Sinai hostages ‘can no longer stand torture’ call on Mursi for help

A video posted on Sunday by an anonymous account on YouTube appeared to show the seven hostages, blindfolded and with their hands on their heads, identifying themselves.

Egypt’s President Mohamed Mursi on Sunday barred negotiations with the kidnappers of three policemen and four soldiers who appeared to plead for their release in an online video.

The abductions on Thursday in the Sinai Peninsula prompted angry police to protest and shut down border crossings with Gaza and Israel, piling the pressure on Mursi to help free their colleagues.

“There are no negotiations with criminals and the awe of the state will be preserved,” Mursi was cited as saying by the official MENA news agency.

A video posted on Sunday by an anonymous account on YouTube appeared to show the seven hostages, blindfolded and with their hands on their heads, identifying themselves.

One of the hostages was prodded by what appears to be a rifle held by an abductor off screen before another hostage says the kidnappers want the release of detained Bedouin “political activists”.

The hostage mentioned by name a Bedouin militant who belongs to an Islamist group called Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, a security source told Al Arabiya.

The militant was sentenced to death after a 2011 attack on a police station in the north Sinai town of El-Arish.

“We hope that you, president, quickly release the political activists from Sinai as soon as possible because we can no longer stand the torture,” said one hostage.

The policemen, who worked at border crossings, and soldiers were kidnapped at gunpoint while travelling to their homes.

Since the toppling of former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, hardline Islamist groups in North Sinai have exploited the collapse of state authority.

Presidential sources told the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat that the Egyptian army has urged Mursi to give them the “green light” to launch an attack operation against the kidnappers.

Mursi originally sought negotiations with the kidnappers to “avoid any bloodshed and further complicate the situation in Sinai,” sources told Asharq al-Awsat.

(Source / 19.05.2013)

Egyptian opposition attacks Brotherhood-backed NGO draft law

Protesters opposing Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi flee from tear gas fired by riot police during clashes along Qasr Al Nil bridge, which leads to Tahrir Square, in Cairo May 17, 2013.

Egypt’s main opposition bloc said on Saturday that a Muslim Brotherhood-backed bill to regulate human rights groups and other private organizations was an attempt to stifle their work.

The National Salvation Front (NSF), an alliance of liberal and leftist opposition parties, said the draft law submitted to the Shura Council, which for now has legislative powers, was more restrictive than laws under deposed leader Hosni Mubarak.

The NSF said in a statement that the bill “seeks to reproduce a police state by putting into law the role of security bodies in overseeing the work of civil society groups.”

Human rights groups have also criticized the law, which stipulates that non-governmental groups (NGOs) must be vetted by a committee partly drawn from the security services and must get official permission to receive funds from abroad.

“This can allow these entities to refuse funding for rights groups that monitor elections or work to fight torture … there is an insistent position by the ruling regime driven by lack of political will to take any reform initiative towards democracy and respect for human rights,” the NSF statement said.

Under Mubarak, NGOs ran into trouble over funding by Western countries and such constraints have continued after his fall.

Last year, when Egypt was still under interim army rule, an investigation into the work of international NGOs, including some U.S.-based groups, led to a crisis in ties with Washington.

Mokhtar al-Ashry, head of the legal committee of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, told Reuters the bill would ensure freedom for NGOs and that the security apparatus would provide only one of nine members on the committee overseeing their activities and funding. Asked why any security official should play such a role, Ashry ended the conversation.

Earlier this month, U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said the draft law risked betraying the ideals of Egypt’s 2011revolution and said governments restricting civil society work” risk slipping quickly into authoritarianism”.

The NSF said it would back another bill drafted by a coalition of 50 civil society groups.

(Source / 18.05.2013)

Egypt ‘foils Qaeda-linked plot against Western embassy’

A Muslim Brotherhood supporter and fellow demonstrators next to an Al-Qaeda affiliated flag, April 19, 2013, Cairo.

CAIRO (AFP) — Egypt’s interior minister said on Saturday police arrested members of an Al-Qaeda-linked cell that plotted to carry out a suicide bombing against a Western embassy and other targets in the country.

Police “have delivered a successful blow against a terror cell plotting suicide bomb attacks,” including a plot to attack a Western embassy which was in its final stages, Mohammed Ibrahim said at a news conference.

The minister did not identify the embassy.

Ibrahim named three people arrested by police and said they were captured with 10 kilos of chemicals that could be used to make explosives and a computer containing instructions on bomb-making.

The militants had been in touch with an Al-Qaeda leader outside the country, said Ibrahim, and had received training in Pakistan and Iran.

Egypt has in the past announced the arrests of Qaeda-linked militants, including a group now on trial in Cairo.

(Source  / 11.05.2013)

Egyptian Salafists boycott Muslim Brotherhood protest for Jerusalem Mufti

An Egyptian man burns an Israeli flag as another holds up the green Hamas movement flag during a demonstration in support of the Palestinian people and of Muslims around the world, on May 10, 2013 front of the Al-Ahzar mosque in Cairo.

An Egyptian Salafist group has confirmed its boycott of a mass demonstration, organized by the Muslim Brotherhood, against Israel’s detention of Jerusalem’s grand mufti.

The ultra-conservative al-Nour party instead called on Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi to wage a holy war in Palestine, Syria, Mali and Afghanistan “because these are Islamic countries.”

The demonstration will take place in front of al-Azhar mosque on May 10 after Friday prayers, Youm7 newspaper reported.

The demonstration aims to show that Arabs are not preoccupied with their own internal affairs, as alleged by “Zionists,” and that the issue of Jerusalem is the most important matter for Arabs and Muslims, said Brotherhood media spokesman Yasser Mehrez.

“Jihad does not require a mass demonstration. This is a trick applied by the weak,” Youm7 quoted Egyptian Salafist leader Sheikh Murjan Salem al-Jawhari as saying.

“The fighters in Jerusalem, Afghanistan, Gaza, Palestine, Mali and Damascus need the sacrifices of money and souls rather than demonstrations and stances,” added Jawhari.

“Against whom are you demonstrating?” asked Dr Khaled Alam al-Din, a former presidential adviser to Mursi and a prominent Nour member. “What are the goals and demands of these demonstrations? Can Jerusalem be liberated through such demonstrations? Who are the organizers addressing their demands to?”

Former presidential candidate and ex-Brotherhood figure Abdel Moneim Aboul-Fotouh said the declaration to boycott the demonstration creates division and disunity.

Several Egyptian political parties and movements have declared their support for the protest.

“We will join the demonstration because we believe that the people’s role at this stage is more important than the role of the government and the regime; the people are drawing the regime’s policy after Egypt’s 2011 revolution,” said Dr Tarek al-Zomor, a leader of the Construction and Development Party, the political wing of the Islamist al-Jamaa al-Islamiya movement.

(Source / 10.05.2013)

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood rallies against Israel

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is staging an anti-Israel rally in Cairo to protest Israeli airstrikes in Syria.

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is staging an anti-Israel rally in Cairo to protest Israeli airstrikes in Syria and the detention of a Muslim cleric.

Chants of “the people want destruction of Israel” rang out Friday inside Al-Azhar mosque, the centuries-old seat of Sunni Muslim learning.

The rally is the first such protest by the Brotherhood, from which Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi hails, since it gained prominence after 2011 uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

Group officials say they are protesting the Israeli detention of top Palestinian Muslim cleric in the Holy Land in a rare crackdown on a leading religious figure that drew fierce condemnation from Palestinians. The demonstrators also were denouncing Israeli airstrikes in Syria that targeted alleged shipments of advanced Iranian missiles thought to be bound for Hezbollah.

(Source / 10.05.2013)

One dead after gunfight involving Egypt PM guards

CAIRO (AFP) — A passerby who was wounded in a firefight between Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil’s bodyguards and a group of “thugs” died of his injuries on Monday, a security official said.

The man, a street vendor, was shot in the neck on Sunday night when a group of people driving a pick up traded fire with Qandil’s bodyguards who were traveling in a convoy with him. Qandil was not hurt.

His bodyguards opened fire at the truck carrying five people that had cut into Qandil’s convoy as it crossed Cairo’s October 6 bridge across the Nile.

Shots were returned from the pick up truck before the driver and the passengers were arrested.

A security official said the suspects claimed they had been unaware of Qandil’s presence in the motorcade and had not shot at his car.

Egyptian media reported in February that protesters threw stones and bottles at the prime minister’s motorcade as he tried to enter Cairo’s Tahrir Square after overnight clashes nearby and at the presidential palace.

His office said in a statement later, without elaborating, that he had been “confronted by youths and troublemakers”.

(Source / 06.05.2013)

Morsi steps back from confrontation with judges

CAIRO (AFP) — President Mohamed Morsi on Sunday stepped back from a confrontation with the Egyptian judiciary over a proposed new law that would see several thousand judges sacked, proposing a conference to ease disputes.

During a meeting with judges, Morsi agreed to host a conference on Tuesday to resolve disagreements over the proposed new law that would lower the retirement age from 70 to 65, affecting nearly 3,000 judges, his spokesman said.

Morsi pledged to “personally adopt” the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting and send the amendments to the legislature, Ehab Fahmy said in a televised statement.

Morsi has repeatedly clashed with the courts since his election last June, and his supporters have staged protests demanding the judiciary be purged of loyalists of ousted strongman Hosni Mubarak who was overthrown in a 2011 uprising.

Egyptian courts have overturned several of Morsi’s decisions, including a decree to hold parliamentary elections this April and his controversial sacking of a Mubarak-era state prosecutor.

Judges spearheaded a widespread backlash against the Islamist president in November when he adopted wide-ranging powers that put his decisions above judicial review. Morsi has since repealed that decree.

(Source / 28.04.2013)

Egypt police in new protests demanding more rights

Hundreds of Egyptian policemen have been wounded this year and several have been killed in anti-government protests.

Dozens of Egyptian police officers disobeyed orders and stormed a superior’s office in the capital, shut down a security directorate in the north and went on strike in the south in a new round of protests Sunday that threaten to unhinge the country’s already weakened security force.

It was the year’s third wave of strikes by police, who demand incentives to work, like better wages, greater firepower and more benefits.

The police force has not recovered from the days of the 2011 uprising that deposed longtime President Hosni Mubarak. His police were a symbol of the regime’s unchecked powers and abuses, and they were forced from the streets in the early stages of the revolt by angry protesters.

After losing much of their power, now police are demanding more rights. Last month thousands of police stopped working for several days. In some cases, citizens found police stations closed.

In an effort to show support, President Mohammed Mursi addressed riot police and attended traditional Islamic Friday prayers with them shortly after their strike ended. He praised the police for protecting security but warned them against divisions.

The Interior Ministry, which oversees police in Egypt, relies on low-ranking police to protect government buildings. Hundreds of policemen have been wounded this year and several have been killed in anti-government protests.

Many officers say they are fed up with promises of reform. Thousands of low-ranking officers have refused orders to guard courts during heated trials and protests.

On Sunday, dozens of low-ranking officers stormed the office of the deputy interior minister in charge of health care for police. His office is inside the main police hospital in Cairo’s Nileside neighborhood of Agouza. They said promises of better health care have gone unfulfilled.

In the south, police at two stations in the province of Assuit went on strike, charging that the government did not fulfill any of their demands.

In the Nile Delta province of Kafr el-Sheikh, police locked the gate to the security division with chains, according to security officials and state media reports.

Some of the police force is also calling for the dismissal of Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, appointed by Mursi in a limited Cabinet shuffle in January. Five different interior ministers have headed the force in the past two years, and none has been able to exercise full control over the unsettled ranks.

Some policemen are also protesting alleged attempts by the powerful Muslim Brotherhood to try to control the force, a charge the Islamist group denies. For decades, Egypt’s police aggressively targeted the Brotherhood, and Mursi himself was imprisoned under Mubarak.

Rights activists accuse the police force of continuing its brutal tactics under Mursi.

Around 100 protesters have been killed in confrontations with police this year. There are concerns that a recent decision to purchase 100,000 new 9mm pistols for police could lead to an even greater use of excessive force against unarmed protesters and civilians.

Officer Mohammed Mustafa was among those who stormed the deputy minister’s office in Cairo on Sunday. He told The Associated Press that the group ended its sit-in after superiors vowed to look into their demands, which include purchasing bullet-proof vests and enacting stronger laws to protect them.

Policemen say they are being arrested and put on trial for using lethal force to protect themselves against well-armed criminal gangs that are smuggling weapons, drugs and antiquities. He said they do not have enough protection to go after suspects.

They also demand the same benefits available to their superior officers.

Mustafa said neither he nor his family can be treated at the police hospital where the sit-in took place. He said he has to take his four children to rundown public hospitals, and he is allowed treatment at the police hospital only if he is injured on the job.

Many police complain that their wages are too low.

Though his salary has increased by almost three-fold following the uprising, Mustafa said he still earns only $185 a month. After 15 years on the job, low-ranking officers receive just $2,000 in compensation when they retire.

“Mursi, before he was president, promised that he would solve the problems of the police force,” he said. “We want action, not words.”

Also Sunday, several thousand students from state universities marched through Cairo, taking their demands to Cabinet headquarters. They called for the dismissal of the Minister of Higher Education Mustafa Mosaad, accusing him of allowing violence on campuses against student protests. They also want improvements in the education system.

Muslim Brotherhood students did not join the protest.

(Source / 28.04.2013)

Egypt president invites judges to discuss judicial reform crisis

Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi has invited senior figures from the judiciary to discuss a crisis triggered by proposed reforms.

Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi has invited senior figures from the judiciary to discuss a crisis triggered by proposed reforms that would push out thousands of judges, state media said on Saturday.

Islamist lawmakers have put forward a bill that would force out more than 3,000 judges by lowering the retirement age, causing a revolt among the judiciary and widening political divisions in the country more than two years after a popular uprising ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian judges – along with the country’s secular, leftist and liberal opposition – say the law aims to cement the authority of Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood rather than stamp out corruption.

Mursi’s legal adviser and the justice minister resigned in protest over what they said were attempts to curtail judicial independence.

The bill was proposed by the moderate Islamist Wasat Party, an ally of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party.

The state newspaper Al-Ahram reported the president had invited heads of judicial bodies including the High Constitutional Court and the Court of Cassation to meet him in the presidential palace on Sunday to discuss the crisis.

On Friday, the deputy leader of the Brotherhood’s political arm argued the Islamist-dominated parliament must move quickly to adopt the reforms.

In a further sign of the country’s febrile politics, several opposition groups said earlier on Saturday they had filed a case against the government to press it to publish details of the state budget.

(Source / 27.04.2013)

Egypt activists launch campaign to combat violence in Egypt schools

New campaign launched to monitor school violence in Egypt.

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CAIRO: A number of non-governmental organizations on Monday launched a campaign to stop “abuses in Egyptian schools” and to monitor events of violence against students.

The campaign, launched by Nazra for feminist studies center, Fouada Watch initiative and Bahya ya Misr movement among other 12 organizations, aims at drawing attention to the growing number of incidents of violence directed towards students.

“There is a marked increase of repeated violence against students in public schools throughout the different levels of education, this has become a nationwide phenomenon,” said the founding statement of the campaign.

The statement added that schools are adopting a wrong perception of the Egyptian culture, justifying violence as a means of adjusting the students’ behavior.

The campaign aims at forming pressure groups to work on combating violence in schools, pointing that the prevalence of violence is a direct result of “the absence of the supervision of education ministry.”

“We will work within the framework of our commitment to international agreements on child rights,” the statement said.

The campaign called on journalists and human rights activists and anyone concerned with the development of the educational process to join them in order to shed the light on violence in schools.

(Source / 22.04.2013)