[This is a collection of news updates on Egypt compiled from multiple sources by the editors.]
Khaled Said Case Adjourned to 1 October
The retrial of policemen accused of torturing to death Khaled Said, a case that helped spark the January 2011 uprising, is postponed until October.
The Alexandria Criminal Court adjourned Saturday to 1 October the retrial of policemen accused of torturing to death twenty-eight-year-old Khaled Said in 2010.
The retrial, which began 1 June, comes after the two defendants, Mahmoud Salah Mahmoud and Awad Ismail Soliman, filed an appeal in December arguing that particular witnesses were "dealt with lightly."
On 1 June, the court ordered the release of the defendants after being detained for thirty-five months, exceeding the detention cap of eighteen months.
Last October, the policemen were given a seven-year jail sentence after being found guilty of illegal imprisonment and torture.
The family and supporters of Said were shocked at what they considered a light sentence.
The brutal murder of Khaled Said in summer 2010 in Alexandria is considered one of the sparks of the January 25 Revolution in Egypt.
[This article originally appeared on Ahram Online.]
Detention of 106 for Torching Churches in Minya
Egyptian prosecution orders fifteen-day detention for 106 suspects in church attacks.
Egypt`s General Prosecution has ordered the detention of 106 suspects accused of torching churches and public property in Upper Egypt’s Minya governorate. They will be detained for fifteen days pending investigation.
Tens of churches have been attacked and set on fire, mostly in Upper Egypt, by angry protesters following the ouster of Mohamed Morsi and the dispersal of two main pro-Morsi sit-ins on 14 August.
Coptic stores have also been targets for attacks in several Upper Egyptian villages.
[This article originally appeared on Ahram Online.]
Egypt Court Orders Forty-Five-Day Detention of 141 Arrested
Morsi-supporters charged with rioting, damaging property, possessing weapons in Bab Al-Sharaiya clashes on 15 July.
A Cairo court has renewed the detention of 141 people, reportedly supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi, for forty-five days pending investigations into mid-July’s Cairo clashes.
The detainees are charged with rioting, demonstrating, damaging public and private property and possessing weapons in the Bab Al-Sharaiya area in Cairo’s downtown Ramses district.
Seven people were killed and 261 injured in clashes late on 15 July between supporters of Morsi and the police, as well as the neighborhood’s residents in downtown Cairo and Giza.
Hundreds of members of the Muslim Brotherhood have been detained nationwide following the dispersal of two pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo on 14 August. A number of Islamist figures face trial for charges of `inciting violence`.
[This article originally appeared on Ahram Online.]
Egypt`s Health Ministry Puts Friday`s Official Death Toll at Eight
Ministry says eight dead nationwide, other sources put the number higher.
Egypt’s health ministry said that eight people were killed and 221 injured nationwide in clashes Friday.
The ministry`s statement did not distinguish between civilians and police forces. It said that out of the eight, two were killed in Cairo, three in Giza and one in each of Port Said, Sharqiya and Ismailia governorates.
The ministry’s official statement relies on a count of bodies that arrive and are recorded at state hospitals.
Earlier Saturday, the interior ministry released a statement saying that one civilian and one policeman were shot dead and another policeman injured when unknown assailants opened fire indiscriminately at a police unit in El-Nozha area in Cairo`s Heliopolis district.
Three protesters were confirmed killed by Al-Ahram Arabic website during clashes between police forces and protesters in Giza’s Mohandiseen district.
Another two people were reported killed in Sharqiya province’s Zagazig city after clashes between Mohamed Morsi supporters and street vendors, according to Al-Ahram.
One resident was killed in Port Said, according to a health ministry official who spoke to Al-Ahram Arabic.
Another died in the hospital in Ismailia after being shot in the head.
In addition, an army conscript was shot dead and two others injured in an attack by unknown assailants in the Suez Canal city of Port Said late Friday.
Similarly, a policeman was shot dead in North Sinai by unknown assailants as he was driving his car in Al-Arish city.
On Friday, demonstrations took place in several cities across Egypt by Islamist supporters of deposed president Morsi. However, none of the rallies came close to approaching the hundreds of thousands-strong demonstrations organized by the National Alliance to Support Legitimacy, an umbrella group of pro-Morsi forces, before.
[This article originally appeared on Ahram Online.]
Egypt Brotherhood’s Former Minister of Manpower Receives Fifteen-Day Detention
Muslim Brotherhood former Minister of Manpower Khaled El-Azhary receives fifteen-day detention.
The General Prosecution has ordered the fifteen-day detention of the Muslim Brotherhood’s former Minister of Manpower, Khaled El-Azhary, pending investigations.
Al-Azhary has been accused of inciting violence leading to the killing of opponents of ousted President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo’s Bein El-Sarayat district.
Al-Azhary was arrested on Thursday along with senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed El-Beltagy in Giza.
Security forces have staged a recent crackdown on prominent Brotherhood members and leaders since the dispersal of two main pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo on 14 August.
[This article originally appeared on Ahram Online]
Egypt`s Leading Brotherhood Figure Sobhy Saleh Arrested in Alexandria
Muslim Brotherhood former Shura Council member and leading figure Sobhy Saleh has been arrested on charges of `inciting violence`.
Muslim Brotherhood leading figure and former Shura Council member Sobhy Saleh was arrested on Saturday in Alexandria`s King Mariout.
Over 1000 Muslim Brotherhood members have been arrested during the past week, including prominent Brotherhood leaders and leading Islamist figures associated with the group, many of whom have been charged with `inciting violence`.
The arrests have occurred under a one-month national state of emergency, which was announced by Egypt’s interim Presidency the day that two main pro-Morsi sit-ins were dispersed on 14 August.
Saleh was a member of the Shura Council and a member of the committee which drafted the 2012 constitution. He has been on a travel-ban list together with ousted president Mohamed Morsi and seven others since 4 July.
He already faces accusations of insulting the judiciary, which were filed against him in May 2013.
[This article originally appeared on Ahram Online]
Al-Nour to Represent Islamists in Egypt`s Final Constitution-Drafting Committee
Interim President Adli Mansour expected to issue decree to form fifty-member committee to finally amend Egypt`s 2012 Islamist-backed constitution.
The second stage of Egypt`s post-30 June political roadmap is expected to begin "within a few days". According to article 29 of the constitutional declaration issued on 8 July, interim President Adli Mansour will entrust a fifty-member committee, representing all segments of society, to write the final draft of Egypt`s new constitution.
The decree comes after a ten-member technical committee finalized the first stage of Egypt`s political roadmap, by amending the 2012 Islamist-backed constitution.
According to Ali Awad, head of the ten-member committee and Mansour`s advisor on constitutional affairs, a presidential decree unveiling the names of the fifty-member committee, entrusted with putting the final draft of the constitution together, will be announced today or tomorrow.
Awad indicated that president Mansour`s aide Mostafa Hegazy led a presidential team tasked with revising the lists of names of nominees from political factions and other institutions to join the fifty-member committee. "In accordance with article 28 of 8 the July declaration, all the factions and institutions required to submit the names of their candidates have completed the job," said Awad, adding that "as a result, the final list of the names forming the fifty-member committee will be announced within hours."
Awad explained that the lists include the names of those acting as basic members of the committee, as well as reserves.
Although the 8 July declaration does not stipulate a specific time for the fifty-member committee to plunge into business, it is expected that it will embark on doing its job immediately after Mansour`s decree is announced. Meetings of the committee will be hosted by the dissolved upper house of the Shura Council.
As revealed by Ahram Online one week ago, the ultra-conservative Salafist Al-Nour party is expected to provide the main Islamist representation in the fifty-member committee. Al-Nour has nominated five members, with the presidential team expected to select just three as basic members and two as reserve members. Topping the list of Al-Nour`s names are the party`s media spokesman Nader Bakar, senior official Ashraf Thabet (former deputy speaker of 2012`s dissolved Islamist-dominated People`s Assembly) and Bassam Al-Zarka (a member of the dissolved Shura Council). The list also includes Yasser Borhami, deputy chairman of the Salafist Dawaa, allied with the Nour party, and Talaat Marzouk, a Salafist who was a member of 2012`s People`s Assembly.
As the Muslim Brotherhood is currently experiencing a state-led crackdown, with the majority of its senior leaders in custody, Al-Nour is expected to be the main voice for Islamists in Egypt`s final constitution-drafting process.
In a statement issued last week, Al-Nour said, "It decided to join the fifty-member committee, representing the second stage of Egypt`s new political roadmap, to defend the Islamic shari`a articles stressing Egypt`s Sunni Islamic identity." The party has said it strongly objects to the ten-member committee`s proposal aimed at removing article 219, which provides an interpretation of Islamic shari`a, from the new constitution. Informed sources told Ahram Online that Al-Nour, after a series of meetings with the secular Al-Wafd party, agreed that "the new constitution must retain article 219."
The decision whether certain articles will be maintained or not will depend on the weight of political forces, public institutions and their ideological backgrounds.
Unlike the hundred-member Islamist-dominated constituent assembly, which drafted Egypt`s 2012 most controversial constitution, Egypt`s final constitution-drafting fifty-member committee is expected to be dominated by secularists.
Al-Nour Islamists will be joined by representatives from Al-Azhar Sunni Islamic institution and representatives of some of the professional syndicates dominated by Muslim Brotherhood, but these are not expected to form a majority. Al-Azhar has nominated five clerics to be members of the committee, as well as Mohamed Abdel-Salam and Abdallah Al-Naggar, two aides to Al-Azhar`s moderate Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb. Al-Azhar and Al-Nour currently disagree on a number of matters.
Al-Nour`s viewpoints on Islamic shari`a articles are likely to face strong objections from secular forces, which are expected to form a majority within the committee. According to article 28 of 8 July`s declaration, the fifty-member committee must include ten figures representing youth and women. Most of the youth revolutionary movements, particularly the Tamaroud (Rebel) movement which spearhead the 30 June revolt against the regime of the Muslim Brotherhood and President Mohamed Morsi, are strongly against "the reactionary viewpoints" of Al-Nour party. The same is true for representatives from movements such as April 6, the National Association for Change, and so on.
Tamaroud has nominated five of its figures, on top of whom the movement`s founder Mahmoud Badr to take part in the committee. The group`s leading officials have said, "not only will they stand against Al-Nour party, rally behind removing article 219 article, but they will also launch a "write your constitution" campaign in most of Egypt`s cities, towns and villages, in order to gather public support for the necessity of removing all articles of "religious tyranny" from 2012`s constitution.
Awad explained that the ten-member technical committee has concluded that 32 articles (representing fourteen per cent) of 2012`s constitution are to be revoked, and 154 articles (representing sixty-five per cent) are to be re-amended. Articles within the initial draft of the constitution were cut short from 236 to 198.
The most controversial articles removed from 2012`s constitution include those giving an interpretation of Islamic Shari`a; allocating fifty per cent of seats in parliament to representatives of workers and farmers and imposing a political ban on leading officials of Hosni Mubarak`s defunct ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).
[This article originally appeared on Ahram Online.]