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| Africa North |
| Blogger Remanded in Custody over Deadly Copt Clashes |
| 2011-10-31 |
| [An Nahar] The military prosecutor's office on Sunday remanded in jug a blogger accused of inciting violence during an October 9 demonstration by Coptic Christians in Egypt's capital, a rights group said. Alaa Abdul Fattah was remanded in jug for 15 days, Gamal Eid, head of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, told Agence La Belle France Presse. He also stands accused of vandalism during the demonstration which degenerated into festivities with security forces in which 25 people were killed, most of them Copts protesting over the burning of a church in southern Egypt. Eid said the young man was remanded in jug after having refused to undergo questioning by the military prosecution on the grounds that the military itself was implicated in the case. "There's a campaign to go after activists," charged Eid, who said that a second activist, Bahaa Taher, underwent questioning by the prosecution after Abdul Fattah's case. Coptic witnesses said they were fired upon by soldiers during a protest march and that several people were killed when armored vehicles ran over and crushed them. The army denies charges of having used excessive force and says three of its soldiers were rubbed out, but it has also been criticized for putting civilians on trial in military courts. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 Notice how the MSM of any country almost never gives the name of the blog in a blogger story -- professional discourtesy, I guess. (He's on Wikipedia, of course.) |
| Posted by: Pollyandrew 2011-10-31 15:31 |
| #2 Wow. I can't believe someone got that on tape, Eohippus. Simply evil. |
| Posted by: Jeque Hupairong2828 2011-10-31 12:13 |
| #1 blogger accused of inciting violence during an October 9 demonstration by Coptic Christians in Egypt's capital Alaa was called in for investigation last week in light of the Maspiro events in Cairo, where 27 people died and many more were injured after the army cracked down on a Christian-majority demonstration. Alaa was very active in the aftermath of these tragic events, and spent two days at the morgue alongside other activists in solidarity with the victimsÂ’ families, while trying to convince them to agree to autopsies and trying to make sure the reports of the autopsies are correctly documented. Alaa wrote a very moving piece of that experience in Al Shorouk newspaper (a translation of which can be found here) in which he repeatedly reminded everyone that solidarity is the way out of any problems in Egypt. Alaa was in San Francisco when he was called to the investigation last week. His father, veteran human rights lawyer Ahmed Seif El Islam Abdel Fattah, appeared in court and asked for the case to be postponed. Alaa came back to Cairo on Saturday afternoon and appeared in court on Sunday morning. The military prosecutor has filed five charges against him including demonstrating, inciting to demonstrate, assaulting military personnel, destroying public property, and stealing military weapons. Alaa, whose sister Mona Seif (@monasosh) is one of the founders of the No to Military Trials for Civilians group, insisted to be interrogated before a civic judge, especially in light of the fact that the army is facing law suits accusing it as a defendant in the same case, which constitutes a clear conflict of interest. He was detained as a result pending further military investigation. --- Shocking video of Egyptian armored-vehicle "mowing down" Christian civilians |
| Posted by: Eohippus Phater7165 2011-10-31 10:04 |