Yesterday the appeal of April 6 Youth Movement founders Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel as well activist Ahmed Douma against the three years in jail sentence for breaking the protest law was rejected.
Yes officially Ahmed Maher , Mohamed Adel and Ahmed Douma will spend three years in jail and pay LE 50,000 as a fine for breaking the protest law. Of course there is a third degree appeal in front of the criminal court , the three will have to do it to but it will many years, many years more than their original sentence !!
Sadly enough April 6 Youth movement was just celebrating the anniversary of its founding one day before rejecting the appeal. You know somehow I expected this to happen but somehow I had a hope after the release of Alaa Abdel Fatah and the Maadi 25 January 3rd anniversary detainees.
Now I can not ignore what happened yesterday when Ahmed Douma’s wife Nourhan Hafzy led a group of women activists to have a sit in at the Presidential palace. Hafzy and the rest activists had one demand to presidency : To nullify the protest law.
The sit in including women activists like Nourhan Hafzy , Mona Seif , Sanaa Seif , Rasha Azab and Laila Soueif. I cannot ignore that Nourhan Hafzy is playing one hell of role in this crisis that can not be ignored. Of course she is mocked and attacked by both Pro-El Sisi and Pro-MB at the same time.
The sit in was suspended hours later in the evening. According to Hafzy it was suspended because there would be other ways of escalations.
It is worth to mention that despite the sit in was suspended yet the TV hosts are insisting that it is still on and that the Muslim Brotherhood is behind it. Yup despite it is suspended and it was organized by those who were standing against the brotherhood. The TV hosts also are attacking Alaa Abdel Fatah madly in the past 48 hours.
They are mad because it was the first attempt of revolutionary Pro-democracy Non Islamist activists to have a sit in after Rabaa Sit in.
Despite that the suspension of the sit in , political parties and movements like Constitution Party and April 6 Youth movement announced that they would start organizing events like human chains and protests against the Protest law. The first event will be next Thursday. This is a good move. Anyhow better late than never , I believe that the parties and activists should start work for real to bring down that law.
Part of my brain is telling me that Maher , Adel and Douma will be pardoned by the president but not by interim president Mansour but by president El Sisi , he will pull a Mubarak move and pardon bunch of political detainees to show that supports democracy and so on.
I will not speak about protesters and activists but I will speak about the simple citizens whose misfortune brought them by accident in to the protests and rallies being dispersed by police.These people are suffering and they have to be released. There are countless examples in my mind.
Also I can not ignore the fact that all the media is focusing on activist Douma and is forgetting the other two activists jailed with him “Adel and Maher”. Of course they are ignoring Adel and Maher because they are the co-founders of April 6 Youth Movement, the bad April 6 Youth Movement !!
I wish they pay attention to Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel in the same way they pay attention to Douma.
My position is clear : I am totally against the Protest law.I do not want any president to pardon the trio. I want that stupid law to be cancelled.
A trivial fact : From 100 years ago British occupation issued the first Protest law to ban protests in Egypt.
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| Maher and Douma behind bars |
Sadly enough April 6 Youth movement was just celebrating the anniversary of its founding one day before rejecting the appeal. You know somehow I expected this to happen but somehow I had a hope after the release of Alaa Abdel Fatah and the Maadi 25 January 3rd anniversary detainees.
Now I can not ignore what happened yesterday when Ahmed Douma’s wife Nourhan Hafzy led a group of women activists to have a sit in at the Presidential palace. Hafzy and the rest activists had one demand to presidency : To nullify the protest law.
The sit in including women activists like Nourhan Hafzy , Mona Seif , Sanaa Seif , Rasha Azab and Laila Soueif. I cannot ignore that Nourhan Hafzy is playing one hell of role in this crisis that can not be ignored. Of course she is mocked and attacked by both Pro-El Sisi and Pro-MB at the same time.
It is worth to mention that despite the sit in was suspended yet the TV hosts are insisting that it is still on and that the Muslim Brotherhood is behind it. Yup despite it is suspended and it was organized by those who were standing against the brotherhood. The TV hosts also are attacking Alaa Abdel Fatah madly in the past 48 hours.
They are mad because it was the first attempt of revolutionary Pro-democracy Non Islamist activists to have a sit in after Rabaa Sit in.
Despite that the suspension of the sit in , political parties and movements like Constitution Party and April 6 Youth movement announced that they would start organizing events like human chains and protests against the Protest law. The first event will be next Thursday. This is a good move. Anyhow better late than never , I believe that the parties and activists should start work for real to bring down that law.
Part of my brain is telling me that Maher , Adel and Douma will be pardoned by the president but not by interim president Mansour but by president El Sisi , he will pull a Mubarak move and pardon bunch of political detainees to show that supports democracy and so on.
I will not speak about protesters and activists but I will speak about the simple citizens whose misfortune brought them by accident in to the protests and rallies being dispersed by police.These people are suffering and they have to be released. There are countless examples in my mind.
Also I can not ignore the fact that all the media is focusing on activist Douma and is forgetting the other two activists jailed with him “Adel and Maher”. Of course they are ignoring Adel and Maher because they are the co-founders of April 6 Youth Movement, the bad April 6 Youth Movement !!
I wish they pay attention to Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel in the same way they pay attention to Douma.
My position is clear : I am totally against the Protest law.I do not want any president to pardon the trio. I want that stupid law to be cancelled.
A trivial fact : From 100 years ago British occupation issued the first Protest law to ban protests in Egypt.
Well, let's see. So far the big powerful revolutionary April 6 has called for a march on April 6, which it canceled, then for a sit-in which lasted about half a day before that got canceled too. That's really got the military government on the ropes. If you push hard and cancel the human chains, maybe you'll topple another government and replace it a clone of Hitler. Seems like it would fit the pattern. :P
ReplyDeleteDear Zenobia
ReplyDeleteI have to express my deep respect for your opinions and the person you are.
I hope egypt would, someday, be lucky to have many real patriots like you.
Just to let you know i trust almost everything you have to say, and sometimes i retweet your tweets even before i read the content.
May Allah keeps you always safe and on the right path.
On Monday April 7, 2014 we Went to VOTE..
ReplyDeleteWe Simply Removed The Goverenment We Did not like, Now We Have NEW Government We Are Happy With.
Yaaaaah, This Is In Quebec, Canada.
When Political Changes Will Be So Simple In Egypt..... ?
The strike wave is going to be a key aspect of challenging the government and its long-lasting socio-economic order. Supporting and fostering these demands represent an opportunity for revolutionary movements to challenge and eventually overturn the "official" fantasy-land narrative. Remember, the 2008 Mahalla strike was a key event in initiating Egyptian revolutionism. Egypt will never be stable as long as it remains despotic and mired in a parasitic economic structure that twists everything toward helping the political elite. Thus, the strike waves literally cannot end while this government remains in power, as it will obviously never implement real reform or freedom. It may be possible to have temporary truces or briefly patch up things with lies/false agreements, but definitely no stability.
ReplyDeleteA terrible clash over Egypt's economic problems and structure is looming in the near future. If the revolutionaries do what powerful democratic movements did in other countries and present an organized and persuasive alternative vision, they can start building up more and more support at the expense of the military and other autocratic elements.
Abolishing the inane protest law is also a key goal, as there simply cannot be meaningful elections or democratic action with it in place, as well as to free the prisoners. But far more will also have to be done as well.