DSE: Violence during judges’ protests dominates independent press

By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 16, 2006

CAIRO: The aftermath of protests in support of prosecuted judges is still making headlines in independent and opposition papers.

“Egypt trampled by security police,” read Al-Fajr’s front page.

“The truncheon of the regime will not stop reform … we are beyond disciplining,” Al-Osbou’s headline quoted veteran journalist Muhammad Hassanein Heikal as saying.

In his weekly column, writer and upper house member Mustafa Bakri recounted the events of last Thursday, when hundreds of Egyptian pro-reform activists staged protests in front of the Supreme Court, near the Bar Association and inside the Judges Club.

The police dispersed the protestors using batons and heavy clubs, and around 250 activists supporting the judges’ cause were rounded-up and detained in Tora Mazraa Prison, near Cairo. Security also reportedly harassed and beat reporters, confiscating a video camera from an Al-Jazeera reporter and breaking another.

The protests come after two judges, Mahmoud Mekki and Hisham Al-Bastawisy, were given disciplinary hearings prior to a trial. The judges had allegedly leaked information to the press as they were supervising last year’s presidential elections.

Activists, however, believe they are being prosecuted because the two deputies to the cassation court took a stand and outlined what they considered “fraud” in the electoral process. The judges accused the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) of thuggery and said they were responsible for the violence that marred the process. The judges had also demanded full independence, threatening to boycott all forthcoming elections if their demands were not granted.

“When I went home after the protests, I felt suppressed; a state that every Egyptian must have been experiencing at that moment,” said Bakri, commenting on the violence used by Egyptian police forces and security units. “Now in grief, we ask ourselves: How can we protect the country and the people? How can we end this crisis that has overwhelmed us?”

A photo of a plain-clothed security officer kicking an activist in the face, as the latter lay curled up on the ground, accompanied Bakri’s column. The caption read: “Reform … in its latest fashion.”

Independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported a related incident where 90 upper house members left the latest parliament session in anger after the parliament head, Ahmed Fathi Sorour, refused to discuss events on what members called “Black Thursday.”

During the session, some members displayed poster-size pictures of police forces beating up demonstrators; visually citing what they consider “the extreme violations” of the security units. The members said that it was the parliament’s duty to issue reports concerning these incidents. According to the paper, one Muslim Brotherhood member even shouted in Sorour’s face, and called the NDP “unjust.”

Also according to Al-Masry Al-Youm, another Muslim Brotherhood member, Hussein Ibrahim, told the press that the “regime, thus, does not respect any human rights laws.”

“The government does not even respect the Emergency Law, because the Emergency Law does not give the police units the authority to brutally humiliate people in the streets and beat them with shoes.”

Meanwhile, the national papers’ front pages feature government-related updates and news of the latest match between the two rival clubs Al-Ahly and Zamalek with, Al-Ahly winning 2–0.

Al-Ahram also reported that President Hosni Mubarak is due to meet members of the NDP’s parliamentarian committee in five different governorates, starting next week.

“In response to the demands of citizens, the president issues important and critical decisions,” read one of Al-Ahram’s main headlines. “Water will reach middle Sinai to irrigate 140 feddans of agricultural lands, LE 110 million will be dedicated to water facilities in Areesh, Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid, [and] a fishing city worth LE 30 million will be constructed on the Ezbet Al-Burg coast.”

Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1523