Day of Anger

In memory of those who lost their lifes, got torturted and abused, sacked and imprisoned in connection with the events of April sixth 2008, in Mahalla al Kubra and elsewhere, and also in solidarity with those making their voices heard today, in what is called the Day of Anger by the organizers. And also in support of the brave workers whom have lead by example, over the last years, and also won some battles.

April Sixth 2009

There has been reported clashes on Ain Shams Campus, and following arrests, were students are said to be held in Madinet Nasr first precinct, with laywers there, but students being denied legal counsel so far. At Helwan students in their hundreds are staging a sit in , campus demos in Mansoura(flickr photo set) and Asyut as well. As for the center of gravity last year , Mahalla has had a heavy police presence, but everything is calm in the city accoding to Muhammed Maree.

There was five people arrested in Menoufiyya at dawn today, four of them students, and one belonging to Kefaya.

As a prelude to today, there was 30 arrested in Kafr ash Sheikh, among them two female students Omniyya and Sarah whom were putting up posters for the previous strike, now only known as ¨the day of anger¨, there have also been reports on arrests in Port Said, Tanta, Fayoum, and Alexandria prior the events today.

There is live coverage from Cairo University here. Background can be found at the Arabist here. Zeinobia also has some background info, as well as continues updates. As always Arabawy is a key source for information about this. And the tool that had it´s first 15 minutes of fame during last year´s events is still a reliable source for minute by minute news, just use the twitter tag #6April and you´re up to date.

This is just a rough first quick attempt on the run to scribble down quick notes, more later.

14 activists from 6 April Youth released

The 14 members of 6 April Youth that were arrested at Sidi Bishr beach, Alexandria on Revolution day the 23rd of July, then given a 15 day-term pending investigation, before being ordered released twice are currently being released.

After a rather gloomy message from the Arabic network for Human Rights Information this morning, there are finally what seems to be news about their release, that is happening right now. The two from Alexandria are already released, and the rest are still being taken to their respective governates by the authorities.

More official confirmation later, as it becomes available .

Mabrouk ya Shabab!

Alexandria Appeals Court orders release of 6 April Youth

An Appeals Court in Alexandria has ordered the release of 14 activists from Shabab 6 April ,that was arrested on the 23rd of July.

It´s still too early to celebrate though, in the past, many a times, release orders have been issued, and then ignored, opting instead to apply the emergency law, like with Muhammed Marei, or walking the extra mile... to hikestep(military court), as in the case with Khairat al Shater and Hassan Malek.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International issued an urgent action yesterday on the arrested, but focusing mainly on Muhammed Taher and Ahmed Afifi, whose whereabout are not known at the moment. AI believes that there could be a risk of them facing torture, or ill-treatment.

UPDATE: The prosececution appealed the order on the release, and then the appeals court refuted the prosecution´s request, and issued a second decision on the release of the 14 activists.

The inns and outs of the Egyptian legal procedure is really great material for a monthy python film, if only the reality didn´t make a better script than any fiction, and as long as you´re not caught in the middle of it...