Egyptian justice Contradictions

While famous figures like Mamdouh Ismail and Dr. Hani Surour who are members of the National Democratic party (which is headed by the president Mubarak), and many other members went to court in a variety of corruption and even manslaughter as in the ferry case, or like the case of contaminated blood bags, where a similar verdict of innocence were issued last month, it was related to Dr. Hani Surour, member of NDP and MP, as well as his sister and 5 others, having been accused of providing contaminated blood bags to hospitals which were known in the media as Hidelina case. All of those who are considered close to the president and government or hold powerful positions are never found guilty. And even if they did, the way to escape abroad is open to them. In the same time any members of the opposition are put in prison for expressing their views under a variety of false accusations, and even if they were declared innocent by the court of law the government refuse to comply and keep them detained under the claim that they are dangerous to the national security.

Or even like in the case of the Muslim brotherhood leaders where they were declared innocent of all charges twice yet the president ordered them to face one more unfair military trial which issued a prison verdict for the majority of them.

The message is clear, if you close to the president and the government you can do any thing and no one can touch you. However if you try to fight the corruption and say no to the oppression then you are a threat to the national security.

I guess this is the kind of justice we can expect from a dictatorship system, and as long as the people stay hushed and in fear not to rise against this corrupted system we will see a lot more of this justice that protects only the powerful.

Court acquits Egyptian ferry owner

An Egyptian criminal court has found the owner of a Red Sea ferry not guilty of manslaughter over the deaths of more than 1,000 passengers in an accident in 2006, court sources say.

Mamdouh Ismail, a member of Egypt's upper house of parliament at the time of the disaster, was tried in absentia because he left for the UK after the ferry disaster.
The Al Salam 98 ferry caught fire and sank en route to Egypt from Saudi Arabia in February 2006, claiming the lives of 1,034 of the roughly 1,400 people on board.
The court also acquitted four other defendants in Sunday's verdict, including Ismail's son.
The court, however, sentenced a sixth defendant, the captain of another ferry, to six months in prison for failing to take steps to save survivors.
Accusations
Ismail had been accused of contributing to manslaughter by failing to inform the authorities as soon as he heard of a problem aboard the ferry.
In video

However, he said that no one on the vessel contacted either him or his company when the fire broke out.
Egyptian authorities first heard of the disaster many hours after the fire broke out.
In 2006 a committee investigating the sinking widened the blame to include the state of Panama, under whose flag the boat was sailing.
A parliamentary report on the disaster blamed Ismail for serious violations of safety regulations.
It said the ferry had forged safety certificates, the life rafts and fire extinguishers were unfit for use and the ship did not have enough winches to lower rafts into the sea.
Egyptian authorities lifted a freeze on Ismail's assets in 2006 and removed him and his family from the list of people banned from travelling abroad after he paid about $57 million into a compensation fund for victims of the disaster.

'Shocking' verdict
Mohammed Ali Hassan, the lawyer representing the family of the victims, said that the court's verdict came as a shock to the families.
The Al Salam 98 ferry caught fire and sank [YVAN PERCHOC/AFP]"It seems that the court's judge completely ignored our prosecution committee report and the reasons announced with the verdict completely contradicted it," he said.
Hassan said the incident was the biggest accidental homicide case in the history of Egypt, "and despite all of this, the defence lawyers were acquitted," he said.
The defence lawyers will meet to discuss the verdict and to take appropriate action.
"I think the prosecution will appeal," Hassan said.
Al Jazeera's Amr el-Kahky in Hurghada, said: "Families gathered since early morning outside the courthouse, and after two and a half years, they gathered for the 22nd time and today they received a shocking verdict".
The families of the victims accused the government of masterminding the exoneration of the owner who operated the company "because he is an influential figure in the ruling National Democratic Party and is well connected with influential politicians in Egypt," he said.
Kahky said that families who gathered in front of the courthouse were those "who refused to be paid compensation from the Italian company that owned the ferry. Rather they hoped they would see someone responsible for the loss of many lives".
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/07/200872794038702694.html

Arrest of 26 of 6 April Movement by SSI

On the memory of the Egyptian revolution in 23 July. A new crime that is not strange to the system of repression of the Egyptian government. A group of the SSI (State Security Investigation) system dressed in civilian clothes attacked a group of young activists belonging to the “6 April” youth movement , “Solidarity Movement” and members of Al-Ghad Party and the Democratic Front Party.

They were on one of the shores of the city of Alexandria where the young people gathered to spend a recreational time, after they finished a symposium organized by Al-Ghad Party in Alexandria in conjunction with the 6 April youth movement and the solidarity movement for the release of political detainees in Egyptian prisons. After they left the symposium they started singing a series of national songs, raising the national flag of Egypt wearing white shirts with the word 6 April youth printed over it, they also tried to fly a kite with the Egyptian flag colours; however this was considered a crime of threatening the public security by the SSI officers. One of SSI officers run over the flag and shredded it, and a group of thugs of the SSI wearing civilian clothes attacked the youths beating them, using electric shocks and they sprayed them with some kind of a strange spray that some of them lost conscious afterwards.
About 26 young men and one girl were taken by a police car to one of the headquarters of the State Security Investigation, The girl was released later in the same day.
The arrested youth reported that they were beaten in several occasions. Their lawyers were banned from attending the interrogation of the youth who have not been released so far.
we in the 6 April youth movement call for the immediate release of Our colleagues as they have not committed any wrongdoing but that they loved their country and sang songs in love of their country, but that was considered a crime of threatening the national security of Egypt.

These are some of the names of the detainees :
Adel Khalid
Maheanor el Masry
Youssef Shaaban
Basem Fathi,
Amr Aly
Mustafa Maher
Nour el dine Sobhi
Medhat Shaker
Muaatasem ballah Mohamed
Tarek Tito
Mohamed Mahmoud
Ahmed Nassar
Ahmed Afifi
Ahmed Maher
Mohamed Refaat

Egypt's Facebook Face Off

While it's supposed to be a social networking site, Facebook has become the front line tool for the country's struggling democracy movement, as Sophie McNeill reports.

Young democracy activists have flocked to the social networking site, to choreograph widespread protests against President Hosni Mubarrak's 27-year rule.It's the perfect tool for them to voice their opinions, especially in a country that outlaws gatherings of more than five people. With the use of blog sites, Facebook and YouTube, their messages can now be projected globally.“They were horrified by Facebook because it was something totally new that they could not control,” says Nadia, a key promoter of a recent day-long general strike in which three protestors were shot dead and 400 were jailed, including her.McNeill manages to track down one of the co-creators of the Facebook page that promoted the recent strike. He's on the run from threats of imprisonment and rape. A few days later, he is dragged off the street by plain-clothed police to be detained and beaten at security headquarters. Upon his release he says;“All the questions were about people who were members of the Facebook group…this issue of the password made them take off my trousers…saying they would rape me…They were saying ‘think we can’t catch you? We can’. And they wanted to close the Facebook group and control the whole thing.”

http://news.sbs.com.au/dateline/egypt39s_facebook_face_off_550575

Egypt's Facebook Face Off - Egypt

For over 27 years President Mubarak has ruled with an iron fist. With protests and strikes forbidden, activists are finding new ways to fight for democracy. Through Facebook, protestors can now find a voice.