Recent Appearances...

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Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Africa North

Wary of harming Israel ties, Egypt looks to bury popular praise for border attack

2023-06-14

[IsraelTimes] After deadly incident leaves 3 IDF soldiers dead, Cairo has attempted to prevent gunman Mohammed Salah Ibrahim from being worshiped as a martyr, with limited success

At 4:20 in the afternoon of October 5, 1985, an Egyptian soldier manning a checkpoint in the Red Sea resort town of Ras Burqa raised his gun and began firing into a crowd of Israeli tourists. Seven Israeli civilians, including four children, were slain in the attack. At the time, Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
’s government moved quickly to keep the soldier, Suleiman Khater, from becoming a national hero and jeopardizing the peace treaty with Israel that had been signed only six years before.

Link

Africa North

Egypt 'national dialogue' kicks off with wave of arrests

2023-06-10

[An Nahar] One month into a much-touted program to heal the country's deep political rifts, Egyptian authorities have arrested dozens of dissidents, opposition supporters and football fans in a wave of repression.

That’ll do it, fer shure.

Cairo inaugurated its long-delayed "national dialogue" on May 3, promising to give a platform to opposition voices that have been largely silenced since President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi took office in 2014.

Critics have denounced it as a public relations stunt designed to burnish a dismal human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
record.

The launch coincided with World Press Freedom Day and that same morning authorities arrested journalist Hassan el-Kabbany.

He was released later the same day, with dialogue coordinator Diaa Rashwan saying the detention was an unfortunate case of "mistaken identity".

The public should "distinguish between isolated cases and broader phenomena" such as the opening of space for free expression, Rashwan said.

But the same week, police arrested 16 relatives and supporters of Ahmed al-Tantawi, after the former opposition politician announced he would run in next year's presidential election.

The national dialogue is merely a "maneuver to appear as if they are trying to start a new page, when in fact they are just trying to improve their image," Human Rights Watch's Amr Magdi told AFP.

"There's really no change at all."

- 'TERRORIST' ULTRAS -
In the face of persistent criticism of Egypt's human rights record, Sisi announced plans for the national dialogue in late 2021, followed by the revival of the executive pardons committee in April last year.

Since then, authorities have released 1,000 political prisoners amid much fanfare, but almost 3,000 more have been detained, Egyptian rights monitors said.

In recent weeks, arrests have become more frequent.

On April 22, police detained 20 fans of Al Ahly SC, Africa's most successful football club, during a home game in Cairo, the Egyptian Front for Human Rights (EFHR) said.

The club's ultras played a central role in the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
and have been consistently targeted by authorities.

Calls for fans to burn their supporters' cards and boycott subsequent matches prompted 39 more arrests, the EFHR said.

Police alleged that those detained "belong to the terrorist ultras group" and intended to "vandalize the Cairo stadium", the EFHR added.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

U.S. defense secretary aims to reassure Mideast allies, deliver tough message

2023-03-07

[Shafaq News] U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in Jordan to begin a three-country Mideast visit, is aiming to reassure key allies of American commitment to the region despite Washington's recent focus on Russia and China, officials said, but plans frank messages for leaders of Israel and Egypt.

The Pentagon chief, who arrived in Amman on Sunday, is expected to press Israeli leaders to reduce tensions in the West Bank and work to strength ties in talks with Egyptian leaders while touching on human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
concerns.

"Austin will convey enduring U.S. commitment to the Middle East and provide reassurance to our partners that the United States remains committed to supporting their defense," said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
The United States has about 30,000 troops in the region and is seen as pivotal in helping counter Iranian influence.

Retired U.S. Marine Corp General Frank McKenzie, who headed American forces in the Middle East until last year, said the region is significant to the United States in part because of China's growing role.

"I think this trip is an excellent example of an opportunity to continue to tell people in the theater (region) that they remain important to us," added McKenzie, now leading the University of South Florida's Global and National Security Institute.

Ties between China and Middle Eastern countries have expanded under the region's economic diversification push, raising U.S. concerns about growing Chinese involvement in sensitive infrastructure in the Gulf including in the United Arab Emirates.

The United States last week demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repudiate a call by his hardline Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for a flashpoint Paleostinian village to be "erased" - a comment that Netanyahu on Sunday called "inappropriate." The U.S. State Department has called Smotrich's comment "repugnant."

"He (Austin) will also be quite frank with Israeli leaders about his concerns regarding the cycle of violence in the West Bank and consult on what steps Israeli leaders can take to meaningfully restore calm before the upcoming holidays," the U.S. defense official said.

With the Moslem holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover holiday weeks away, foreign mediators have sought to reduce tensions that rose after Netanyahu regained power at the head of a hard-right coalition.

Austin is poised to send a clear message on the need for Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi to respect human rights, underscoring Washington's concern on the issue.

"I fully expect him to bring up human rights, respect for fundamental freedoms," the U.S. defense official said.

Under Sisi, who as army chief led the 2013 ouster of Egypt's first democratically elected president, there has been a long crackdown on political dissent that has swept up liberal critics as well as Islamists.

The United States has withheld small amounts of military aid to Cairo, citing a failure to meet human rights conditions. Advocacy groups have pushed for more to be held back.

The United States, long an important player in the Middle East, has been preoccupied with other international matters during President Joe The Big Guy Biden
Joe <q>The Big Guy</q> Biden

...46th president of the U.S. Old, boring, a plagiarist, fond of hair sniffing and grabbing the protruding parts of women, and not whatcha call brilliant. Just look at the competent way he dumped Afghanistan...
's administration including Russia's invasion of Ukraine and concern over Chinese military activity near the self-ruled island of Taiwan.

The United States has committed more than $32 billion in weapons to Ukraine including sophisticated air defense systems and tanks.

Mistrust toward the United States among some in the Middle East has built up since the 2011 "Arab Spring" uprisings when Gulf rulers were shocked at how President Barack Obama
My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it...
's administration abandoned the late Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
after a decades-old alliance.

The United States pulled out the last of its troops from Afghanistan in a chaotic withdrawal in 2021, further raising questions in the broader region about Washington's commitment.

Link

Africa North

Egypt says it found large natural gas deposit in eastern Mediterranean

2022-12-22

It would be helpful if Egypt required less outside support just to remain viable economically. Especially when world supplies of natural gas and petroleum are under strain.

[IsraelTimes] Petroleum minister tells parliamentary committee well in Nagris block still being evaluated; energy newsletter reports its size as 3.5 trillion cubic feet

Egypt has formally announced it discovered a large reserve of natural gas in one of its eastern Mediterranean Sea offshore blocks.

Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla told a parliament committee last Thursday that the well — located in the Nargis block — is still being evaluated, Rooters reported Monday.

However,
a woman is only as old as she admits...
the Middle East Economic Survey newsletter earlier this month said the well contains 3.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

The Nargis block is one of four offshore sites in which US energy giant Chevron has operating rights.

Egypt’s extensive natural gas facilities in the Mediterranean have stood largely inactive since the country’s 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
In recent years, the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi rehabilitated and modernized the facilities. In 2018, Egypt signed a $15 billion deal with Israeli company Delek Drilling and its US partner, Noble Energy, to transport natural gas there.

Egypt’s petroleum Minister Tarek el-Molla arrives at the presidential palace for a meeting Nicosia, Cyprus, September 18, 2018. (Petros Karadjias/AP)
Egypt is aiming to position itself as an energy hub and the new Nargis find is expected to contribute to those efforts.

Chevron is also one of the partners in Israel’s Tamar natural gas reservoir, located some 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of Haifa.

Last week, the operating partners announced they had okayed a final investment decision (FID) needed to proceed with the first phase of expanding natural gas production from the Tamar field to meet growing domestic demand and boost exports to Egypt.

Chevron provided details of a two-stage plan aimed at expanding production to about 1.6 billion cubic feet (BCF) of natural gas from the Tamar field to meet Israel’s energy needs and export gas to Egypt and neighboring countries.

In June, Israel, Egypt and the European Union

...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
signed a memorandum of understanding that will see Israel export its natural gas to the bloc for the first time.

The landmark agreement will increase liquified natural gas sales to EU countries, which are aiming to reduce dependence on supply from Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.

The agreement will see Israel send gas via Egypt, which has facilities to liquefy it for export via sea.

Link

-Obits-

Influential Muslim religious leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi dies

2022-09-27

[ShabelleMedia] Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi
...Egyptian Islamic theologian and teevee preacher, well-known for IslamOnline, a website he helped found in 1997 and for which he now serves as chief religious scholar. Al-Qaradawi has also published more than 80 books, including Islam: The Future Civilization. He is considered one of the most influential Moslem Brotherhood scholars living today. Al-Qaradawi is banned from entering the United States, Israel and Great Britain. In 2004, 2,500 Moslem academics from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Paleostine accused him of giving Islam a bad name....
, one of the Sunni Moslem world’s most influential religious scholars, has died.

Al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian who was based in Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
, was the chairman of the International Union of Moslem Scholars, and also a spiritual leader for the Moslem Brüderbund. He was 96 years old.

His death on Monday was announced on his official Twitter account.

Al-Qaradawi, who formerly made regular appearances on Al Jazeera Arabic to discuss religious matters, hosted a popular TV program, "Shariah and Life," in which he took calls from across the Moslem world, dispensing theological rulings and offering advice on everything from global politics to mundane aspects of daily life.

Al-Qaradawi was highly critical of the coup that overthrew Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, in 2013.

Morsi had been a member of the Moslem Brüderbund before he became president, and was backed by the movement.

Al-Qaradawi was unable to return to Egypt following Morsi’s overthrow due to his opposition to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

The religious leader had previously been in exile from Egypt prior to the 2011 revolution that overthrew former President Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
His death sparked strong reactions across the Moslem world, as people took to social media to mourn his death.

The Moslem Brüderbund, which was founded in Egypt and had branches across the region, played a considerable role in the 2011 uprisings that rocked the Middle East and led to widespread demonstrations in several countries across the region.

Al-Qaradawi had been tried and sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt.

Al Jazeera’s Jamal El Shayyal, said Qaradawi authored "more than 120 books and more than 50-60 other publications that spoke to a large section of the global Moslem community".

"He was probably the most internationalised Moslem scholar that Islam had in modern days — probably the single most influential in that he didn’t limit his teachings to a specific section of Islam," he said.

Qaradawi often spoke about modern day issues, including everything from the "permissibility of relationships to elections and democracy to social justice issues," El Shayyal added.

Born in 1926, while Egypt was still under British colonial rule, al-Qaradawi combined religious education with anti-colonial activism during his youth. His activism against the British occupation and later, his association with the Moslem Brüderbund led to his arrest several times during the 1950’s.

He moved to Qatar in the early 1960s when he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Shariah at Qatar University and then later granted Qatari citizenship.

Ibrahim Salah al-Nuaimi, chairman of the Doha international centre for interfaith dialogue, described Qaradawi as a "moderate, great scholar".

"He worked closely with many representatives of different faiths to bring together harmony and to really put down the hate speeches" that would sometime arise between different faiths," al-Nuaimi told Al Jazeera.

One of his early famous works was the 1973 book Fiqh al-Zakat (The Jurisprudence of Zakat). al-Qaradawi also sought to reinterpret historical rules of Islamic law in order to better integrate Moslems in non-Moslem societies.

He supported suicide kabooms against Israel in the Second Intifada and also voiced support for the Iraqi insurgency that erupted after the US-led invasion of 2003 toppled Saddam Hussein. His stance on both issues won him a long standing infamy in the West.

In 2009, Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency accused al-Qaradawi of allocating $21 million to a charity funded by Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw, to set up turban infrastructure in Jerusalem. Hamas, which rules the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip, denied the allegations.
No, no! Certainly not!

Link

Africa North

Explainer: Who is Egypt’s Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya that the US is removing from its terrorism blacklist?

2022-05-17

Expanding on this story from yesterday.

[AlAhram] The US is set to remove five inactive turban groups from its foreign terrorist organizations list, including al-Jamaa al-Islamiya

... the State Department at the moment prefers to spell it Gama’a al-Islamiyya...

...The Islamic Group. Sunni Islamist alignment in Lebanon. The group was founded in 1952 as the Leb branch of the Moslem Brüderbund. Its current leader is Faisal Mawlawi. The party has a military wing known as the al-Fajr Forces. Currently they have 1 seat in the Lebanese Parliament...
, which is blamed for terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds of coppers, civilians and tourists in Egypt.

Active since the late 1970s, the group has been blamed for a campaign of violence in Egypt, especially in the 1990s, and is designated by the country as a terrorist group.

The five groups are expected to be formally removed from the US blacklist next week, the US State Department said in notices to politicians, according to the News Agency that Dare Not be Named.

Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya has been on the US foreign terrorist organizations list over the past 25 years, since 1997. This was the same year that saw a massacre by Islamist bully boyz of 71 people, including tourists, outside the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor.

Although investigations have proved the group members were behind the massacre, the group denied in 2013 its involvement in the attack.

MAJOR ATTACKS
The Egyptian Islamist movement surfaced in the eighties and nineties with a spate of terrorist attacks aimed at overthrowing the regimes of Presidents Anwar El-Sadat and Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
The group is believed to have been involved in the liquidation of President Anwar El-Sadat in 1981 during the commemoration ceremony of the 1973 victory over Israel in the October War.

The group is also believed to have been involved in the liquidation attempt against President Hosni Mubarak in 1995, along with the Islamist group Egyptian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
, and the liquidation of parliament speaker Rifaat El-Mahgoub in 1990.

Other terrorist operations have also been blamed on the group, including the murder of well-known columnist Farag Foda in 1992. In 1996, the group killed several Greek tourists mistaken for Israelis outside the Europa Hotel in Cairo.

Following years of confrontations with security forces, the Islamist group's presence has been barely felt over the past decades.

In the late nineties, the group launched a non-violence initiative, where its members formally renounced violence and bloodshed.

Following the 2011 revolution, the group took the political route, establishing El-Benaa Wel Tanmia (Building and Development) political party. However,
women are made to be loved, not understood...
the Supreme Administrative Court issued a final ruling in 2020 to dissolve the party and confiscate its funds for funding terrorist groups.

Link

Africa North

Egypt arrests 13 teenage boys after video of them ‘harassing two female tourists' at the Giza Pyramids sparked outrage

2022-05-11

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Egyptian boys practicing to be that extra special kind of Egyptian man.

A video surfaced on social media showing teenagers harassing female tourists

The young women were visiting the Giza Pyramids in the Egyptian capital Cairo

The boys jeer at the women and some press close to them as they try to get away

According to a statement from the prosecutor's office, the arrested boys are between 13 and 15 years old. The statement did not provide any details on the women tourists.

If charged, the boys will be tried before a juvenile court.

Visitors to the Pyramids at Giza and other famous archaeological sites in Egypt are routinely approached and followed by young men offering tours, souvenirs, carriage or camel rides.

The problem of sexual harassment in Egypt gained worldwide attention during and after the 2011 uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak, when women were harassed, groped - and in some cases, beaten and sexually assaulted - during mass anti-government protests.

In recent years, women inspired by the #MeToo movement have spoken out on social media about the problem.

Authorities have increased penalties for sexual harassment, which is now punishable with up to five years in prison.

They have also intensified efforts to combat harassment and aggressive touts at tourist sites.

Related: Al Ahram has more on this event which occurred a few days ago.

Link

Africa North

PA leader's son accused of aiding terrorism released from Egyptian jail

2022-01-08

Much more about this story from a few days ago.

[Jpost] Ramy Shaath, 50, was arrested in 2019 together with several Egyptian activists and businessmen on suspicion of assisting a terrorist group: the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Egyptian authorities have freed Egyptian-Palestinian rights activist Ramy Shaath after more than 900 days of arbitrary detention, a statement from Shaath's family said on Saturday.

Shaath, who was a member of several secular political groups in Egypt and a co-founder of Egypt's pro-Palestinian BDS movement, had been forced to renounce his Egyptian citizenship and was on his way to France, his family said.

"If we are glad that the Egyptian authorities heard our call for freedom, we regret that they forced Ramy to renounce his Egyptian citizenship as a precondition for his release that should have been unconditional," the family statement said.

"No one should have to choose between their freedom and their citizenship."

Shaath, 50, a co-founder of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Egypt, is the son of Nabil Shaath, a former Palestinian Authority foreign minister and veteran member of the Palestinian leadership.

He was arrested in 2019 together with several Egyptian activists and businessmen on suspicion of assisting a terrorist group, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, in the case known as Al-Amal (Hope) Cell.

He also faced charges of disseminating false news about political and economic conditions in Egypt.

The younger Shaath is on his way to France, where he will join his wife, French national Celine Lebrun, who was deported from Egypt after her husband’s arrest, according to Palestinian and Egyptian sources.

An Egyptian court had added Shaath and 12 defendants linked to Al-Amal Cell to Egypt’s terrorism list for a period of five years.

“[Muslim] Brotherhood fugitive leaders, including Mahmoud Fathi, Ahmed Mohammed Abdel Hadi and Ali al-Sayed Ahmed, plotted to provide financial support [to the defendants] for their hostile actions against the Egyptian state with the aim of harming national interest and economic security and carrying out aggressive actions against the army and the police,” the court ruled.

The Brotherhood leaders allegedly recruited Shaath and other activists and provided them with weapons and firearms to carry out schemes against the Egyptian authorities, according to the court.

Shaath, who was born in Lebanon, moved to Cairo with his family in 1977, his family said in a statement after his arrest.

“He dedicated his entire life to the defense of Palestinian rights and to freedom and justice in the region,” the statement said.

“He served as a political and strategic consultant to former PA president Yasser Arafat,” it said. “From Cairo, he played an active role in the negotiations for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state; after the negotiations failed, he withdrew from politics in the late 1990s.

“Much later, in 2010 as a movement for democracy and social justice was growing in Egypt, Ramy joined the coalition of activists who led the popular uprising that led to the ousting of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.”

The family accused the Egyptian authorities of “persecuting Ramy for many years for his public positions against all forms of political repression in Egypt, as well as his defense of Palestinian rights against Israeli occupation and apartheid.”

Link

Africa North

US ‘disappointed’ as Egypt jails key revolution figure Abdel Fattah for 5 years

2021-12-22

Responding to this story from yesterday.

[IsraelTimes] Blogger, his lawyer and fellow blogger Mohammed ’Oxygen’ Ibrahim all sent to prison; Washington says freedom of expression should be secure without fear of criminal penalties.

Egypt on Monday sentenced Alaa Abdel Fattah, a leading figure in the 2011 revolution, to five years in jail, with two others receiving four years, his sister and a judicial source said.

A computer programmer, blogger and high-profile activist who mobilized youths in the uprising that unseated autocrat Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
, Abdel Fattah had been in pre-trial detention since September 2019.

Abdel Fattah, his lawyer Mohammed al-Baqer and blogger Mohammed "Oxygen" Ibrahim were convicted of "broadcasting false news" in their trial in Cairo.

Washington, which has already frozen 10 percent of its aid to Egypt over repeated rights violations, said it was "disappointed" by the sentence.

"Journalists, human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
defenders, and others seeking to peacefully exercise their freedom of expression should be able to do so without facing criminal penalties, intimidation, harassment, or any other form of reprisal," said US State Department front man Ned Price.

The Committee to Protect Journalists decried Monday’s ruling as "unacceptable."

The verdict "demonstrates the lengths to which authorities are willing to go to punish these journalists for their work," said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa Coordinator.

CPJ considers bloggers as engaging in journalism.

"Both journalists have already spent several years in prison on bogus charges, and authorities must release them immediately and unconditionally," Mansour added.

BEHIND BARS AGAIN
Pre-trial detention can last two years under Egyptian law, but in practice, detainees are often kept waiting behind bars longer.

Abdel Fattah was arrested in the wake of rare night-time protests prompted by an exiled construction contractor calling for the removal of Sissi on claims of corruption.

Baqer and Ibrahim were also detained in a massive crackdown.

Abdel Fattah has spent most of the past decade in jail at Tora, one of the country’s most notorious prisons, after previous convictions.

His mother, mathematics professor Laila Soueif, wrote in a New York Times

... which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
opinion piece published on Saturday that "the outside world, once so inspired by the Egyptian revolutionaries, is looking away.

"His crime is that, like millions of young people in Egypt and far beyond, he believed another world was possible. And he dared to try to make it happen."

Prolific writer Abdel Fattah’s critically acclaimed essay collection "You Have Not Yet Been Defeated" was published in October.

"At its fundamental core, his writing is attached to justice," Soueif told AFP in October when the book was released.

Rights groups say Egypt is holding some 60,000 political prisoners, many facing brutal conditions and overcrowded cells.

In a 2019 interview with the show 60 Minutes on US broadcaster CBS, Sissi said there were no political prisoners in Egypt.

The former army chief became president in 2014 after leading the military ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi a year earlier.

He has since overseen a sweeping crackdown on dissent. Those incarcerated
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
for criticizing the political status quo have included academics, journalists, lawyers, activists, comedians, Islamists, presidential candidates and former MPs.

Link

Africa North

Acting Muslim Brotherhood leader Mahmoud Ezzat sentenced to life in prison for espionage

2021-12-20

The hellish process continues.

[AlAhram] A Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Mahmoud Ezzat — the acting supreme guide of the Moslem Brüderbund — in a retrial on Sunday to life in prison for collaborating with the Paleostinian group Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", and other foreign organizations and disclosing information pertaining to Egypt’s national security.

According to the prosecution’s investigation on the case that dates back to 2013, Ezzat, along with others, is charged with committing acts that undermine the independence, unity, and territorial integrity of the country.

A life sentence in Egypt carries 25 years in jail.

The official charges levelled against the defendants are communicating with foreign organizations with the aim of committing terrorist acts inside the country and financing terrorism to achieve the purposes of the international organization formally known as the Moslem Brüderbund.

Investigations showed that the defendants cooperated with elements affiliated with a terrorist group in Sinai and qualified others to spread rumors to influence public opinion.

Ezzat, who was arrested in 2020, was first handed a death sentence

...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead...
in absentia in 2015.

Under Egyptian law, in absentia convictions must be re-tried once the defendant is apprehended.

Today’s ruling against Ezzat, who is currently standing trial in other cases, can be appealed.

The Times of Israel adds:

Ezzat was arrested in August 2020 in Cairo, after being on the run for several years.

In April 2021, he was sentenced to life imprisonment on terrorism charges in a separate case.

In 2015, Ezzat was sentenced in absentia to death, as well as given life imprisonment, after being found guilty of having supervised the killing of soldiers and government officials.

He was accused of involvement in the murder of the state prosecutor Hisham Barakat, who died in hospital after a boom-mobile tore through his convoy in Cairo in 2015.

The Brotherhood was blacklisted in Egypt in 2013 and deemed a terrorist group, months after the army overthrew Morsi who hailed from the movement.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi was defense minister when Morsi was removed from power.

Founded in 1928, the Brotherhood later established itself as the main Islamist opposition movement in Egypt, and spread regionally with ardent offshoots from Tunisia to ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
<del>The Sick Man of Europe</del> Turkey

<del>The Sick Man of Europe</del> Turkey

...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
Ezzat is reported to have joined the Brotherhood in the 1960s, and spent time in jail under Egypt’s late presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...

Link

Africa North

Egypt’s openness to expanded Israel ties on full display during Lapid visit

2021-12-13

[IsraelTimes] Sissi sees Israel as a regional economic and security partner, but true normalization is not on the way

An alliance of convenience between natural enemies against more urgent threats? Better than the overtly cold peace they had before, I suppose...

It is abundantly clear Egypt is approaching its relationship with Israel differently today than it did for most of Benjamin Netanyahu’s tenure as prime minister.

Then-president Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...

Link

Africa North

New trial opens for leading figure of Egypt 2011 revolt

2021-10-19

[IsraelTimes] A leading figure in Egypt’s 2011 revolution, blogger Alaa Abdel-Fattah, appears in court along with two other co-defendants at the start of a new trial, his defense team says.

Abdel-Fattah, his lawyer Mohammed al-Baqer and another blogger, Mohammed Ibrahim, face charges of "broadcasting false news" in their trial before the State Security Misdemeanours Court in Cairo.

Rulings in the exceptional courts are final and cannot be appealed.

The next hearing in the case was set for November 1, their lawyer Khaled Ali tells AFP.

Abdel-Fattah, a computer programmer and prominent figure in the uprising that toppled former autocrat Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
, has been in pre-trial detention since September 2019.

He was arrested in the wake of rare, nighttime protests prompted by an exiled construction contractor calling for the removal of President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi on claims of corruption.

His lawyer Baqer and Ibrahim, also known as "Oxygen," were also detained in a massive crackdown.

Abdel-Fattah has spent most of the past decade in jail.

Mr. Abdel-Fattah was arrested in September 2019, six months after he was released after serving a five-year sentence for protesting without a permit in violation of a 2013 law. In Egypt prison is a lifestyle concept.
Another Times of Israel article adds:

Rights groups say there are some 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt facing brutal unhygienic conditions and overcrowded cells.

In a 2019 interview with 60 Minutes on CBS, Sissi said there were no political prisoners in Egypt.

The former army chief became president in 2014 after leading the military ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi a year earlier.

He has since overseen a sweeping crackdown on dissent.

Those jailed for criticizing the political status quo have included academics, journalists, lawyers, activists, comedians, Islamists, presidential candidates, and MPs.

Link

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