IHT/DSE: Bar Association calls for political freedom

By Pakinam Amer
First Published: June 10, 2006

Solidarity with detained activists and judges reaffirmed

CAIRO: In a conference hosted by the freedom committee of Egypt’s Bar Association, the opposition, independent political forces and Muslim Brotherhood renewed their criticism of the regime and re-asserted their solidarity with the detained pro-reform activists and the previously prosecuted judges.
“We are convened here today to show that all political forces are united despite differences in beliefs and ideologies,” said Montassir Al-Zayat, prominent Islamist lawyer to a diverse audience from Al-Ghad party, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Socialist party, the Communists, Al-Karama party, Al-Tagamma party, the Labor party and Kefaya (Enough) movement.
“We renew our stand against injustice, tyranny and the regime’s attempt to hide behind ill-reputed laws to justify its acts,” said Al-Zayat, who spoke in a hall filled with poster-sized pictures of recently detained pro-democracy and Muslim Brotherhood leaders and activists. “[We remind this regime] that people do not fight for oppressive governments, as we have seen in Iraq. People only fight for democratic governments.”
Al-Zayat also told the audience that the right to demonstrate and hold gatherings became a reality because of movements like Kefaya and the Muslim Brotherhood. “They snatched this right [out of the government’s hands],” added Al-Zayat. “We should be grateful to [these forces] because of that.”
Nagi Al-Ghatrify, current leader of Al-Ghad, took the stage and brought attention to the case of imprisoned political leader and former Al-Ghad chairman Ayman Nour, sentenced in a forgery case. Al-Ghatrify reminded the audience that Nour is “a political prisoner … and what he did is solely a political crime [in the eyes of the government].” His cause, according to Al-Ghatrify, is no different from the detained activists or the judges’ cause; all being “victims” of the current regime and “[they are] all paying the price of daring to speak against the government.”
Detainment and imprisonment is but the ultimate proof that our people are free, said Hamdein Sabahi, founder of Al-Karama and former upper house member. “Like stars, the names of those detained will shine on forever amid the darkness.”
“[Our] struggle for freedom will not stop with the elimination of the Emergency Laws, or the independence of the judiciary and the press only,” said Sabahi. “But it will go on until we get our social and economic rights back.”
During the conference, a representative of the Freedom Committee read out a letter sent from Tora Mazraa Prison, where the activists are currently held without trial, reportedly in conditions violating prisoner rights laws. The activists, who claim they have been ill treated and are charged with accusations like hampering traffic, gathering without a permit and insulting the president of the state, called on syndicates to organize a wide-scale food strike and sit-in in order to pressure the government to release them.
In their letter, the activists said that they remain strong and that they “will not waver or break even as the regime surrounds us with high walls [in prison].”
“We take our strength from you,” read the letter, directed at the convening opposition and political forces.
Before the conference began, around 30 young activists from the Youth for Change Movement, born out of the ranks of Kefaya, staged a loud protest at the association’s gate. The activists were cordoned off by security police who silently watched the angry demonstrators shout slogans against the regime.
The protestors held dozens of signs, carrying large pictures of previous protests in support of the judges, and pictures of activists being beaten by plainclothes security and surrounded by fully armed riot forces; almost all the images featured some kind of police violence against demonstrators and journalists. The captions that ran with the pictures read, “Release all the detained,” “The judges are Egypt’s only hope” and “[This is] a regime that has lost its mind.”

Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1837