Samantha Shapiro has penned a longish feature article in the New York Times Magazine on April 6th youth, called ¨Revolution, facebook-style¨. I´ve only managed to skim through it very quickly this morning. You can find it here. I might comment on it later on today, when i have read through it.
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.
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...
15 activists arrested at Sidi Bishr in Alexandria, Ahmed Maher among them
BREAKING STORY -14 activists from Ghad Youth and the April 6th Youth has been arrested at the Sidi Bishr beach in Alexandria. They were singing songs about Egypt and raised the Egyptian flag on the beach as well as wearing T-shirts with 6th of April youth on.
One of the April 6th Youth, Muhammed Abd al Aziz described the scene prior to the arrest like this:
"We were heading for Sidi Beshr beach but a policeman prevented us getting there because we had a large kite painted with the Egyptian flag and we were wearing T-shirts with 'April 6 Movement' on,"
Here is a clip taken by the group, showing them on the beach, dismantling the kite/Egyptian flag. Minutes later they were beaten and some of them arrested.
The beach of Sidi Bishr being one of the most frequented by alexandrians and summer tourists alike, If intended this seems to have been a combination of one of Kefayya Youth brilliant ideas of taking the message to the people, as they did in the summer of 2005 in popular Cairo neigbourhoods like Shoubra and Sayyida Zeinab and the idea launched last July 23rd, of making a statement by raising the flag on the national day as a protest to say that it´s our symbol too, and not only the perogative of the state, A reclaim the flag/the flag statement is ours if you like.
UPDATE: They were walking down the Alexandrian corniche, when they were arrested. According to one of the detainess, they were beaten by officers at al Farana.
According to reports, they have been taken to the Alexandria State Security Headquarters, al Farana, the same place where Kareem Amer was taken after the Muharram Beq riots in October 2005.
The April 6th Youth had been calling for a gathering today at 12:30 at the Ghad Party headquarters in Alexandria, and the focus this time was Prisoners of Conscience, but it was perhaps even more a way of establish or formalize contactcs in Alexandria, considering that the April 6th Youth was established less than 30 days ago, after the success of the facebook site calling for a General strike on April 6th. Their two front figures both suffered greatly in the aftermath of April 6th, Esraa abd al Fattah was detained and held in prison while Ahmed Maher was taken from his car into a minibuss, taken to a police station were he got beaten up before being taken to notorius SSI Headquarters at Lazoughli and faced with a threat of rape, and badly beaten up once again.
A sit in will be held at the General Prosecutor´s office, Cairo High Court at 2 P.M Thursday, July 24th to demand the release of the April 6th detainees. Inanities provides an eyewitness report here.
UPDATE: Ahmed Maher arrested in Alexandria today. He was taken away at the Raml tram station in downtown Alexandria at 1 P:M and it´s unclear at this point in time if he is detained at al Farana or somewhere else.
The 14 others that were detained yesterday, was given a 15 day term in detention pending further investigation, the case number is 4943/2008. The 14 is said to have been denied legal council at the public prosecutions office.
The group was presented to the public prosecution the same evening, they were denied access to lawyers, a natural right of all arrestees.
According to Ahmed abd al Gawad, a member of both April 6th and the Ghad party:
“From the reports we got from Al-Ramal Court in Alexandria, the detainees have been dealt with in a way which contradicts the constitution and Egyptian law,”
The charges are as follows: Hindering the traffic
gathering of more than 5 people in a public space and assembling persons under the name of “6 April Movement”, using the internet and incitement for overthrow the regime and destabilizing the country.
incitement to demonstration through distribution of publications among citizens inviting them for civil disobedience.
1- Khalid Adil 2- Mahinor Al Masri 3- Yousuf Sha'ban 4- Basim Fathi 5- Mustafa Mahir 7- Nur Al Din Subhi 8- Medhat Shakir 9- Mutasim Bellah Mohamed 10- Tarig Tito 11- Mohamed Mahmoud 12- Ahmed Nassar 13- Ahmed Afifi 14- ********* his name still unknown 15- Ahmed Mahir “Abducted this Afternoon”
According to the AFP 12 more activists were arrested today.
Developments will be followed and updates given as more information becomes available, especially about Ahmed Maher´s whereabouts.
UPDATE: Ahmed Maher recieved a 15 day-term, pending further investigation, and has been taken to Hadra prison in Alexandria, unlike the other 14, whom is being held at the infamous Burg al Arab, where Kareem Amer and Mo´sad Abu Fagr is being held, and where Beheiri and Marei among others have just served time. One might ask why Ahmed Maher is separated from the rest? There is conflicting reports of the whereabouts of the 14, according to the Hisham Mubarak Law Center , they are at Hadra prison.
Here is a 23 minute report from journeyman pictures, Egypt's Facebook Face Off aired on July 2nd, it´s made in the period between the April 6th and May 4th demos(a part is also made after that, including a second interview with Ahmed Maher after being subjugated to beatings at Lazoughly).
Ayman Nour not among the pardoned
The founder and former leader of al Ghad, Ayman Nour was not among the 1500 pardoned by the President as part of the customary celebrations of the national day, in comemmoration of the 1952 revolution, something that was roumered to be in the making. He is reported to be on a hungerstrike, in protest over the way his prison visitors were treated, during yesterday´s visit.
Nour is currently serving a five year sentence for forging signatures needed to apply for a party liscense. The verdict is seen by many as politically motivated, and being on trumped up charges. Nour´s been serving more than half his sentence, and was eligible for pardon for the first time. All options of appeal are already, tried, and the only avenue left is a pardon.
The new editon of Qantara takes a look at the Egyptian internet radio station, Radio Horytna. The station was launched in March 20007, with a vision of providing a station for the young generation of Egyptians, that offered discussion on topics important to them, something they felt we´re lacking in the media landscape of Egypt.
Two topics was off limits from the start, talking about the President and the army, otherwise, all things kosher.
The name, Radio Horytna, our freedom signifies what the station wants to be percieved as, Human rights is important, and so are social issues and problems that the young are facing, like unemployment and women´s rights. They have also regularly featured Egyptian bloggers. But they are also catering to what could perhaps be called youth or pop culture in general, having their weekends full with concerts, films and the ins and outs of the pop and filmstars. They also have a cooperation with football websites filgoal.com and filfan.com and they brodcasted the Pharaos games live during the recent African Cup for instance.
Speaking about the taboo of talking about the President, the Horytna station manager Ahmed Samih says:
It was both a conscious decision and a survival strategy to make discussion of Hosni Mubarak himself taboo. Horytna is trying to create a new awareness of human rights issues. Blindly attacking governmental policy isn't going to help them do that.
"We want to continue to spread our message, not just to go around shouting so that at the end of the day the message doesn't come across. I try to take a long-term view," says Samih, laughing.
Radio Horytna have managed to reach an audience of about 3500 in the 14 months since they launched the station. The 20 journalists working with Horytna is using all the new opportunities to interconnect with their audience, blogs, youtube and facebook, their audience simply don´t use old wawys of communication, this is the only way to reach them, they claim.
Egypt´s 1968-generation?
Ahmed Samih says that there is a spirit of awakening among Egypt´s youth today, and takes the facebook group calling for support for the general strike on April 6th as an example, which managed to get 70 000 members in a couple of days according to the article(64 000 in two weeks and an additional 10-15 in the following month leading up to the rather unsuccesful May 4th demo, author´s note). He views this as something completely new:
He describes it as the country's own 1968 - a whole generation fighting to secure its place in society. "We have never seen a movement like this before in the entire political history of Egypt," says Samih.
I wonder what the students on campuses protesting light sentences for high officers, and heavy ones for the rank and file tried in military courts for their responsibilities during al Naqba(january and October 1968) leading to the proclamation of the March 30th Manifesto by the government or the student protests in 1972 over the year of in(decision) toward Israel, when they staged a sit-in at Midan al Tahrir in January. The bread riots of January 1977 is another example of (among other things)youth reaction to social ills in society. This is but a few examples in the not to distant past.
The staff at Radio Horytna voices concern about possible restrictions on the internet in Egypt in the future, but it dosen´t seem to deter them. Presenter Muhammed Ezz al Din concludes with a quote by one of the greatest Islamic philosophers, Ibn Rushd/Averroes :
"Thoughts have wings. No one can stop them flying."
The same quote was used in Youssef Chahine´s film al Masir(Destiny), in that context as a response towards the militant islamist groups, Islamic Jihad and the Ga´maat al Islamiyya´s attack on intelectual and cultural life in the beginning of the 1990´s.
UPDATE: Oct 10th - Daily News Egypt has a profile on Muhamed Ezz al Din by Ghada Sharif.
Important piece by Knickmeyer/Younis on Ahmed Maher and Facebook
WaPo has a piece this morninng by Knickmeyer/Younis on Ahmed Maher and Facebook activism in Egypt. I¨ll write more later, but do take some time to read the story.
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.
