy vehicles crushed and killed at least 10 demonstrators, as autopsies later showed.

“The military cannot investigate itself with any credibility,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “This had been an essentially peaceful protest until the military used excessive force and military vehicles ran over protesters. The only hope for justice for the victims is an independent civilian-led investigation that the army fully cooperates with and cannot control and that leads to the prosecution of those responsible.”

In the dozens of cases of torture by the military that Human Rights Watch has documented this year, the cases of seven women subjected to virginity tests by the military on 9 March and the excessive use of force by the military in policing demonstrations, there has been not one prosecution, Human Rights Watch said. These include hundreds of documented cases of torture, excessive use of force in policing demonstrations, and sexual assaults on female detainees through so-called virginity tests.

Gen. Adel al-Morsi, head of Egypt’s military justice system, said on 13 October that military prosecutors would investigate the violence on October 9, when Copts marched to the government television building known as Maspero to protest the authorities’ failure to punish the attack on churches. The Office of the Public Prosecutor confirmed that civilian prosecutors would play no role in any investigation. Military prosecutors and judges are serving members of the military and therefore subject to the chain of command, and ultimately receive instructions from the head of the SCAF, Defense Minister Field Marshall Tantawy, who is the ultimate executive authority in Egypt. The SCAF’s October 12 news conference, at which two generals denied any use of live ammunition or intention to run over protesters, shows why an investigation by the military, and subject to military command, is likely to perpetuate military impunity, Human Rights Watch said.

At the news conference, Generals Mahmoud Hegazy and Adel Emara made public the military’s narrative of the events at Maspero, absolving soldiers of any wrongdoing. Emara insisted that “the armed forces would never and have never opened fire on the people,” and the generals claimed that armed protesters had attacked the soldiers.

“The soldiers driving armored vehicles were trying to avoid protesters, who were throwing stones and Molotov cocktail bombs at them,” Emara said, adding that the soldiers were in an “unprecedented psychological state.”

“I can’t deny that some people may have been hit, but it was not systematic,” he concluded.

Consistent and credible witness testimony, as well as independent media and video footage, contradict the military’s version of events, Human Rights Watch said.

The military has arrested at least 28 people, almost all Copts, in connection with the clashes and brought them before military prosecutors. The prosecutors ordered their detention for 15 days, pending investigation.

At the insistence of human rights lawyers working with the families of victims, forensic medical doctors from the health ministry conducted 24 autopsies on 10 October, concluding in their preliminary reports that eight of the people had died of bullet wounds, two from blows to the head, and 13 from injuries and fractures inflicted by the vehicles. The 18th body had been slashed with a large knife. Autopsies were not performed on the bodies of eight other victims, which were in different morgues at that time and have since been buried.

The 9 October march started at around 4pm from the northern Cairo neighborhood of Shubra, home to many Coptic Christians, with thousands of mainly Coptic protesters marching to the government television building on the Nile River. This was the second demonstration within a week by Copts to protest the authorities’ failure to investigate the burning of a church in Marinab in the southern governorate of Aswan. The protesters also demanded the removal of the governor of Aswan, who appeared to justify the destruction of the church by saying it had been built without a permit.

Some residents along the route of the march pelted the demonstrators with stones, and some marchers retaliated, also throwing stones. The demonstrators eventually made their way to the state television headquarters on the Corniche, Cairo’s Nile riverfront drive. They joined another group of protesters already there, surrounded by military police and Central Security Forces (CSF). At that point, at around 6pm, witnesses said, shots were fired in the air and at the demonstrators, though the witnesses could not always identify the exact source. Armored personnel carriers careened down the Corniche, sometimes onto the sidewalks, crushing demonstrators.

Military officers raided and stopped the live broadcast of two independent TV news channels, Al Hurra and 25TV, whose offices are next to the state television building. The stations had been broadcasting footage of the clashes.

At the same time, the state-run Channel 1, Nile News, and Radio Misr broadcast reports claiming that armed Coptic demonstrators had shot and killed three military officers and calls for “honorable citizens” to “defend the army against attack”. Such calls could easily have been taken as a signal for citizens to attack Copts and therefore would have amounted to incitement to discrimination and violence against Copts, Human Rights Watch said.

Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), told Human Rights Watch that, a short time after the government channels broadcast the reports, he encountered groups of armed men in civilian clothes from the Boulaq neighborhood, next to Maspero, who said they had heard that armed Christians were attacking the army. Bahgat told Human Rights Watch that he witnessed attacks on Copts that evening by people in civilian clothes.

Under international law, the military, in its law-enforcement capacity, may arrest people who are committing violent acts or who assault police or army officers. It may also use force, but only as necessary and proportionate, to control a crowd. Evidence from video and witness statements do not indicate any justification for running people over at high speed with army vehicles. Deliberate use of firearms is lawful only if “strictly unavoidable to protect life,” a high standard to meet, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch also called for an investigation into attempts by the military and the information ministry to control media coverage, as well as the statements by state TV presenters that may have amounted to incitement to violence.

Egyptian authorities also should look into the underlying causes of the demonstration at Maspero and address legitimate grievances by Coptic Christians, Human Rights Watch said. These include discrimination in their right to worship and the failure to punish perpetrators and instigators of attacks on churches and other forms of sectarian violence. Human Rights Watch has examined three incidents of sectarian violence involving Muslim attacks on Christians and Christian churches since the February 2011 ouster of President Hosni Mubarak that have gone entirely unpunished.

An attack, on 30 September, on the Mar Girgis (St. George) church in Marinab, in Aswan governorate, prompted the march on 9 October. As in previous incidents, police and public prosecutors failed to investigate and insisted that differences be resolved in informal reconciliation deals between suspects and aggrieved parties.

This failure to investigate and prosecute perpetuates official policies of the Mubarak era, when authorities also failed to provide a remedy to victims of sectarian violence, resorted to extra-legal settlements to resolve disputes, and played down periodic outbursts of sectarian violence as private disputes unrelated to religious differences.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt is a party, obligates states to provide an effective remedy for human rights violations. Investigations into serious human rights abuses should be conducted promptly, with independence and impartiality.

“The generals seem to be insisting that they and only they investigate the Maspero violence, which is to ensure that no serious investigation occurs,” Stork said. “The military has already tried to control the media narrative, and it should not be allowed to cover up what happened on October 9.”

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Egypt, please visit:

http://www.hrw.org/middle-
eastn-africa/egypt

Egyptian journalists set to vote for new union leadership in post-Mubarak era




The independence of the Press Syndicate in Egypt has always been a struggle, followed by more than just its 6,500 members. But this time, the situation is different. Journalists will not vote for or against the regime but instead will choose a board that will truly represent them and will fight for their demands.

Two main candidates are running for the chairman’s seat, which has been the main target of the past few decades’ power struggle between the government’s candidates and the journalists seeking the independence of what should be a beacon for freedom of expression.
Mamdouh El-Waly and Yehia Qallash have both been members of the syndicate board for years, and they have both fought together in many battles to support freedom of the press. However, the two rivals are standing on different grounds this time.
El-Waly, who is deputy editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram daily, is considered to be the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, even though he has denied any link with the group, which now dominates the political scene. El-Waly never denied this relationship before when the Brotherhood candidates ran jointly with other political forces in the press syndicate elections on an "independence and change" list against pro-government figures.
However, the group itself has never announced before, at least openly, that it supports any of the candidates, or that any of its members are running in the elections.
Ahmed Ezz Eddin, media spokesman for Muslim Brotherhood journalists, said in a statement to IkhwanWeb, the Brotherhood’s official website, that, "Brotherhood journalist candidates (namely Mohammad Abdul Quddus, Qutb El-Arabi, Hani Makkawi, Hani Salah Eddin, and Khaled Barakat) are ready for the elections, and have a clear vision for the advancement of the syndicate." It is also widely known that El-Waly is supported by the Brotherhood.
"In the past years we fought for the independence of the syndicate and that simply meant standing against government interference," says Yehia Qallash, who is known to be a Nasserite, "but this time we are fighting against the hijack of the union by any political group, no matter who they are." For Qallash, the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood has announced that it has candidates in the election is very alarming, especially as the group now has no excuse to try to dominate professional syndicates.
"In the past that was understandable, because the group was considered illegal and was chased by the regime, but now they have a legal political party and more headquarters than the ruling National Democratic Party under Mubarak. So the struggle for the independence of the syndicate is still a valid issue." El-Waly, however, commented: "I am not the candidate of the Brotherhood or of any other political trend. I am running in the polls as an independent. Involving politics in the work of unions undermines their performance.”
The Muslim Brotherhood has won the majority of seats in a number of professional syndicates over the past few months, namely the Syndicate of Egyptian Medical Professionals and the Teachers Syndicate, and is running in a number of others, including the Egyptian Bar (the lawyers' syndicate).
But besides their political affiliation, both Qallash and El-Waly seem to have a lot in common. They are share many demands, including the annulment of a law that allows journalists to be imprisoned for publishing offences, the improvement of journalists' wages, the protection of their rights and assistance to allow journalists to develop professional skills and improve their financial situations.
But while Qallash focuses more on the freedom of press and the financial independence of the syndicate from the government, El-Waly says that improving the financial conditions of journalists is the first step towards independent journalism.
There are also more than 100 journalists running for the board seats under similar programs. Some of the candidates are veteran unionists, while others are running for the first time. "Building a strong civil society is an important element in making sure that the January 25 revolution achieves its demands," says Ahmed Mahmoud, who is running for elections for the first time.
Mahmoud, like many other young journalists, witnessed the role that the journalists’ syndicate played in the political struggle against Mubarak's regime. For years, the stairs of the syndicate's headquarters in downtown Cairo, with its black marble steps, was the one place where protesters from all over Egypt would seek refuge and express their political as well as social and economic grievances.
"Keeping the steps as the only Hyde Park Corner in Egypt since the new building was opened in 2001 was a very important target," says Mahmoud.  "Now we need to fight more for what is inside the building. The future of the freedom of press is actually the future of the whole country."