Egypt Convicts 3 Journalists; U.S. Is Critical

[Mahmoud_EGY]

CAIRO — Secretary of State John Kerry came to Egypt this weekend to renew its “important partnership” with Washington and to offer its new president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, assurance of the swift restoration of military aid.

Less than 24 hours after Mr. Kerry’s visit, a judge on Monday convicted three journalists from Al Jazeera’s English-language network of conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood to broadcast false reports. The judge sentenced each one to at least seven years in prison — all without making public any evidence and without a word from Mr. Sisi.

The verdict has set off an international backlash against the Egyptian government’s crackdown on news media freedom and political dissent. But it also put the White House in the awkward position of appearing to once again ally itself with an authoritarian leader just three years after President Obama backed the popular uprising against President Hosni Mubarak.
Mr. Kerry, on a visit to Baghdad on Monday, appeared stunned by the verdict and sentence, telling journalists that he had immediately called the Egyptian foreign minister to express “our serious displeasure.”
“Injustices like these simply cannot stand,” Mr. Kerry said, for Egypt to move forward as Mr. Sisi and his aides “told me just yesterday that they aspire to see their country advance.” He called on the Egyptian government to “review all the political sentences and verdicts pronounced during the last few years and consider all available remedies, including pardons.”

The White House, in its own statement, said that the case “flouts the most basic standards of media freedom and represents a blow to democratic progress in Egypt” because it amounts to “the prosecution of journalists for reporting information that does not coincide with the government of Egypt’s narrative.” And the White House urged the Egyptian government to pardon the journalists or commute their sentences so that they “can be released immediately.”

The Egyptian government, however, stood by the verdict “Due process was adhered to with all of the defendants,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, emphasizing “the complete rejection of any foreign interference in the country’s internal affairs.”

The case has attracted special attention because all three journalists had previously worked for established international news organizations. Mohamed Fahmy, a Canadian citizen of Egyptian descent, previously worked for CNN, The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times; Peter Greste, an Australian, previously worked for the BBC and had spent only a few days in Egypt at the time of his arrest; and Baher Mohamed, an Egyptian, previously worked for a Japanese news organization, The Asahi Shimbun.

All three have been in jail since their arrest in December after a raid on Al Jazeera’s makeshift studio in a Marriott Hotel, and they have been described in the state-run and pro-government Egyptian news media as “the Marriott cell.”
Rights advocates have described the charges as farcical. Although all three received sentences of seven years, Mr. Mohamed was given an additional three years for possession of a weapon: a single spent police bullet that he had recovered from a street protest as a souvenir.

Mr. Greste is not a Muslim, speaks no Arabic, and had spent only a few days in the Arab world before his arrest. Mr. Fahmy said in court that he was a “liberal” who drinks alcohol, and he personally participated in a march calling for the resignation of President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood last June. In July, he marched in another demonstration to show support for the new military-backed government that has now sentenced him to seven years in prison.

When asked by the court to screen the allegedly false news reports obtained from the defendants’ laptops, prosecutors showed only unrelated images that included Mr. Greste’s family vacation, horses grazing in a pasture in Luxor, Egypt, and a news conference by the Kenyan police that Mr. Greste had covered in Nairobi.

They are accused of attempting to broadcast false reports of civil strife, but at the time of the arrests, street protests and civil strife were common enough in Egypt that such broadcasts would have been far easier to film than to fabricate.

Judge Mohammed Nagi Shehata, who led a panel of three and wore sunglasses throughout the trial, on Monday announced the verdict and sentences without explanation. He also sentenced a group of students tried along with the journalists to seven years in prison. They were apparently convicted of collaborating with the journalists to generate news reports of student protests against the takeover.

Inside the metal cage where defendants are held during Egyptian trials, the accused students immediately erupted into defiant songs and chants, proclaiming that their faith would overcome and denouncing the police as thugs. Mr. Greste looked down in dismay and ran his fingers through his hair. Mr. Fahmy angrily tried to quiet the students so that he could shout across the room to his mother, brother and fiancée, but his voice could not be heard. He clung to the bars as police officers pulled him away, dragging him back to his cell.

“There is no hope in the judicial system,” Mr. Fahmy’s mother, Waffa Basiouni, wailed tearfully. “They give him seven years with no evidence — if they had evidence, how many years would they give him?”
The defendants may appeal the verdict, but the process could take years.

Outside the courtroom, the Australian, British and Canadian ambassadors denounced the conviction as a blow to freedom of the press, and pledged diplomatic pressure to free the imprisoned journalists.

“There is no incriminating evidence with regard to the charges and there were multiple procedural shortcomings,” David Drake, the Canadian ambassador, said. “Therefore, we do not understand this verdict.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists numbers them among as many as 15 journalists now held in Egyptian prisons. All have been ensnared in a sweeping crackdown on both Islamist and non-Islamist opponents of the military ouster of Mr. Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood last July 3. More than a thousand Islamist demonstrators were killed by security forces at street protests within a few weeks of the takeover, and at least 16,000 have been arrested.

In the state-run and pro-government news media, supporters of the military takeover have directed particular anger at Al Jazeera, which is owned by the government of Qatar. The network is the only major Arabic-language news outlet still available in Egypt that is sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Three other journalists were convicted in absentia and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Among them are the British journalists Sue Turton and Dominic Kane and the Dutch journalist Rena Netjes.

After Mr. Sisi’s inauguration this month, there were hopes that he might pardon or release the imprisoned journalists. But there was no indication on Monday that there would be either an imminent pardon or a commutation of the sentences.

In his statement, Mr. Kerry condemned the “chilling, draconian sentences,” faulted the trial for lacking “many fundamental norms of due process,” and called it “a deeply disturbing setback to Egypt’s transition.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/24/w...-3-al-jazeera-journalists.html?ref=world&_r=0

 

[That Guy]

The US is extremely critical, which is why they released their military aid again, am I right? Everyone knows the US doesn't care who comes to power, as long as they don't harm US interests. This is why the US and Morsi worked together, even though the US publicly didn't trust Morsi.

Also, a message to out dear Canadian Ambassador to Egypt, of course you understand why this happened. Egyptian courts are making an example of these journalists, which is not to anger the miltiary government, otherwise it's off with your heads (both figuratively and literally). As long as Canada has a conservative government, we'll never put any pressure on Egypt.

 

[Ceylal]

"Egypt has killed political Islam last year"
- A supporter of the Egyptian revolution, Alaa El Aswany, author of The Yacoubian Building , is now opposed to the pro-Islamist Morsi. In his latest novel, Automobile Club of Egypt , he examines the contradictory relationship between liberty and security.

He dared to cross the boundaries of Cairo to a new suburb that wants opulent. A pristine white house at the end of a dusty road, a little green grass around the new house, and here on the porch of this residence fungus in some twenty-five minutes from the capital Cairo. The writer Alaa al Aswany has offered this little luxury while keeping his dental practice in the city center. The large room that serves as his office is still very bare. One has the feeling that the author has not yet fully established, somewhat shaken by history.Whoever experienced success with her international bestseller, The Yacoubian Building , returns to the literary scene with Automobile Club of Egypt , whose action takes place in the late 1940s, under the yoke of the British Empire. Alaa El Aswany used as a usual cast of characters to tell with finesse Egypt yesterday and today, while expressing anger that never ends. In January 2011, the author immersed himself in the Egyptian revolution, taking up the cause of the young revolutionaries.

How far are you willing to go for the revolution and against submission? Last October, the Egyptian writer has paid the price of this freedom of expression for which he continues to fight. It had to be exfiltré during his visit to the Arab World Institute, the victim of verbal abuse from Islamist pro-Morsi elements who wanted to fight.The day I met him, he asked to speak only of literature. While admitting very quickly that literature and politics are inseparable.

You place your novel in the 1940s. Is there a parallel with today?
The end of this period of the 1940s is very similar to what we saw in Egypt today. Through the Automobile Club of Cairo, meeting place of the Egyptian dignitaries and aristocrats and Western diplomats, I tried to reproduce a society that raised a number of issues that are the same as today. Whether it is about the Egyptian revolution, the relationship between Egypt and the West.And these questions, sixty years later, still have no clear answer.

Why?
There is always this struggle for freedom, so that Egypt can build a democratic state. In the 1940s, the British occupation was stopping. Today, it is the Muslim Brotherhood who are not in agreement with this model of a secular and democratic state. In this, these two periods are similar. During the 1940s in Egypt, there was a very open I told through some of the characters of the novel middle class.

What is the character of El-Kwo, the chamberlain of King Farouk?
symbolizes dictatorship. We always used to see the negative aspect of the dictator but should not be reductive, there is not that this facet in such men. The dictator is not only someone cruel, it can also protect. It is also a father who knows his people, who knows what is good for him, like a father claims her child. That is the question today. A do we need a president or a father? A lot of people need a father and not a president.

You're not very tender with the Egyptian people, yet like you lot ...
It has created a situation in Egypt that offered only one choice. Or you want Mubarak, you will have neither freedom nor dignity, you will still be subject, but you will have the security. Or you want freedom and you lose security. It is a process that works in all situations against revolutionaries. Facing the revolution, the regime always bet on this game: it creates a worse than the last and people situation at some point, become frightened because there is more police. And in the end, the question becomes: Do you want the Mubarak regime with security or revolution without security?This is something that we hear today in the streets of Cairo. "Who cares for your revolution, we want Mubarak, we want security," people say.

"I had the chance to participate in a real revolution"

The problem of the Muslim world is not also sexual?
can not generalize but yes, the sex is taboo.Wahhabism [puritanical and legalistic vision of Islam] is a violent vision against women, an interpretation that sees women only as a sexual object, reproduction. That women are veiled or not I do not mind, I see exactly the same kind of violence in an advertisement selling a car with a woman dressed little. For me, the two approaches are identical.

Your book exudes anger.
Perfectly! We write because we are not happy. The motivation for writing occurs when the difference between what happens and what should happen becomes too great. I started this book in 2008. I stopped a year during the revolution and I finished in February 2012. When the revolution began, I wrote two-thirds of my novel. I still had to invent or imagine the feelings that one experiences in times of revolution. I had the chance to participate in a real revolution, so when I returned to writing, it worked very easily. I did not have to invent, I just had to remember experiences that I had.

"We had evidence that the use of religion as a political tool does not work"

What future do you imagine for Egypt?
I'm optimistic. We are facing a double battle.Terrorism against the Brotherhood and also against the old regime, which has been preserved by the military and now monopolizes the media. The power is now trying to convince millions of Egyptians who have not participated in the revolution it was a bad idea or even that it was organized by the CIA ... The fight against terrorism is used by the authorities to get rid of the revolution. It accuses the "figures of January," who obtained the departure of Mubarak have brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power. Do you think the Egyptian people still support the Brothers? No! The people understood the true nature of the Brothers. They have missed a historic opportunity, not only for themselves and for Egypt but also for political Islam. Political Islam in Egypt began in 1928 with the birth of the Muslim Brotherhood and, in my opinion, our country is also buried political Islam in 2013. We had evidence that the use of religion as a political tool does not work. And this is the lesson that the Egyptians caught, believe me.

Automobile Club of Egypt Alaa El Aswany, Actes Sud, 538 p., 23.50 euros.

Karen Lajon special correspondent in Cairo - Le Journal du Dimanche



"Day of Rage" in Egypt
The Point.fr - Published 07/03/2014 at 15:30

A year to the day after the removal of the army of Mohamed Morsi, the police broke up several passes of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Photo illustration. Cairo, April 2014. © MAHMOUD KHALED / AFP
The Muslim Brotherhood began Thursday their "day of rage" inEgypt a year to the day after the dismissal by the army of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, followed by violent repression has hit hard the brotherhood. The police dispersed several parades and were massively deployed, completing the main squares of the capital, the usual gathering place in the country, plagued since the revolt of 2011 repeated crises and events that have consistently escalated into deadly violence .

On Thursday is a test for Islamists, particularly the Brotherhood Mohamed Morsi. The movement of 86 years old who had won every election since the uprising of 2011 was recently declared a "terrorist", banned, and virtually all its officers, like Mohamed Morsi, was arrested and liable now the death penalty in multiple trials. Its supreme guide, Mohamed Badie , has already been sentenced twice to death. The relentless and bloody crackdown by the authorities led by the destroyer of Morsi, the former army chief Abdel Fattah recently elected President al-Sissi, has drastically reduced their ability to mobilize. In one year, more than 1,400 demonstrators pro-Morsi fell under the bullets of the security forces and more than 15 000 people were arrested, including hundreds sentenced to death after summary trials.



"Day of Rage"
To mark the anniversary of what the Islamist opposition called a "military coup" Alliance anti-coup, pro-Morsi coalition headed by the Muslim Brotherhood, called in a statement virulent tone a "day of rage". Upon publication of this call, five frames of the coalition, including several heads of small Islamist parties supporting Mohamed Morsi, were arrested. Two parades were dispersed with tear gas in Cairo, officials of the security services, but an Islamist militant said demonstrations were planned throughout the day.

For human rights, repression launched in July 2013 and which continues unabated is the bloodiest ever for the most populous Arab country in decades. Initially directed only against Islamist pro-Morsi, this repression is now also secular and progressive activists who were behind the army there one year. And it is a real war criminal who is currently playing in Egypt, where courts routinely condemn dozens of opponents, including an Act declaring "illegal" any event not having previously obtained the permission of powerful Ministry of the Interior .

"Catastrophe"
Amnesty International recalls and "an increase in arbitrary arrests, imprisonment, torture and deaths in custody which proves the serious deterioration of human rights in Egypt in the year following the dismissal of Mohamed Morsi." The NGOs have denounced a "catastrophe" for human rights while "the State Security is back and uses the same methods as torture worst days of the regime of Hosni Mubarak," reversed early 2011 . retaliated jihadi insurgents conducting attacks that, according to the government, more than 500 deaths in the ranks of law enforcement.

Faced with violence that scares tourists and foreign investors, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, winner of the May presidential election with 97% of the vote, capitalizing on its image of strong man capable of bringing stability. But the Muslim Brotherhood, whose organization is lapped to illegal action after decades of prohibition under previous presidents, can still count on the faithful. And soon the night, violence marred the day Thursday, a man was killed when he was apparently trying to make a bomb, while a small bomb exploded in a car in the vicinity of a military hospital in Cairo. On Monday, two police officers were killed while trying to defuse bombs installed by a jihadist group outside the presidential palace in Cairo.




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