For hours now thousands of Egyptian tweeps followed carefully the tweets of Egyptian journalist Mohamed El Garhy in his account where he posted the alleged leaked Tantawy testimony.
El Garhy is the head of the news department at Tahrir newspaper and he is also the editor in chief of “Manshet” TV show on ONTV. El Garhy did not reveal the source of this testimony “which most probably one of the few lawyers that attended the closed session. He only mentioned that journalist Al Walid Ismail in Tahrir newspaper and Original Dostor website got this alleged testimony made of questions and answers. Ismail covers the trials of the shooting of the protesters.
That leaked alleged testimony is made of 30 questions , there are no details on how asked these questions whether the judge or the prosecution or the defense
Here is the alleged testimony “I repeat Alleged testimony” storified by Tarek Amr and translated by Mosaab El Shami after the break.
Is this the true testimony ? God only knows and the few people who attended the closed session but if this is a true testimony that it is sad despite it does not acquit or incriminate anybody but it clearly shows how the minister of defense in a country like Egypt did not know what was really taking place in one of the most critical moments this nation faced.
The testimony clearly does not acquit or incriminate Mubarak because Tantawy did not know or hear or read anything at that time. If I were a judge and someone said this testimony in front of me , I will disregard it because it is inclusive.
Still It puts the blame indirectly on Habib El Adly and his men.There are certain alleged answers that are so interesting especially regarding the foreign elements from Hezbollah and Hamas in the revolution ,the disgusting theory spread by Mubarak and Omar Soliman’s supporters. As you have seen gave a real answer to this question making it clear that no foreign was arrested at Tahrir square nor that there were foreign elements coming through tunnels from Gaza.
Strangely there are some leaked details from the alleged Soliman where he alleged says that there are foreign elements that killed the protesters. This is the first known contradiction between the alleged two testimonies .
In his alleged answer on the last question , the 30th question where he was asked if the armed forces were asked to disperse the protesters by forces Tantawy allegedly mentioned his famous words in the graduation of the police academy “the same police academy” from couple of months ago :I said during Police Academy graduation ceremony that it
should be know for history that no Army soldier opened fire on people
These words in this speech are used to prove that Tantawy and the army were ordered by Mubarak to disperse the protests by forces. Anyhow according to message No.52 issued by SCAF right after the police academy graduation we find a very interesting paragraph
By the way Tantawy mentioned that there were martyrs from the army that were killed during the revolution , which is true and actually an army officer and one army soldier were killed in the revolution by the police forces as far as we know and up till now we do not know if the policemen that killed them were punished or not.
It is worth to mention that “Ana Asaf Ya Rayas” , the infamous Pro-Mubarak Facebook page was the first to break the gag order in Mubarak’s trial from two week ago when they published the testimony of Omar Soliman before they had to omit it. The admin of the FB page claimed that the Gag order was imposed on the media only and not on Facebook. I think the same thing can applied on twitter as well especially nothing happened to the admins of this group and this is an alleged testimony.
Is it against the court order ? Yes it is but again other broke the gag order yesterday including the following : The Egyptian TV “claimed that Tantawy testified against Mubarak” and Youm 7 “claimed that Tantawy testified in the favor of Mubarak”.
Now personally I believe the Tantawy’s testimony would be leaked sooner or later in order to prove that he did not testify in favor of Mubarak. Yesterday a military source said that all what was published in the media about testimony was untrue. Today we have not heard anything so far. El Garhy is a wise journalist when it comes to breaking a gag order.
Thanks for Tarek , Mosaab and Wild in Heart in their help.
El Garhy is the head of the news department at Tahrir newspaper and he is also the editor in chief of “Manshet” TV show on ONTV. El Garhy did not reveal the source of this testimony “which most probably one of the few lawyers that attended the closed session. He only mentioned that journalist Al Walid Ismail in Tahrir newspaper and Original Dostor website got this alleged testimony made of questions and answers. Ismail covers the trials of the shooting of the protesters.
كانت هذه شهادة المشير فى محاكمة الرئيس المخلوع والفضل الأول والأخير في نشرها ليس لي وإنما للصحفي الموهوب الوليد إسماعيل وكنت مجرد ناقل
محمد الجارحى
mohamedelgarhey
محمد الجارحىmohamedelgarhey
Here is the alleged testimony “I repeat Alleged testimony” storified by Tarek Amr and translated by Mosaab El Shami after the break.
Is this the true testimony ? God only knows and the few people who attended the closed session but if this is a true testimony that it is sad despite it does not acquit or incriminate anybody but it clearly shows how the minister of defense in a country like Egypt did not know what was really taking place in one of the most critical moments this nation faced.
The testimony clearly does not acquit or incriminate Mubarak because Tantawy did not know or hear or read anything at that time. If I were a judge and someone said this testimony in front of me , I will disregard it because it is inclusive.
Still It puts the blame indirectly on Habib El Adly and his men.There are certain alleged answers that are so interesting especially regarding the foreign elements from Hezbollah and Hamas in the revolution ,the disgusting theory spread by Mubarak and Omar Soliman’s supporters. As you have seen gave a real answer to this question making it clear that no foreign was arrested at Tahrir square nor that there were foreign elements coming through tunnels from Gaza.
Strangely there are some leaked details from the alleged Soliman where he alleged says that there are foreign elements that killed the protesters. This is the first known contradiction between the alleged two testimonies .
In his alleged answer on the last question , the 30th question where he was asked if the armed forces were asked to disperse the protesters by forces Tantawy allegedly mentioned his famous words in the graduation of the police academy “the same police academy” from couple of months ago :I said during Police Academy graduation ceremony that it
should be know for history that no Army soldier opened fire on people
Police academy graduation : Tantawy’s speech
The armed forces took the side of the revolution since its start and all the members of SCAF rejected to open fire on the children of this great peopleAccording to this alleged testimony which we do not know if it is true or untrue yet , Tantawy did not say the full truth. Of course I must say that the questions are so pathetic.
By the way Tantawy mentioned that there were martyrs from the army that were killed during the revolution , which is true and actually an army officer and one army soldier were killed in the revolution by the police forces as far as we know and up till now we do not know if the policemen that killed them were punished or not. It is worth to mention that “Ana Asaf Ya Rayas” , the infamous Pro-Mubarak Facebook page was the first to break the gag order in Mubarak’s trial from two week ago when they published the testimony of Omar Soliman before they had to omit it. The admin of the FB page claimed that the Gag order was imposed on the media only and not on Facebook. I think the same thing can applied on twitter as well especially nothing happened to the admins of this group and this is an alleged testimony.
Is it against the court order ? Yes it is but again other broke the gag order yesterday including the following : The Egyptian TV “claimed that Tantawy testified against Mubarak” and Youm 7 “claimed that Tantawy testified in the favor of Mubarak”.
Now personally I believe the Tantawy’s testimony would be leaked sooner or later in order to prove that he did not testify in favor of Mubarak. Yesterday a military source said that all what was published in the media about testimony was untrue. Today we have not heard anything so far. El Garhy is a wise journalist when it comes to breaking a gag order.
Thanks for Tarek , Mosaab and Wild in Heart in their help.
One question, can lawyers of prosecutor and defense ask questions of witnesses in Egypt courts?
ReplyDeleteThe questions doesn't even seem very grilling Matlock-like when they come from judge.
Yes they can , in fact according to alleged leaks from the court he was asked by the defense lawyers
ReplyDeleteI cannot understand people still trust the army
ReplyDeleteOne of my best friends (who is a reserve officer) was summoned by the military governor of his region on January 28th.
He was given live ammunition, armored cars, soldiers and was asked to secure a district and to await orders.
On January 29th, he was ordered by the military governor to shoot the rioters. He refused (he participated to the revolution since January 25th, how could he kill his fellows?) and he told me that all reserve officers were summoned as he was and that they all refused to follow orders and shoot (as well as all the young regular rmy officers who were ordered to shoot too).
On January 30th, feeling there might be a mutiny in the army ranks, the chief-in-command of the armed forces decided to change its position and to be neutral (that is why they did not intervene during the battle of the camel)
However, my friend told me that republican guards followed the orders and killed 11 rioters on 28-29. Dont forget that republican guards are an army corps. he also told me that no one was killed in tahrir by police with live ammunition. (however I know that there are many martyrs killed with live ammunition in Suez and Alexandria). All those killed with live ammunition in Tahrir were killed by the army (including republican guards) not by the police.
What is happening today is a mere masquerade. What a shame !!
With my all due respect to you and to your friend I also got sources and friends here and there in the army from reserve and non reserve as all Egypt does apparently
ReplyDeleteand actually nobody spoke about orders to shoot the protesters from the army but rather orders from the Republican guards.
P.S I have been in Egypt through all the revolution ;)
Tantawy's alleged testimony is crap.. what's worse are the stupid questions asked (hwa emt7an tarbeya kawmeya??? How can a respectable judge ask such questions, and if he did how can he not allow cross examination? In a case like this he should have been grilled till burnt!! There is no doubt that the "Play" is still going on. My fear is that it is a rehearsal for something worse..
ReplyDeleteThe "Alleged" Testimony got me real furious.
On a different note, take a look at this link for The Independent, published Feb 11th. take notice of the paragraph quoted below and tell me what do you think of their credibility (The Independent and Robert Fisk)!!!
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-as-mubarak-clings-on-what-now-for-egypt-2211287.html
"Last night, a military officer guarding the tens of thousands celebrating in Cairo threw down his rifle and joined the demonstrators, yet another sign of the ordinary Egyptian soldier's growing sympathy for the democracy demonstrators. We had witnessed many similar sentiments from the army over the past two weeks. But the critical moment came on the evening of 30 January when, it is now clear, Mubarak ordered the Egyptian Third Army to crush the demonstrators in Tahrir Square with their tanks after flying F-16 fighter bombers at low level over the protesters.
Many of the senior tank commanders could be seen tearing off their headsets – over which they had received the fatal orders – to use their mobile phones. They were, it now transpires, calling their own military families for advice. Fathers who had spent their lives serving the Egyptian army told their sons to disobey, that they must never kill their own people."
What do you think?
Tantawi....same shit different day.
ReplyDelete@Zenobia
ReplyDeleteI can assure you that I heard what I wrote above from several military officers with less details.
One of them is even a regular engineer officer and was ordered to shoot at Tahrir by the HQ of the central district (almante2a elmarkazeya), but he refused (and so did his colleagues).
What happened is that military officers refused to obey, and to avoid a mutiny, the general commander and the chief of staff decided not to oppose revolution.
Thus, it is either that people dont talk about these facts or that people I know lie (and I trust them a lot, since I know them very well)
By the way Zenobia, I heard that "shabab e2telaf elthawra" includes 103 reserve officers that refused to shoot during the revolution.
@Sakr , my dear logically how can an engineer officer would have an order to shoot the protesters !? I think it is not his field even in battles
ReplyDeleteLook if we are going to speak about these days and what happened on who did and who did not , you will have tons and tons of testimonies from both sides .
The "Revolution Youth coalition" RYC was not formed during the first early days of revolution and it does not include officers include reserve based on my knowledge. This is now a rumor with my all respect
The RYC members are mentioned in its FB page
@Zenobia
ReplyDeleteI am quite reluctant to accept the engineer officer story, but I heard it from two engineer officers.
Concerning reserve officers, they are civilians that can be mobilized anytime, so they are members of the coalition as civilians, but they are at the same time reserve officers.
Unfortunately the FB page doesnt reveal all the names, I would be interested to check this point.
"Look if we are going to speak about these days and what happened on who did and who did not , you will have tons and tons of testimonies from both sides ."
I totally agree with you :)
@Zenobia and Sakrquraysh: both of u need to go tell ur army insiders THEY NEED TO GO AND SAY THIS BEFORE THE PROSECUTORS OFFICE OR SUBMIT THEIR STATEMENTS TO THE COURT. Sorry for the caps but Im angry at them, any one who knows the truth and withholding it is part of the problem and participating in the crime of burying the entire case. Tell them they need to do the right thing and that they can punish one or few bt wont be able to punish a dozen or more who went on record PUBLICLY, the ppl will jump in to protect them.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 9/27/2011 06:30:00 AM
ReplyDeleteI did tell one of them to go to the prosecutors, he replied he was going to leave Egypt: the military institution would never allow this.