Demonstration planned in front of Qasr el-Nil police station

The Hisham Mubarak Law Center has called for a demonstration in front of Qasr el-Nil Police Station, (located in Garden City, downtown Cairo) on Thursday, 5pm, to protest the torture of Mohamed el-Sharqawi and Karim el-Sha3er, the two Youth for Change activists.

The announcement came during a press conference held by the Liberties’ Committee at the Cairo Lawyer’s Syndicate Saturday, where Kefaya leaders and rights lawyers denounced the recent arrest and torture of democracy activists. Moreover, they called on the General Prosecutor to open an investigation into the incident, accusing the State Security Prosecutor’s office of complicity with State Security police, by stalling Sharqawi’s medical examination, in an effort to conceal as much possible of the torture marks on his body.

Muslim Brotherhood activist, Mohamed Abdel Qoddous, also announced the postponement of Tuesday’s protest at the Doctors’ syndicate to Thursday, 7pm.

A second Alex?

At the WEF in Sharm last week, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif fed the national press with some projects to be announced soon, in tourism, real estate and transportation, which will mostly be financed by UAE or Kuwait based investment groups. I am under the impression that the government over the past months has focused its efforts to attract foreign investment to Gulf investors.

An oil price at around $70 per barrel is a solid reason for the government to do so, but now they are exaggerating:

Gulf and Egyptian investors were planning to develop a $US40 billion ($53billion) tourist resort on the coast of northern Egypt, an Egyptian official said.

“It will be the biggest Arab construction project in Egypt,” covering more than 100 million square metres, government spokesman Magdy Rady said.

He did not name any of the investors involved in the project, details of which will be released in mid-June.

The consortium planning the resort included companies from the United Arab Emirates, and the signing ceremony in June would be attended by Dubai’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, Al-Ahram said yesterday, citing Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif.

Al-Akhbar eported that the resort would be as big as Alexandria, Egypt’s second-largest city, and take 20 years to build.

Is there no more space in the Emirates for mega-projects? To me this looks like Egypt is now the Sheikhs’ mega playing ground. A few weeks ago, there were some press reports that Gulf investors wanted to invest no less then $4billions in an ArabDisneyland in Egypt, providing jobs for half a million young Egyptians.

This was denied by Disneyland -  looks like Mickey Mouse has a better sense of reality then some of those oil investors at the moment.

Letter from Sharqawi

Mohamed el-Sharqawi has sent a testimony on his arrest and torture, from Tora Prison.

Here’s the English translation of it:

A Letter from Mohamed el-Sharqawi

Kidnapped on 25 May, Currently in Cell 8-1, Mahkoum Tora

How I was kidnapped, beaten and tortured for eight hours?

I went through many moments of fear and horror in my life, but nothing was like those I went through after I left the Press Syndicate on 25 May, 2006, around 6pm. I got into one of my colleagues’ car, to take a ride to the train station, so as to catch the train to Alexandria. I wanted to see my family, after a period by no means short—30 days—behind bars in Tora Prison.

The car stopped at the traffic light of Abdel Khaleq Tharwat St. crossing Talaat Harb St. I wasn’t paying attention, till my colleague screamed, “Who are those?!� I looked around me, and behind the windows there were tens of men in plain clothes trying to open the door. I could only think of one thing in few seconds… State Security personnel had come to kidnap me… I threw whatever I was carrying in the car, and opened the door, only to be met with a violent push into the entrance of the last building on Abdel Khaleq Tharwat St., before it crosses Talaat Harb St.

The fiesta started. They introduced themselves to me by their swift fists, till one of them kicked me to the floor. There was about 20 persons or more. Their punches and kicks came one after the other, and without much planning, which led them to kick one another, because they were all keen to do anything that props them up in front of their bosses. I could not recognize any of the faces, but three. I had seen them before several times in demos. Continue reading Letter from Sharqawi

Statement by the Tora detainees

Statement by Detainees in Tora Prison

Released 27 May 2006

We, the detained in Tora Prison, charged of insulting the president and blocking the traffic, condemn police violence, the kidnap and torture of our colleagues Mohamed el-Sharkawy and Karim el-Sha’er, and condemn the complicity of the Regime Security Prosecution (formerly known as State Security Prosecution).

 

The regime has now two agents of torture: the State Security police and the State Security prosecution, which is the regime’s tool in oppressing and torturing the opposition, which has previously closed the files of all torture cases, and which has blocked the examination of Mohamed el-Sharakawy by forensic medicine in the hope that the signs of torture would resolve.

The regime’s resort to thuggery is evidence of its weakness, and shows how close we are to the day when we rid ourselves from it, the day of Egypt’s liberation. Our continued detention proves the regime’s fear and terror of people’s opposition to its corruption, dictatorship and its systematic destruction of the country.

We announce the beginning of an open escalating hunger strike until our demands are met:

1. Examination of our colleagues by forensic medicine

2. Investigation into the kidnap and torture of our colleagues, bringing State Security officers involved to justice and exposure of the complicity of the prosecution and its crime of closing torture cases and refusing forensic medical examination of the injured.

3. Release of all detainees in the solidarity movement with the judiciary.

 

Together, until torture criminals are brought to justice

List of strikers on the 1st day: Kamal Khalil, Saher Gad, Ahmed Abdel Gawad, Karim Mohamed Reda, Ihab Mohamed Idris, and Sameh Said

List of strikers on the 2nd day: Ahmed Maher and Nael Abdel Hamid

Hunger Strike organizing committee: Gamal Abdel Fattah, Wael Khalil, Ibrahim el-Sahary

Egyptian detainees are starting a hunger strike

I was contacted by one of the detainees’ wife, who called me this afternoon to say the incarcerated activists will start a hunger strike as the clock strikes midnight today, demanding: a) the examination of Mohamed el-Sharqawi and Kareem al-Sha’er by the Forensics Medical Authorities, b) an investigation into the torture and abuse incidents the two Youth for Change activists were subject to last Thursday, c) the release of all those detained for their solidarity with the judges.

The six detainees who will start the strike are:

1-Kamal Khalil

2-Saher Gad

3-Ahmad Abdel Gawad

4-Karim Mohamed Redda

5-Ihab Mohamed Idriss

6-Sameh Mohamed Said

Two other detainees will join the strike in 48 hours: Nael and Ahmad Maher.

Gamal Abdel Aziz Eid, the director of the Arab Human Rights Information Network who is representing the detainees, confirmed to me Sharqawi and Sha’er have not been medically examined up till now. Eid’s organization, together with four other rights watchdogs, have issued a statement today calling on the interior ministry to investigate the recent arrests and abuses, and accusing the State Security Prosecutor’s office of “complicity� in leaving those who conduct torture to go unpunished.   

On another front, I was told the Press Syndicate refused to host the Liberties’ Committee press conference scheduled for Sunday. Instead, the press conference has been moved to the Lawyers’ Syndicate, and will be held, tomorrow Sunday, at 1:30pm.

Details of Kifaya protester’s rape with piece of rolled-up cardboard

I should have a copy of Sharqawi’s full testimony later, but the AP is covering the story:

CAIRO, Egypt — Egyptian police allegedly tortured two protesters – sexually assaulting one of them – after a peaceful demonstration in support of pro-reform judges, a lawyer and an opposition group said Friday.

Activist Mohammed el-Sharkawi, 24, was sodomized “using a rolled up piece of cardboard for nearly 15 minutes,” his lawyer Gamal Eid told The Associated Press.

“Almost all of el-Sharkawi’s body is bruised, swollen, or cut,” Eid said. “I haven’t seen such brutality and sadism since 1995,” he added, referring to a period when the state mounted a crackdown on Islamic militants.

The alleged assault occurred Thursday night after el-Sharkawi was taken to a Cairo police station, the lawyer said. The lawyer said El-Sharkawi told him about the incident when Eid was permitted to attend an interrogation session later that night.

Interior Ministry officials were not available for comment.

An Associated Press reporter on Thursday saw more than 15 men in plainclothes grab el-Sharkawi and punch and kick him after he participated in a peaceful protest outside of the Journalists’ Syndicate in downtown Cairo.

A more cautious story is at Middle East Online. I can understand news agencies wanting to be cautious about this, but it has been verified by reputable Egyptian human rights activists and the international rights organizations are working on it. This story needs to get out. See previous posts on Arabist here and here, including a picture of Sharqawi.

Kefaya demo in South Korea!

Forget about Cairo’s Abdel Khaleq Tharwat St. where people are increasingly getting into the bad habbit of “disappearing.” Once again, Kefaya strikes in Seoul..

Socialist activists in South Korea held a demo in front of the Egyptian embassy in Seoul, supporting the Egyptian judges and denouncing the crackdown on pro-reform activists.

Last March, President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea paid Hosni Mubarak a visit in Cairo, where they discussed economic cooperation. My instinct tells me, Moo-hyun was also advised on the use of Korean baltaggiyas against Kefaya demonstrators in Seoul, after the Egyptian experiment proved to be a success by all international standards.

Events planned in solidarity with the Cairo detainees

Activists in Cairo are planning events this week in solidarity with the detainees, and to protest the sexual assault on Youth for Change activist Mohamed el-Sharqawi last Thursday, in Qasr el-Nil Police Station.

A press conference by the Liberties Committee (Lagnet el-Hurriyat) will be held at the Press Syndicate on Sunday, 5:30pm.

There will be also a one-hour stand by activists in front of the Doctors’ Syndicate, Dar el-Hekma, in Qasr el-Eini St. on Tuesday 7pm, followed by a conference inside the syndicate.

Iran would have accepted Beirut Declaration

Did Iran offer recognition of Israel according to the Beirut Declaration in 2003? Some top experts on Iran at no less an establishment institution as Johns Hopkins’ SAIS think so:

WASHINGTON, May 24 (IPS) – Iran offered in 2003 to accept peace with Israel and to cut off material assistance to Palestinian armed groups and pressure them to halt terrorist attacks within Israel’s 1967 borders, according to the secret Iranian proposal to the United States.

The two-page proposal for a broad Iran-U.S. agreement covering all the issues separating the two countries, a copy of which was obtained by IPS, was conveyed to the United States in late April or early May 2003. Trita Parsi, a specialist on Iranian foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies who provided the document to IPS, says he got it from an Iranian official earlier this year but is not at liberty to reveal the source.

The two-page document contradicts the official line of the George W. Bush administration that Iran is committed to the destruction of Israel and the sponsorship of terrorism in the region.

Parsi says the document is a summary of an even more detailed Iranian negotiating proposal which he learned about in 2003 from the U.S. intermediary who carried it to the State Department on behalf of the Swiss Embassy in late April or early May 2003. The intermediary has not yet agreed to be identified, according to Parsi.

The Iranian negotiating proposal indicated clearly that Iran was prepared to give up its role as a supporter of armed groups in the region in return for a larger bargain with the United States. What the Iranians wanted in return, as suggested by the document itself as well as expert observers of Iranian policy, was an end to U.S. hostility and recognition of Iran as a legitimate power in the region.

Before the 2003 proposal, Iran had attacked Arab governments which had supported the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The negotiating document, however, offered “acceptance of the Arab League Beirut declaration”, which it also referred to as the “Saudi initiative, two-states approach.”

The Beirut Declaration, which when you think about it was a really landmark proposal from the Arab League, was always ignored by Israel. Why? Because Israel wants to annex part of the West Bank, against all UN resolutions and principles of international law. And this is why we risk another war in the Middle East rather than a solution to the crisis. I’m sure the Iranian proposal probably included other demand, and perhaps negotiations would have led nowhere, but the point was that they were ready to talk before the recent election brought back that nutcase Ahmedinejad. The article makes for good reading to put things in perspective — the Iran regime may be nasty, but it is neither automatically belligerent nor unwilling to negotiate on something as fundamental as the Israeli-Palestinian peace process according to the generous terms of the Beirut Declaration. If there is no partner for peace, it’s on the Israeli side.

What fatwas are most often about

Here’s what happens when you get a (presumably) Arab-American journalist to do a story about something to do with Islam: a balanced, nuanced story that shows the full complexity of the question at hand for an audience not familiar with the topic. And it reads well and has a saucy lead.

Fatwas: Muslim religious edicts are rarely about violence, war

Monday, May 22, 2006

By Moustafa Ayad, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Imagine the latest videotaped message from Osama bin Laden. He’s scowling and raising a finger, but instead of taking aim at Americans he’s holding forth on the bleaching of Muslim women’s eyebrows.

While most Westerners think of religious edicts — or fatwas — as orders to fight Americans and infidels, Muslim scholars, evangelists and spiritual leaders across the globe issue them on a daily basis — on eyebrow bleaching and hundreds of other mundane topics.

Read on… Although the article doesn’t dwell on it, it’s interesting to contrast of how both Osama bin Laden and the various fatwa internet sites represent the globalization of fatwa-issuing — you don’t have to ask your local imam anymore. So what happens when an eminent sheikh with a website disagrees with your local imam, or even your country’s Mufti?