HRW Statement on Ahmed Maher

Human Rights Watch issued a statement on Ahmed Maher two days ago. It urges the Egyptian authorities to investigate the case.

On May 7th, the facebook activist´s car was stopped on the street and he was pulled into a minibuss by eight-12 men in civilian clothes. He was handcuffed, blindfolded and taken to the New Cairo(al Qahira al Jadida) police station were he was stripped naked, and subjugated to beatings, mostly on his back and neck.

After roughly three hours he was taken to the SSI headquarters at Lazoughli(Mabahes amn ad Dawla), were he was once again stripped to his underwear and threatend to be raped, and beaten off and on while being asked for the password, and details of group members of the April 6th facebook group.

According to Maher, the SSI officers used lotion on his body in between beatings in order to reduce bruising.

He was released before dawn the next day, May 8th, so he was held for about 12-14 hours, without being charged for anything.

Joe Stork , Deputy Director of the Middle East at the HRW views this as part of a pattern:

“This is the work of thugs, pure and simple.The government must show that those responsible for upholding the law are also subject to the law. Sadly, Maher’s treatment is part of a pattern of abuse and extralegal intimidation by state officials. Egypt needs to put an end to the lawlessness of its law-enforcement officers.”

The occurence of the incident was denied by an Egyptian security official who asked to remain anonymous according to AFP.

Unfortunately the pattern that Stork talks about is as crystal clear as the Alexandria summer sun, we have grown all too familiar with cases like Qandil, Sharqawi, ash Shaér and Imad al Kabir ower the last years, only to name but a few. unfortunately this is most likely, only the tip of the iceberg. Most cases still remain behind the sun.

UPDATE: Amira al Husseini has a roundup of the case here, with a video-clip with Ahmed showing how the upper part of his body looked like after having spent 12 hours at al Qahira al Gedida police station and SSI headquarters at Lazoughli.

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.