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.

22 defendants in Mahalla trial sentenced to 3-5 years

The Tanta Supreme Security Court judge al Sayyed Abdel-Maaboud issued verdicts today on the 49 defendants in the case concerning events in Mahalla on April 6th-7th. 22 defendants received prison sentences of 3-5 years and 27 were acquitted.The charges brought against them could have rendered a maximum of 15 years imprisonment.

One of those convicted was a 58 year old woman ,Fawzeya Hafez El Shinnawy, she was sentenced for carrying a molotow cocktail. She, togheter with four others facing prison terms were tried in absentia.

Prior to announcing the verdict the judge, Al Sayyed abd al Maaboud stated that :

¨price rises were a global phenomenon and not the fault of the Egyptian government and he praised the restraint of security forces in quelling the demonstrations¨.

My thoughts on the judges statement

While i hope to see the judge statement in full soon, i will give my quick thoughts on the statement above.

While the hounorable judge is perfectly correct in his assumption that the price rises is in some parts indeed a global phenomenon(a subject that the judge has little expertise knowledge about, i´m sure.), and aknowledging the rapid response of the government just days after the riots when a delegation of ministers, headed by PM Ahmed Nazif headed to Mahalla to speak with the workers. Also recognizing the effort of the government in giving a 30 percent salary raise to government employees.

This is in my humble view, all good things , albeit too little, and too late, it´s merely a temporary band aid, and further more, just a week after announcing the wage increase, a law was rushed through parliament, putting into effect steep price raises on petrol and tobacco, meaning that some of the wage raise, is taken away from those who got it in the first place. On top of that the inflation has kept on increasing and peaked in July to it´s highest in 16 years, since then having dropped, but still significantly over 20 percent, with the November numbers at 20.9, this, despite the fact that the Central Bank is doing all it can to get the Egyptian economy back on track. I havent mentioned the bread crisis, that the government was ultimately responsible of, but after a very slow start, handled in a way that might come close to adequate.

The statement of the judge regarding the security forces showing restraint during April 6-7th, is nothing but laughable, considering the manyreports of torture and ill-treatment , and the only picture that flashes through my mind, is a very vivid one of young teenagers in their hospital beds, being handcuffed to the bed.

I have a hard time understanding the necessity of a judge passing judgement on anythinhg, but his specific case. I´m really not keen to know his views on how the government economical policies toward the food crisis faired, nor am i concerned with his views on how good the security forces behaved. What would intrigue my curiosity is how the hounorable judge, views an investigation that is said to have contained a lot of anonymous secondary sources, i would like to know his views on the alleged torture of defendant Hamada Tewfiq, these are questions that i want answered by the judge, because these questions is within the frame of his work related expertise. I guess that unanswered questions is also answer, highly respected right hounorable judge.

Background to trial

The last working session of the trial before the verdict was held on November 13th.
The 49 was refered to Court on June 17th, and the trial started on August 9th.

The occurence of emergency trials has been critizised by Egyptian and international Human Rights Groups alike, due to lack of fair trial standards and the absence of the possibility to appeal the verdict.

My sympathy and thoughts goes out to the 22 convicted and their families, especially the 58-year old supposedly ¨molotow¨ lady, and her family, regardless of the fact that she´s still at large. My thoughts also goes to the three who lost their lives during April 6-7th, among them 15-year old Ahmed Hamada, none of these deaths has been investigated , as of yet.

Sarah Carr has a photo set on her flickr account, from the Tanta Court house today.

The Hisham Mubarak Law Center issued a list of trial No 5498/2008, the verdicts, and those convicted here(each one has a number, their names dosen´t appear, i´ll try to present a list of those convicted, as well as those acquitted later on today).

Fire in Ghazl al Mahalla factories

According to reports, A fire broke out in three factory buildings in Egypt´s and probably the Arab World´s largest factory with some 24 000 employees. The fire began when the factory was restarted after Eid al Fitr holidays, at about 6 o Clock in the morning . The factory contains raw cotton, so the fire spread heavily. The Fire brigade fought the fire for hours and managed to control it. The material damages seems heavy, but no casualties in the workforce is reported. The news is still sketchy , and there also seems to be an attempt at hindering reporters from reaching the factories.

Karim al Beheiry points out that this is the second fire that hits the Ghazl al Mahalla company within a week(considering that the factory was closed for half of it, that should keep the responsible for fire security, sleepless at night).

The City of Mahalla is situated in the delta, the industrial heart of Egypt. The workers of the Ghazl al Mahalla company has been the focal point of labour activism since December 2006, and the call for a general strike proclaimed on facebook that gathered 64 000 names in two weeks, where made to support the workers in Mahalla on that particular day, as well as being a call to protest the increase in prices. In the following days Mahalla was the scene of riots, that took at least two lives, and led to mass arrests and police brutality. The city was totaly cordoned off from the outside world for a few days.

One might wonder when this string of fires will end.

Mahalla trial resumes today

The trial involving the remaining 49 defendants from the April 6th strike resumes today. It was originally reffered by the Public Prosecutor to the State Security Court in Tanta on June 6th and the trial began on Aug 9th, when the defence managed to postpone the trial in order to be able to read the prosecution material. They didn´t manage to get the defendants out on bail though.

I´m much too tired to write anything half decent right now, crawing for bed, but i want to give you some reading material about the trial and then i will follow events more thouroghly as they develop.

Amnesty International issued a statement just prior to the second session was about to begin on Sept 6th, were the charges are stated, and includes:

Assembly of more than five people with the aim of disturbing public order and security; deliberate destruction of public and private property; ransacking and theft; violent resistance and assault on police officers during the exercise of their duties; and illegal possession of firearms.

If convicted they face up to 15 years’ imprisonment.

AI calls upon the proper authourities to end the processs in the Supreme State Security Court, which is a emergency court, without the normal legal safeguards for the defendants. AI calls on the authourities to hold the trial in a normal court of law that offers the defendants the opportunity of a fair trial.

Amnesty International is urging the Egyptian authorities to:

* rescind the decision to refer the defendants to the emergency court and order a retrial before an ordinary court and ensure they receive a fair trial.
* release immediately and unconditionally those protestors found not to have used violence; the others must be given a fair trial in accordance with Egypt’s obligations under international human rights law and standards.
* open a full, independent and impartial investigation into the killings of the three people in Mahalla. In particular the investigation should focus on the circumstances in which police used lethal fire and ensure that any officers or other officials responsible for using or ordering excessive force should be brought to justice.

Arabawy gives us an eyewittness account from the first court session in Tanta on Aug 9th here

Sarah Carr gives us an equally important account from the opening of the second session on Sep 6th here.

Sorry for the poor quality of blogging, but it´s more important that you have the tools, than me packaging it neatly right now.

You can also use the fustat search and look for the words April 6th, General Strike Mahalla and Burg al Arab and you will find more material.

HRW Statement on Mahalla detainees

Human Rights Watch issued a statement on the 18th of July, in which it urged the authorities to release six men held for more than 90 days, without charge. All arrested during April 6-7th in Mahalla. HRW is also asking the authorities not to go ahead with the case of The 49 that was reffered to the Supreme State Security Court, due to that specific instance´s shortcomings in fulfilling the requirements of a fair trial.

The Supreme State Security Court (Mahkamat Amn al-Dawla al-'Ulya) was established under Egypt’s Emergency Law in 1980 and follows procedures that violate internationally recognized fair trial norms. In violation of guarantees of the independence of the judiciary, two military judges may sit alongside the Security Court’s regular bench of three civilian judges.

It also asks the authorities to look in to allegations of torture toward Karim al Beheiri and Muhammed Marei.

" Not only has the government blatantly violated the right of workers to strike, it has refused to provide those arrested with basic due process rights...Nothing justifies torturing and indefinitely detaining protesters without charge. "
Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch.

In the staement the Human Rights Watch provides a full list of the names of the six men detained for more than 90 days and the 49 referred to the Supreme State Security Court, the full statement can be found here.

Interview with Muhammed Marei after being released

Muhammed Marei was released from Burg al Arab prison on July 6th, Sarah Carr interviewed Muhammed on his ordeal during 90 days in prison, first in Mahalla first precinct police station , then state security in the same town , where he was kept in solitary confinement for 19 days, before finally recieving his administrative detention order. He was then taken to Burg al Arab prison close to Alexandria , known to be one of the toughest prisons in Egypt. What took place there is well known, due to a letter sent by Muhammed during his time there via his lawyer. He was allowed to sit the exams, he´s a fourth year veterinary student, but the authorities messed up his arrival, so the exams had already started, meaning that he would automatically fail the exam, so he has to do the whole year once again.

49 of the detained on the 6th and 7th of April in connection with Mahalla have been referred to court, they are awaiting trial.

Muhammed Marei and 3 other Mahalla detainees released

According to Sarah Carr´s twitter account , Muhammed Marei and three others, detained during the April 6th strike in Mahalla have just been released. Muhammed Marei was the translator, and friend of the american journalist/photographer James Buck, whom provided some of the best images from Mahalla on April 6th and onwards. Marei and Buck was both taken into custody at the Mahalla police station, and while Buck was released after some days, Marei´s whereabouts where unknown for quite some time , until he was located at the Burg al Arab prison, close to Alexandria. I presume that the other three where also among the Burg al Arab detainees that were beaten by guards, in order to end their hungerstrike last week.

Two Weeks ago, 49 people were reffered to Court in connection to April 6th.

This is still breaking news, and a proper follow up, will come , as more news become available.

Mabrouk to Muhammed and the others!

UPDATE: It seems that there were only three released including Muhammed, the other two are Mustafa Bedeir al Sayyed and Rageb Gaber al Mahdy according to their lawyer Ahmed Ezzat of the Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression. All three have been held in administrative detention in the infamous Burg al Arab prison, they were supposed to be released on Friday via the Police Station in Tanta( Vhy not via the police station in Mahalla, that was the place of arrest for Muhammed Marei for sure, and most likely for Mustafa and Rageb as well?, which is the normal standard procedure).

UPDATE II: Muhammed Marei seems to been jiggled about between Tanta, Samnoud and Mahalla and then back again to the Police station in Samnoud (yesterday evening at about 10:30 P.M) and was still awaiting his release at that point. So until late in the eveniing yesterday, he was still not released. As to Mustafa Bedeir al Sayyed and Rageb Gaber al Mahdy, there is no further information, than what´s been stated by their lawyer, Ahmed Ezzat( see above), to my knowledge.

UPDATE III Sunday afternoon - Muhammed Marei is finally released according to Torture in Egypt.

Beheiri , Fayoumy and Amin released from Burg al Arab

Karim al Beheiri , Kamal al Fayoumy and Tareq Tareq Amin, the Ghazl al Mahalla workers that were detained in connection with the April 6th strike was released from the Burg al Arab prison on June 1st.

"We were subjected to electric shocks, to beatings and there was no food and or drink for the first few days," blogger Karim el-Beheiri told AFP a day after his release. "We went through weeks of torture and humiliation."

Beheiri, Tarek Amin and Kamal al-Fayoumy, three worker activists, were arrested on April 6 at the Misr Spinning and Weaving company in the Nile Delta industrial city of Mahalla after riots which left three people dead and hundreds detained.

An interior ministry official confirmed the three had been released but denied they had been mistreated.

"These are false accusations," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "Everything took place within a framework of human rights."

I´ve been living in my own bubble for the last ten days , working on a presentation that i had yesterday, so i didn´t hear about it until this instant, more on this as i catch up with this happy piece of news.

Mabrouk Karim, Kamal and Tareq!

Letter from Burg al Arab prison

This is the letter from the three detained workers from Mahalla, Kamal El-Fayyoumy, Tareq Amin and Karim El-Beheiry who are being held at Burg al Arab prison. This was provided in translation by Amnesiac and Sami Ben Gharbia posted it on Global Voices advocacy. Originally in Arabic by Yasari Masri here

I´ve been meaning to post this yesterday. It´s addressed to the judges club and their dynamic chairman, Zakaria Abd al Aziz. I will post it in it´s entirety below. Burg al Arab is one of the toughest prisons in Egypt, another prisoner of Burg al Arab is of course Abd al Karim Nabil Soliman, aka Kareem Amer, the blogger sentenced to four years on for insulting Islam and the President. His been facing some very rough treatment during his stay at Burg al Arab.

Let´s not forget Kamal, Tareq , Karim and Karim.

We, three political detainees, address the letter below to the Judges’ Club and its head Zakareya Abdel Aziz from the Borg el-Arab Prison in Alexandria…

Dear Sir,

A week has passed on our hunger strike and we are extremely weak. We are appealing to you as the last and only resort for all who have suffered injustice in Egypt.

We would like in the beginning to correct certain information which has reached the press about our (the three of us) having been transferred to the prison hospital as a result of our hunger strike.

The truth is that we are still in prison after the administration refused to call an ambulance to take us to hospital, and as a result of the inability of Karim el-Beheiry and Tareq Amin to stand on their feet - as a result of their extreme weakness. Instead, a “nurse” was summoned to examine Karim, whose condition has seriously deteriorated.

We would like to know the reason why we remain in detention. We will continue the hunger strike until we either die or receive this information.

We were tortured in the state security headquarters in Mahalla on the 6th, 7th and 8th April. Officers tortured Karim using electricity while Tareq Amin and Kamal el-Fayyoumy were insulted verbally and physically assaulted. We then spent eleven days in Borg el-Arab prison in a cell with individuals with criminal convictions. When the Tanta court ordered that we be released we were held for four days in the El-Salam police station [noqtat shorta] situated between Mahalla and Tanta before we were taken to Borg el-Arab prison were we began our hunger strike.

From our detention cell, we call on you and all political currents to take action and apply pressure in order to secure the release of all those detained in connection with the events of Mahalla.
Signed
Kamal El-Fayyoumy, Tareq Amin, Karim El-Beheiry
Detained workers from Mahalla
Borg el-Arab Prison
Wing 22, Cell 5

UPDATE: The chairman of the Judges Club, Zakaria Abd al Aziz has written a letter to the Public Prosecutor requesting him to open an investigation into the matter of the three detainees in Burg al Arab.

UPDATE II

A second letter from Burg al Arab by Kamal al Fayoumy, Tareq Amin and Karim al Beiheri can be found here (Arabic). This came as an investigation began at the Mahalla Prosecution Office of six workers at the Ghazl al Mahalla factory, in connection with the events of April 6th. The six included Kamal al Fayoumy and Karim al Beheiri from Burg al Arab ,as well as Gehad Tammam, Mostafa Fawda, Gamal Abul Assad and Wael Habib, the last one, being the only one present during the investigations.

He is charged with various offences under Article 124 of the Egyptian Penal Code, including inciting other public sector employees to go on strike, possession of documents, interrupting work in the factory, and conspiring with others to print documents which led to the events of April 6.

Why isn´t Tareq Amin included in the group? And why wasn´t anyone, but Wael Habib present?

Fouad al Farhan is released

The Saudi blogger Fouad al Farhan has been released, and is now at his home, according to a message that was sent to members of the Free Fouad facebook group:

Fouad Al-Farhan is free now after released from jail and he is at home with his family. Here is his friend and prominent Saudi blogger, Saudi jeans reaction to the news.

تم اليوم إطلاق سراح فؤاد الفرحان وهو الآن في بيته مع أهله

Fouad was arrested on December 10th and his been in custody for 138 days. Hecalled his time in custody ¨a unique experience and stated that he would return to blogging soon in a telephone interview with the Washington Post following his release.

Overall it´s been quite a good week for bloggers in the Arab World this week, in Egypt, Muhammed al Sharqawi was released from al Marg prison, although before he was released he was questioned in another case regarding his publishisng house Malameh , and the publication of the graphic novel, Metro, written by Magdi al Shafi.
Nadia Mabrouk and Esra Abd al Fattah was also released from al Qanater´s women´s prison. In Esra´s case after she had been ordered released, something totaly ignored by the interior ministry , whom stopped the release and issued orders for her to remain in jail according to the Emergency laws. Only after her mother pleaded to President Hosni Mubarak, the First Lady and Minister of Interior Habib al Adly in the press ,she was released.

In a related matter, Cairo University student Bilal Diab was held by the university security for some hours, after he asked Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif to release Esra and the other¨internet-activists¨ of April 6th, while Nazif was holding a speech at the University. You can watch an interview with Bilal made by Mona al Shazly on 10 mazaán here. The interview with Bilal begins about 8 minutes into the show. Before that Minister of commerce Rashid Muhammed Rashid speaks to Mona on a common Arab Market.And Mona looks really interested about the topic...

While i´m happy truly happy by the above mentioned releases, let´s not forget those who are still not freed , like Kareem al Beheiri and Ahmed Badawi for instance, as well as others.

This post will cross-posted at Diwan of democracy.

631 detainees in Mahalla, 18 ordered released

631 detainees in Mahalla

According to a security source 631 detainees is being held in Mahalla. Out of the 631, 331 is being investigated and the remaining 300 is still in detention.

18 were ordered released in yesterday´s court hearing about the events of 6-7 by the Public Prosecutor.

Could somebody please explain what the additional 300 that are facing any charges are doing in custody still?

Nine photojournalists released and the ¨Caravan of Solidarity

Nasser Nouri, a photographer from Reuters is released together with Ahmed Hamed, a photographer with the independent Egyptian newspaper al Fajr , and camera men from Dream TV and Orbit. All of them Egyptian. They were detained while covering the ¨Caravan of Solidarity¨ made up of 25 professors, doctors and activists going to Mahalla last Friday, with food and medicine , trying to meet with the families of the detainee´s. The caravan was stopped by police 30 Km´s outside of Mahalla, not allowed to enter the town and later escorted back to Cairo, in a reverse ¨Caravan of Police¨.

Dr Aida Seif al Dawla one of the members of the ¨Caravan of solidarity¨ on trying to go there again:

¨Activists, like Aida Seif Al-Dawla, are vowing that they will eventually get to Mahalla despite the government's efforts to limit access to the area. "Oh yes, we'll go back. We'll go back and we'll get those testimonies, and we'll visit those hospitals. We are going back. This is definite¨

And Dr Seif al Dawla´s comment on the situation:

"We are ruled by a government which thinks it is degrading that they respond to the demands and rights of their people - the people that should be governing. And eventually this can only end in things like Mahalla… so it tells me that the situation is very tense, that we have a terrified government, that we have pathetic political parties and that people are taking initiative in their hands,"

James Buck is released and has boarded a plane, en route to the States. His Egyptian translator/friend, Mohammed Salah Ahmed Marei is seemingly still in police custody. Read James statement on his friend here

George Ishaq relased on bail

As stated on this blog earlier George Ishaq was released on a 10 000 E.P bail, pending trial that could render up to a 10 year sentence. One other faces the usual 15 days of detention ( probably Sami Farnasis and the third awaits the medical comittee´s opinion on weather he´s capable of facing detention(probably Fathi Hafnawi).

Human Rights Watch raised severe critique toward the way the police has handled the situation in Mahalla. Amnesty International does the same, and both shows concern about the arrests of the Kefaya leaders.

Reporters without Borders calls for release of bloggers

Reporters without Borders calls for the release of bloggers Muhammed al Sharqawi, Esraá abd al Fattah and Karim al Beheiri. Esraa was of course the one who started the 6th of April group on Facebook, which managed to attract 65 000 members in the two weeks prior to the manifestation.

GV Special Coverage Page - Egypt

Global Voices have launched a Special Coverage page for Egypt , the General Strike and it´s aftermath as to follow events as they develop. Thanks Amira, Solana, Ethan, Rebecka and everybody else at GV. You can find it here. Right now a piece by Lasto Adri is featured(originally by Ahmed in Arabic). It´s about the American student at the AUC , Sounilla who got caught up in the 6th of April demonstration on his way to the University, and snatched into a car , arrested and interogated.

Second fatal victim in Mahalla and George Ishak arrested

Masry al youm reports this morning of a 20-year-old man who died of bullet shots to his brain and chest. He was taken to hospital on Sunday evening were he died last night after having recieved intensive care since his admition according to the doctor who treated him at the hospital.

Ahmed al Sayed Abdel Kader was a tailor and was closing his shop when the demonstrations started on Sunday and he was caught up in the riots. This is to my knowledge yet to be confirmed by the authorities.

Is the victim the same person as the 20-year old that has circulated around blogs together with a nine year old the last couple of days?

According to the same news story 2000 people participated in a demonstration in front of the police station, the demonstrators were demanding that the detained should be released, the bulk of the protesters were relatives of the arrested.

(Sloppy reporting by me - i happened to state that there were 2000 arrested earlier, when in fact 2000 people participated in the demonstration outside the Mahalla Police Station, demanding the release of the detained). There is a slight difference in meaning between the English translation of the al Masry al Youm piece and the Arabic original.

Many of those that took part in the demonstrations on April 6-7 as well as those arrested seem to be youngsters, judging from photos here and here and reports

George Ishaq arrested

In another related development George Ishaq, the former Co-ordinator of Kefaya, was arrested yesterday morning.

Hossam al Hamalawy(you´re doing a terrific job) has translated the original arabic HMLC statement:

George Ishaaq, leading Kefaya activist had just returned home in El Bostan street, Cairo after a long day of preparation for a Kefaya conference to reply to the allegation of the Egyptian government regarding the recent Mahalla demonstrations on the 6th and 7th of April, when state security officers broke into his house searching all his papers and books. Ishaaq was alone. They confiscated papers and books from his library and seemed especially interested in “The Butterfly’s Flutter” by political activist Ahmed Bahaa Shabaan, a book which describes the evolution, nature and future of the Kefaya movement. SSI also took Ishaaq’s mobile phone and prevented him from contacting anybody. After about an hour of search his wife arrived and found them all over her house. For a moment she thought she must be in the wrong place. Irritated by the heavy police presence in her house and their rude manners she asked them to leave the house. They refused. When they tried to take the computer of her son Shady, she refused and insisted that the computer belongs to her son and not his father. They demanded to see her mobile. She denied using a mobile, upon which SSI arrested George Ishaaq and took him to a place, that remains unknown until now.

Hisham Mubarak Law Center has more on the charges on George Ishaq:
The Charges brought against George Isaac

The leading Kefaya member George Isaac was charged with plotting popular assembly in complicity with others with the purpose of assaulting people, public properties as well as using force and violence with the purpose of influencing public authority. So, according to the aforementioned charge, the Public Prosecution Office accused Isaac of the following charges:
The premeditated subversion of buildings and public properties with the purpose of enforcing chaos and resisting authorities, disrupting and jeopardizing the safety of public traffic, setting fire to residential buildings and shops, looting, and assaulting others.

Really ridiclious and pathetic allegations.

It´s not really that common that senior leaders of Kefaya faces arrest, but the authorities have other ways of making there prescence felt. Just about a month before the historic first Kefaya demonstration in November 2004 Abdel Halim Qandil was snatched on a Cairo street in broad daylight, driven to a location in the desert outside of Cairo and told in no uncertain terms to mind his own business, then finally stripped of his clothes and left on his own. This January, the new co-ordinator Abdel Wahab al Messiri faced the same ordeal when he, his wife and other activists was taken from a Kefaya demonstration in January 2008 protesting high prices, and in what could have been a re-run of what happend to Qandil, they were also driven out in the desert outside of Cairo, and left on their own. The only difference being that he was not threatened with a knife as well as verbaly, beaten up and stripped naked.

Here is an AP newswire by Pakinam Amer on the story and another one with a personal touch by CNN´s Ben Wedeman.

According to Kefaya, 61 of their members have been aerrested since the 4th of April.

UPDATE - George Ishaq is relaesed after paying 10 000 E.P for bail, pending his trial. He is not allowed to travel during that time according to a security official. - One of his associates got the usual 15 days of detention , while the other was awaiting the opinion of the medical comittee, to see if his health was good enough to face detention. The charges against all three men - inciting unrest and violence could give up to 10 years long prison sentences. More on this soon.

Also some disturbing news about photographer James Buck in Mahalla. Whose photos i have linked to in my previous post.

Friday noon

Another very gifted photographer, Nasser Nouri that have been providing us with images from day one in Mahalla has also been arrested according to Hossam´s twitter account just two hours ago, and is being held at Police Station I.

I have limited time right now, but would like to include a translate booklet about the wawe of strikes that has been translated into English. Hossam provided the link once again (Thanks!). It´s written by two journalists from al Doustor and al Badeel, Mostafa Bassiouni and Omar Said and is : on the “Egyptian new workers’ movement: the strike wave of 2007“… you can find the English translation here .

I also want give you the link to an al Jazeera inside story on the day of the General Strike, April 6th, it´s in two parts here (part 1) and part 2. Discusssing the matter is Dr Maged Reda Boutrous, Dr Rabab al Mahdi and Dr Saad Eddin Ibrahim. I can´t help to think that Dr Maged is a blessing in disguise for everybody who wants democracy in Egypt. Every time he´s on international media, he makes anyone look like a super star, when matched against him.

When pictures speaks louder than words - Mahalla

In solidarity with the people and textile workers of Mahalla and activists, including bloggers arrested before, during and after the General strike. I want to point to Per Bjorklund´s photos from Mahalla. James Buck´s photos are also well worth a look.

Police using tear gas and rubber bullets on it´s citizens, is an ample description of the state´s attitude towards it´s people. To them Egyptians are only subjects that are supposed to do what they are told. We are still very far from an inclusive understanding of citizenry, where people have both rights and obligations, and not the other way around, that is the state have every right to do whatever it deems necessary to protect it´s interest, but no obligations what so ever. The social contract is broken over and over again. A basic right is the right to strike, of course due to the ever present Emergency laws, those righs are infringed upon. It will be interesting to see if that will change, when the EL is supposed to be replaced by the new anti-terrorism law this coming May. I´m quite sure that all of us can figure out the answer to that question..

UPDATE: Authorities confirmed today that 15-year-old Ahmed Hamada died in the clashes, presumably Monday. He is the only confirmed fatal casualty by the authorities. More on Ahmed Hamada can be found here, as well as coverage of state security hampering an al Jazeera crew from doing there job when P.M Ahmed Nazif came to town on Tuesday. the same happend to a reporter from the local as Saa.

In an attempt to solve the crisis in Mahalla , PM Ahmed Nazif traveled to the delta City on Tuesday, to speak with workers and managment. He promised to provide them with the bonuses, Maggie Michael from A.P provides us with reactions from the PM´s day in Mahalla :

Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif hurried to Mahalla al-Kobra on Tuesday with several top economic ministers to meet with workers at the 50-year-old, state-owned Misr Spinning and Weaving factory complex that employs 25,000 people.

"We know Mahalla is suffering and you have passed through many crises," Nazif told them. "But it is through crises that men prove their mettle."

He announced they would receive a bonus of 30 days' pay and promised to address their demands for better health care and higher wages.

Workers in the hall cheered. But afterward, many were skeptical.

"What Nazif has said, we've heard it all before — what's new? They really have no idea how we suffer here," said Rashad Fathi, a factory worker who said his monthly wage of $34 was not enough to feed his four children.

Rashad Fathi´s salary of 34 USD/month means that he lives far below the UN poverty line of 2 USD/day, just like 20 per cent of Egypt´s population. Twenty per cent more lives slightly abowe that. On top of that food prices has hiked 50 percent since January 1st.

Here is an al Jazeera English report from Sunday.



Global Voices has good coverrage in two important posts. The first by Amira al Husseini about the arrest of blogger/activist Malek and Mustafa Khalil from Kifeya a day prior to the general strike. and the second by Eman AbdELRahman, Including a clip, originally posted by Ghariba

UPDATE: Amira al Husseini has a third installment of Global Voices coverage, and it makes me asking myself, did i do enough? The Egyptian blogospere collectively did certainly do much more than enough! As always, one is very proud and fortunate enough to be a small part of this.

Issam al Aryan op-ed on the Local Elections

The Muslim Brotherhood´s leading middle generation leader and head of the Political Bureau, Issam al Aryan has an op-ed in Forward on the Local Elections on Tuesday, April 8th.

We get to follow a MB candidate who is trying to run for a seat in the village Qawekeyya in the Delta. Muhamamed Shawkat al Malt, a 50 year old lawyer and blogger is one of several thousand candidates who tried to register their candidacy, but were ignored or turned down by the authorities, and like many he has filed a court appeal to make it on the ballot. An endeaouvor likely to be ignored and be in vain when the local elections is held on Tuesday. Read the full article by Fleishman/el Hennawy in today´s LA Times here.

In another development the Muslim Brotherhood decided on Thursday to give their moral support to the organizers of the General strike called for Sunday, 6th of April.

"We are with the strike as a means of expression and peaceful protest in the face of the despotic and suppressive actions of the executive authority,"

The 24 000 workers of Mahalla al Kubra´Misr Spinning and Weaving Company is striking on Sunday in protest of low wages.This has been a focal point of labour strikes for well over a year.

Kifayya is also organizing a demonstration in support of the workers in Giza on the same day.

Beinin on the Mahalla al Kubra strike

Joel Beinin has penned an article on the Mahalla al Kubra strike in Merip.

This is the third Beinin article published in Middle East Report on the broad theme of strikes and workers rights since March this year. The other two, co-authored by journalist, blogger and friend Hossam al Hamalawy, can be found here and here.

Go read it!