Mohamed ElGohary

Other Coverages:

1. Nawara Negm (Arabic, including videos from the trial)
2. Ahmed Abdul Fattah (Arabic)
3. Wael Abbas (Arabic)
4. Takhareefy (Arabic)
5. Sokoot Hansawat (Arabic)
6. Egypt WatchMan (Arabic)

new coverages will follow.

I went to the court to attend the trial of Captain Islam Nabih and Corporal Reda Fat'hi who are accused of torturing and sodomizing driver Emad ElKebeer, I arrived at the High Judicial House at 10:00 am then walked around until the beginning of the trial. Then I found Ahmed Abdel Fattah walking around. On our entrance the security on the door of the hall asked us who we were, we told him journalists and we forgot our IDs. We entered then witnessing two trials of obviously false law-suits (confession under torture). Then came another 2 bloggers, Sokoot Hansawat and Mariam. After them at 11:30 came the infamous Islam with nearly a dozen of black-suited soldiers distributing them in a weird way, seemly to put obstacles in front of the video cameras or something. Also I wanted to record that the security prevented any media existence nearly 10 meters near Islam, to the extent that the security shouted at a photographer to get away.

When the trial started, the team of lawyers defending Islam kept attacking the Human Rights organisations, accusing them with the infamous accusation of defaming Egypt's reputation, and getting foreign funds (as if the government never gets them with huge amounts). They also accusing them with that they do not care about the Human Rights but just use them for the sake of their benefits.

And from what is mentioned that these organisations wanted to prevent Egypt from having a seat in the United Nations Human Rights Council.

And to prevent people from thinking that this team is attacking the idea of promoting Human Rights, they handled in (ironically) a paper signed from some judges (as far as I can remember) and was supposed to be published in the national newspapers, as a call to the Egyptian People's Assembly to issue a law to ban foreign funding, esp from USA. (really Ironic, Egypt is the second country getting aid from USA after Israel, military aid and economic aid. Around 1.5 Billion $ annually. With total of 25 Billion $ from 1975 to 2002)

Then came some non-sense, that the Fagr weekly newspaper which mentioned news about the torture incident, was published 2 days before its supposed date, and according to this they claimed that the news was fabricated (I really don't know what is the connection).

Some other non-sense, one of the team stated that they don't watch TV thanks for being so busy with their work as a lawyer, but for the mere chance he was so ill so he opened the TV watching Orbit, in the Qahera AlYoum show (Cairo Today) and he found out that he was accused in assaulting 2 families (which was done with preparation with defence lawyers team, since in the statements of the arrested and the witnesses in the Police interrogations Emad was not there).

Wael Abbas was mentioned as a Human Rights organisation (now this is amusing), mentioning that he made a call in his blog to the United Nations for an international investigation for late Sadat assassination, sometimes I really hate lawyers.

Then came the responsible for defending Corporal Reda Fat'hi obeyed the orders of Islam Nabih to torture Emad ElKebeer, the man was not that mean really and all his talk was about technical details about supposed errors in the investigation and interrogations papers and so but what made me laugh was his comparing the historical example of seizing Benjamin's royal cup when he was arrested in Egypt with the inability of Emad to prove that the one who was mentioned in the video was Reda.

After all this, the prosecutor asked for a postponing to have a look at the papers handled by the defence team, immediately one of the team suggested cancelling the handling of the papers (since the judicial session will end due to their vacation and will resume in September) and they objected this because according to them the accused Islam Nabih will stay in custody for more than the supposed penalty. As if they are so sure that he will be innocent from the sexual assault accusation.

In the end I want to mention that I was happy to meet Ahmed Abdul Fattah, Sokoot Hansawat, Mariam, Nawara Negm, Mina and Asad. Thanks for coming :).

I guess that we are in the same place with that person who plays Mario here in this video. In democratic administrations, the game is so hard, but things develop in the right way. But in Egypt, the regime cheats to make the game impossible :)

This pic is a header from a fellow blogger, Hamede

It really made my day.

It all began well,
The commencement of the game,
I was really deep in it,
Deep…like a well,

It is a mystery to me,
How the game went so long,
Digging up the dirts,
Waiting for the results to be,

How I paid so much,
For this private investigation,
Feeling like hell,
With results as such,

When I found out the reasons,
I decided to go away,
For life,
Justified by treason,

There is no compensation,
After checking the reports,
With a bottle of vodka,
No alteration,

The game ended,
With all the confidential information,
With all the excuses,
I discovered that,
The blinds of the window,
Were never blind,

I went to the independent movie festival for bloggers event tonight. Maybe I have some reservations on the "independent" expression since this just opposes the idea of the art itself, like some kind of discrimination, though it can be OK in a way or another.

There was 5 movies, 4 short and a long one.

Before talking about the movies, I just want to state that I'm not a professional as I may sound, I do not study drama, but I have special interest in the mutual influence between drama and the society which you find here in Arabic.

The first movie: "Sabeel El Seghar", which means "The children's drinking fountain". I don't know if I have to explain the idea of the movie, but I'll try not to do that :).
Director: Omar Khaled.

My opinion and critique: The director wanted us to love the life of these children, with all its rich details, though I still think that the movie had two separate "life scenes" for which the director did not succeed in connecting them in an appropriate way (in my opinion), only if the goal was not the story line, but the details. I also liked the symbolism of the love of the children of each other in the end of the movie.

The second movie: "Azraq wa ahmar", which means "Blue and Red"
Director: Mahmoud Soliman

Feedback: well it gave me a feeling of a try to justify pre-marraige relations as a short "ranged" solution to the problem, against the difficulties opposing marriages these days. I still see the problem is with the family and how the couple need to fight traditions in the frame of religion, not out of it. Religion is NOT controlled by any human, and for any human to claim control over religion, he is not connected to this religion, from my own perspective. (The movie didn't talk about religion I know, but the thing is I don't see that approach as a solution).

The third movie: "Youm El Etneen", which means "Monday"
Director: Tamer Sa'eed

Feedback: The movie recorded a very special moment. I really loved the harmony achieved between the married couple. So human and touching. We really need this type of romance, not that usual romance we see everyday in drama.

The fourth movie: Maxim, which is the name of the Egyptian-Greek hero of the movie.
Director: Mohamed Rashad

Feedback: I felt that the director wanted to express that rigidity of feelings in the form of being deeply religious against the idea of being free, free from some kind of traditions, makes the religious person just curse the free person. From the perspective of being jealous, or just complaining the obscenity from their perspective. These feelings were expressed in the repeated phrase: he is a devil, but God punished him.

The man just loves life, he has some passion for French style in everything, being it in language, ladies, life in general, (Though he is supposed to be Greek). I also sensed some of kind of homosexuality in the scene when he was near the bathroom door while the young dude was having a bath, I don't know if I got the right feeling.

While the same background in the Monastery (I don't know why it was translated to the word Minister, it is totally different), the same scene comes in flashes while moving in the rich life of Maxim, again expressing the traditionalism of religion, which in my opinion destroys any religion and transform it from a rich relation which makes life better and better, to a form of rituals done for the heck of it. A rigid form opposing any kind of change.

The long movie: "Ithaki" (It is the Greek name for a poem written in 1911, in Egypt)
Director: Ibrahim El Batoot

This is a new way of approach. Combining documentary and drama in one movie. In my opinion this gives a unique richness. For it overcomes the problem of lack of information. Esp in this movie where it tackles unusual professions and positions in the Egyptian movie scenes. So the director compensated this lack of information by the giving it in the documentary approach. The movie is so rich, so full of emotions. It is just so full of life.

I felt from this movie: is that every person fights his war. And that this is the most important thing in their opinion.

Really thank you for this movie.

House Of Egyptian Blogger Raided

Egyptian security forces raided on Sunday at dawn, June, 10, 2007, the house of the writer and blogger, Mohamed Mossad Yaqout. The security forces raided the blogger's house in Baltym, Kafr Al-Sheikh, at 2.00AM and disheveled the house furniture, seized the computer and a number of papers and books and they are still hunting Yaqout. Yaqout said in a phone call with Ikhwanweb that"The security forces want to arrest me because I support Ghobashi Al-Atawi and Ashraf Al Sayyed, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate in the Shura Council midterm elections for the constituency of Baltym. They want to detain me also because of my anti-regime writings. Yaqout, 26 years, confirmed that the State Security Police has no arrest warrant and it wants to detain him illegally. Yaqout, a researcher and web editor, is country chased by the security forces on groundless accusations. It is worth mentioning that Egyptian bloggers are facing harassments, bans and security manhunts to curb the freedom of speech and to stop opposition to the Egyptian authoritarian regime. Blogger Abdul Moneim Mahmoud, released several days ago, had been detained for publishing his torture stories under policemen in Egyptian police stations.

Updates:

It’s 4:25am Cairo time now…. Moneim has been finally released, after he was taken to Alexandria’s State Security Police HQ in el-Fara’ana District. He arrived home around an hour and half ago. No details available yet about what happened during the day he spent in the custody of Mubarak’s Gestapo prior to the release.

Monem’s Safety and Life is in Danger!

Egyptian blogger Monem, whose release was ordered on May 30 by general prosecutor after 46 days imprisonment in Southern Cairo Torah prison was deported from prison at 2pm yesterday May 31st. Mr. Islam Lotfy, Monem’s lawyer, contacted us now from Cairo saying Monem was able to have someone call him and pass a message of his whereabouts as he moved.

Mr. Lotfy said Monem arrived Beheira governorate at 9pm, then arrived Ministry of Interior Transfers Department in Alexandria city at 3am today June 1st.

While Monem was able to pass a third message to his lawyer confirming he is inside Alexandria Transfers Department, security officials denied he ever appeared at their premises and Monem’s lawyers were dismissed.

“It is illegal to keep Monem for more than 24 hours after his release. I am worried Monem is being subject to re-interrogation by State Security, or even torture and re-detention” Says Mr. Lotfy.

Monem’s ordeal has been going on for 48 days now since his arrest on 15 April 07. His arrest came after giving a public torture testimoney during a human rights conference and also after posting his torture testimoney on his bog. Among the prelimenary charges for his arrest were “associating with Human Rights organisation in an effort to soil the image of the regime” and “discrediting the authorities by accusing them of routinely using torture in local police prisons”. Read more on charges against Monem here.

Security State or in other words, SS forces. (Ironically, the same expression – SS – was used in the Nazi era. How can people deal with each other in the same aspect the SS forces deal with supposedly dangerous people.

Every one of us when we were children we were always told the famous phrase: “El Asfora Aletly” (meaning the bird told me, the bird expression in that time was used to describe people working as informers to the SS).

This feeling became so overwhelming, giving that somebody the feeling that he is in control, and then I control you due to the information I have about you. No matter how much this is invading to privacy, if this is annoying, embarrassing or whatever. All that matters is that I have information and then I will do with you whatever I want.

In Egypt everyone and everything is watched. On-line activity is watched before any other mean of communication, be it telephones, faxes or whatever. In the same time, parents especially and people in general, tend to watch closely people whom they care for them (whether that care is emotionally or for a specific reason), intentionally or not. In the emotional case it maybe due to over protection. But anyway, this feeling of power from the someone who watches, reflects to a feeling of hatred from the watched person. How can someone whoever was can invade my privacy without my personal allowance. I don’t know really how will they act when someone watches them closely.

In the end I want to point out to an article which was wrote by the Egyptian journalist/blogger Wael Abbas, read it and comment if you want. I really wish that American tax-payers understand that they actually finance terrorism, the worst form of it, government terrorism.