Egypt’s ElBaradei slams Shura Council over judicial authority law

Egypt’s ElBaradei lashes out at Shura Council.

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CAIRO: Nobel Laureate and opposition leader, Mohamed ElBaradei, criticized the performance of Egypt’s Islamist- led Shura Council (upper house of the parliament) on Sunday, describing it as incompetent.

The coordinator of Egypt’s opposition National Salvation Front and head of the Dostour Party said that the “Shura Council is trying to undermine the judiciary and freedoms.”

“Is it morally acceptable for the representatives of civil parties and for those who believe in democracy to uphold their membership in an unqualified and non-representative council that tries to shatter freedoms and threatens judicial independence,” the former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog wandered on his Twitter account.

According to Egypt’s newly adopted constitution, the Shura Council had assumed full legislative powers until the election of a new People’s Assembly (lower house).

The Shura Council head, Ahmed Fahmy, had stressed that the council would use its legislative powers in a minimalistic manner, denying that the council would use its powers to pass several laws before the election of the People’s Assembly.

Meanwhile, the Shura Council is currently discussing the judicial authority law, in preparation for its adaptation.

In response,  the Judges’ Club sent a legal warning to the Shura Council’s head to prevent him from passing the judicial authority law, saying, “The legislative authority that the constitution grants to the Shura Council is only temporary and should be limited to pressing legislation only.”

(Source / 22.04.2013)

IMF: Qatar aid to Egypt no substitute for IMF plan

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The International Monetary Fund said Friday that Qatar’s $5 billion in support for Egypt was not a substitute for the stalled IMF loan to help the country undertake reforms.

IMF Middle East regional director Masood Ahmed said the Fund was still in talks to provide a multibillion-dollar loan to Cairo that is contingent on strong support from domestic political actors and a commitment to key reforms.

“There’s a financing need that Egypt faces for the next 12, 18 months, and any financing that is provided is very useful in meeting that need,” he said at the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank.

Ahmed called aid like that which Qatar announced last week, to help the Egyptian government as it increasingly faces strains on its finances, “helpful.”

“But it’s not a substitute for the kind of measures that they (Cairo) have been putting together and that they want to move forward with, and that if we can reach would be a basis for an IMF-supported program.”

Last year the IMF reached a deal in principle to provide a $4.8 billion loan to help finance the government while it undertakes reforms.

The loan was close to completion in November when political changes in Cairo set it back.

Ahmed assured that talks were still ongoing.

A recent mission to the country “made good progress… and we’re continuing those discussions.”

“There are still some areas in which the authorities are making sure that the data that they have is the most recent.”

“We’re working together with them to make sure that the program will address the challenges that face Egypt, and will do so in way that protects the most vulnerable part of the society.”

But he declined to put a target date for completion of the talks.

(Source / 19.04.2013)

’4 hit by buckshot’ as Egypt Islamists, rivals clash

CAIRO (AFP) — Four persons were wounded by buckshot on Friday after opposition activists marched on thousands of Islamists rallying outside the Supreme Court in central Cairo demanding judicial reform, an official said.

In the clashes, the two sides pelted each other with stones and Molotov cocktails and gunfire was heard, according to an AFP journalist.

The correspondent added that opposition activists from the so-called Black Bloc, wearing black masks, fired buckshot at Islamists on the October 6 Bridge over the Nile River near Tahrir Square and wounded two people.

The head of the Egyptian rescue agency, Mohammed Sultan, told television that four people had been hospitalized with buckshot wounds.

An hour after the clashes broke out, three armored police vehicles arrived and began firing tear gas, the correspondent said.

The Islamists, who set fire to two buses, were demanding an overhaul of the judiciary, after a court challenged a decision by Islamist President Mohamed Mursi to sack the veteran state prosecutor.

(Source / 19.04.2013)

Bishop thanks Muslims for protecting Christians in Egypt’s Al-Khosous

Bishop Moussa of the Coptic Orthodox Church says local Muslims who protected Christians during sectarian riots showed the true meaning of religion and love

Bishop Moussa, head of the Youth Bishopric

A senior Coptic bishop has praised Muslims in Al-Khosous who attempted to protect Christians during a recent bout of sectarian violence that left five people dead.

“The loving Muslims who protected Christians and the church during the deadly clashes in Al-Khosous highlighted the mistakes of the fanatics and showed the true meaning of religion and love,” Bishop Moussa, who is in charge of youth affairs at the Coptic Orthodox Church, said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Our only consolation is that the victims gave their lives as a testimony to God and their pure souls ascended to heaven…,” he added.

Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II, along with other bishops, will on Thursday accept condolences from public figures at the papal headquarters in Abbasiya.

Deadly clashes erupted in Al-Khosous in Qalioubiya on Saturday after a group of Christian teenagers allegedly daubed what some Muslims deemed offensive symbols on the walls of an Al-Azhar institute in the town, state news agency MENA reported.

Four Christians and one Muslim died in the violence that followed.

On Sunday, a funeral for the Christian victims of the violence was held at St Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo. As mourners were leaving the cathedral they were attacked by unknown assailants. Two people died and at least 90 were injured in the ensuing violence.

Police fired teargas and birdshot directly into the cathedral compound, sparking uproar among the Christian community.

(Source / 11.04.2013)

Egyptian parliament approves revised election law

Egypt’s Shura Council will send the election law to the Supreme Constitutional Court to check its legality.

Egypt’s Islamist-dominated Shura Council (the upper house of parliament) approved Thursday a revised election law on Thursday setting the rules for lower house parliamentary polls due to be held later this year.

The Islamist-led upper house will now send it to the Supreme Constitutional Court to check its legality.

President Mohamed Mursi had originally called elections for April but postponed them when the court annulled the decree setting the dates. Mursi has said the elections could now begin in October.

(Source / 11.04.2013)

Police fire tear gas to disperse anti-Mursi protesters in Cairo

Protesters, some who are throwing rocks, stand near objects which they set on fire during clashes with police in front of the High Court in Cairo April 6, 2013.

Egyptian police fired tear gas to prevent opponents of President Mohamed Mursi storming a court and the prosecutor-general’s office in central Cairo on Saturday, witnesses said.

Eight people were injured in Cairo and during another protest in al-Fayoum south of the capital, the state news agency MENA said.

Some 500 people marched for much of the day through central Cairo, chanting “The people want to topple the regime” on the fifth anniversary of the opposition April 6 youth movement.

When some protesters hurled rockets at the court, which also houses the prosecutor’s office, and tried to break down the main gate, police fired tear gas from upstairs windows, witnesses said.

Egypt has been in political turmoil since the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, with Mursi and his Islamist allies pitted against various secular opposition groups.

The prosecutor-general angered activists a week ago by questioning a popular TV satirist who is accused of having insulted Mursi. The government denies opposition claims that the case is evidence of a crackdown on dissent.

“We are Muslims but we want a civilian state,” said Saffeya Mustapha, a female protester on the Cairo march.

Seven protesters were taken to hospital, MENA said, citing the Health Ministry.

(Source / 06.04.02013)

Police: Egypt Islamists stone Iranian envoy’s house

CAIRO (AFP) — Egyptian Islamist protesters threw stones at the house of Iran’s envoy in Cairo on Friday and tried to scale the villa’s walls but were blocked by police, a police official said.

The Islamists, who object to a thaw in relations between Egypt and Iran, were also prevented by police from raising the flag adopted by Syrian rebels against Tehran’s close ally President Bashar Assad over the envoy’s house.

They threw stones at the building as some held banners calling for the envoy’s expulsion and opposing the “spread of Shiite Islam” practised by most Iranians.

Hardline Sunni Islamists consider Shiites to be heretics and have opposed the detente between Cairo and Tehran after Islamist President Mohamed Morsi’s election in Egypt last June.

Last month, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding to promote mutual tourism.

Morsi is a strong backer of the mostly Sunni Syrian rebels but has insisted that Iran could help find a political solution to the civil war raging in Syria.

Egypt and Iran severed ties after the 1979 Islamic revolution brought to power a theocratic government in Tehran that opposed Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel.

(Source / 05.04.2013)

Worldwide support for Egyptian satirist’s fight for free speech

With nothing to declare but his wit, Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef’s fight for free speech has been buoyed on Monday by top U.S. satirist Jon Stewart, who Youssef has been internationally likened to.

Continuing Youssef’s theme of poking fun at the Egyptian president, Stewart did the same.

“I know Bassem pretty well,” Stewart said on his Monday night episode of The Daily Show, “so you can imagine I was shocked that this whole time I was consorting with a criminal!”

“If insulting the presidency and Islam here were illegal [in the U.S.], Fox News would go bye-bye!”

“Sounds like Egypt’s Mohammed Mursi’s got his hands full,” adds Stewart after a brief rundown of crises in Egypt which have peaked since the revolution, including diving tourism revenues, economic drawbacks, aging infrastructure and a spike in sexual harassment.

“Can’t wait to see how President Mursi tackles these complex and urgent issues,” he satirically says before beginning to chew over the arrest of Youssef for insulting the presidency, which included mocking Mursi for his English skills and for the hat he wore in Pakistan while being awarded an honorary degree.

“Making fun of the president’s hat and his less-than-fluent English, that was my entire career for eight years!” Stewart said, bringing up an image of a previous George Bush sketch, in which he wore a hat identical to that one worn by the former U.S. president.

“Has he [Youssef] been sabotaging Egypt’s infrastructure? Harassing Egyptian women on the streets, or unemploying the Egyptian people? What did he do?” Stewart asks mockingly.

Stewart then proceeded to show clips of Mursi insulting Jews and Zionism, with one clip showing Mursi labeling them the “descendants of apes and pigs.”

International eyes on Youssef

Turning up at the prosecutor’s office after an arrest warrant was issued from him, then placed on bail last week, Youssef has attracted support from a host of international observers, slapping him on the back for his comedic free speech.

Youssef “isn’t scared of anybody,” CNN presenter Christiane Amanpour previously said of the satirist.

“With so much political turmoil in the country, Youssef’s mission is to make Egyptians laugh, while informing them at the same time,” Amanpour added, before an interview with the comedian in December 2012.

Back then, Youssef had said the “president has been accepting [his sketches] well,” and that he even invited Mursi to the show.

“This is the best time to have a politically satire program in Egypt. We are the drama queen of the world with everything that’s happening …. Comic satire is the best way to comment on everything,” he told Amanpour.

But the presidency’s targeting of Bassem Youssef was described as a “political witch hunt” by UK-based newspaper The Independent this week after his arrest.

In an article questioning whether the comedian’s jokes “went too far,” the newspaper tied in Youssef’s arrest with another set of arrests of Mursi’s prominent opponents.

“Last week, following a series of clashes between anti-government protesters and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s general prosecutor issued arrest warrants for five prominent opponents of Mr. Mursi’s. They included the high-profile blogger Alaa Abdel-Fattah, who was arrested in 2011 and also back in 2006 during the time of Hosni Mubarak.”

Youssef’s arrest has also raised questions over the possibility of a wider censorship of the media, a report from the UK-based newspaper The Guardian noted.

“For several months, the prosecutor-general has summoned journalists for questioning on charges of criminal defamation. But no related legal proceedings have yet been set in motion, which is why this week’s developments have so alarmed the opposition,” the report stated.

With the news reaching across Europe and the rest of the world, comments from France24 on Youssef’s 15,000 Egyptian pound bail release, included a mention of his “irreverent humor” when he arrived wearing an oversized version of the hat Mursi wore in Pakistan.

“Bassem Youssef was even cracking jokes via Twitter even when he was in the prosecutor’s office,” a Cairo correspondent from France24 noted.

Youssef’s tweets via his verified Twitter account included: “Police officers and lawyers at the prosecutor-general’s office want to be photographed with me, maybe this is why they ordered my arrest?”

“Then they asked me: What is the color of your eyes Bassem?” tweeted the green-eyed former physician turned satirist.

Local Egyptian press has generally sided with Youssef, as seen in daily online English-language newspaper Egypt Independent and even state-owned outlets, such as Ahram Online. News reports on comedian’s arrest have been fast and frequent, with protests from Youssef’s supporters also dominating the headlines.

(Source / 03.04.2013)

Authorities arrest 15 suspected militants in North Sinai

The Armed Forces arrested 15 people on Tuesday accused of being members of a militant group that illegally brandished assault weapons and marched parade-style through the North Sinai cities of Rafah and Sheikh Zuwayed two days ago.

In a statement published on the Interior Ministry’s official Facebook page, officials say more than 50 members of a Salafi jihadist group from Egypt and Gaza participated in the marches.

According to reports, the group paraded through the streets driving SUVs and carrying automatic weapons.

Unnamed sources close to military said the Armed Forces will not have mercy on “terrorists in Sinai” or allow militants to wrest control of Sinai.

The military has set up more than 75 mobile and stationary checkpoints across the region along main roads to catch the rest of the Salafi group members.

The sources added that the Armed Forces is using novel technology and specially trained officers to track the militants and tap into their communications network.

Mohamed al-Menei, a sheikh in Sheikh Zuwayed, refuted the claims, saying a senior religious cleric had returned from Cairo, with his family shooting guns on the air to welcome him home.

Sinai has become increasingly restive since Hosni Mubarak was toppled in Egypt’s 2011 revolution.

In August last year, gunmen suspected of being Islamist militants killed 15 Egyptian border guards in an assault on a police station at the border between Egypt and Israel.

(Source / 02.04.2013)

Mursi’s Egypt seeks to keep strong ties with France

CAIRO (AFP) — Egypt wants to maintain close ties with France following the uprising which brought Islamists to power, Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr told AFP on Sunday on the eve of a visit to Paris.

“It’s a message of continuity,” Amr said ahead of the trip during which he will hold talks with President Francois Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Tuesday.

“Relations are based on interests, on strategic cooperation, not depending on who is in power,” he told AFP in an interview.

Amr rejected the idea that the 2011 ouster of Hosni Mubarak, who had been in power for 30 years, and the arrival of a president from the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Mursi, would result in a major change in ties between the two states.

Amr, a career diplomat and foreign minister since July 2011, sought to play down disagreements over France’s military intervention in Mali, after Mursi said in January he would not accept any operation “likely to fuel conflict in the region.”

A senior Brotherhood leader last week also compared the French intervention to those of the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Before using force, we need to exhaust and explore all peaceful means” and treat problems that often have their roots in poverty and under-development, Amr said.

“We are against any effort to overthrow the government by force, we are against any efforts for extremists to overtake any country,” he said.

“But we should also look at these issues in a holistic way, not only military force can solve that problem.”

Amr said that a visit by Mursi to Paris — cancelled in January due to unrest in Egypt — was still on the cards.

On the conflict in Syria, Paris and Cairo see eye to eye, both having firmly called for the ouster of President Bashar Assad, while Paris has proposed arming the Syrian opposition.

Amr said: “The opposition has of course the right to defend themselves, but at the same time we need to strike a balance so as not to contribute to an increase of bloodshed and not lose sight that the solution should be a political solution.”

Turning to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Amr said: “It is time for countries like France, Egypt and others to get together and come up with some creative ideas to really achieve peace on the ground.”

(Source / 31.03.2013)