Police Beat Crowds Backing Egypt's Judges
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN and MONA EL-NAGGAR
The New York Times
May 12, 2006
CAIRO, May 11 — President Hosni Mubarak's government dispatched thousands of riot police officers into the center of the city on Thursday to silence demonstrators intent on showing support for judges demanding independence from the president.
The police clubbed men and women trying to demonstrate as well as half a dozen journalists.
"This is a farce in every meaning of the word," said Salah Zidan, a lawyer involved in pressing for more freedoms. "There has never been anything like this: that someone should express his opinion is committing a crime."
The police also blocked streets and subway stations, disrupting the lives of thousands of residents and workers. Officers sealed off the Judges Club, a stately building that has become a kind of headquarters for people calling for more democracy.
"I am just trying to go to work," said Fatma Shoeib, a lawyer who could not get to her office because of the police blockade. "But we are witnessing a farce. We are in a police state; this cannot be a state of law."
After small steps last year toward greater political freedom, Mr. Mubarak's government stopped when it came to Egypt's nearly 7,000 judges, who have called not only for independence, but also for the right to be the sole monitor of elections. The judges say the system is corrupt at least in part because the justice minister, appointed by the president, oversees the judiciary.
Two of Egypt's most senior judges, Mahmoud Mekki and Hisham Bastawisi, were to appear Thursday in the High Court to face disciplinary proceedings for publicly charging electoral fraud during parliamentary elections late last year. But the proceedings were postponed after the two judges refused to enter the court amid a huge contingent of riot police officers. Security forces also refused to admit the judges' supporters to the chamber.
Government officials have said the judges have adequate independence and security decisions are made to protect people and property. The government's chief spokesman could not be reached for comment. The case of Judge Mekki and Judge Bastawisi, and the drive for independence from Mr. Mubarak's oversight, have become a flash point and a rallying point in the push to bring democratic changes to a system where one party has a monopoly on power and all major decisions are made by the president, or his appointees.
With Egypt's political opposition parties impotent and ineffectual, professional organizations, like those formed by the judges and university professors, have emerged as the forces pressing for change. The Muslim Brotherhood, which is illegal but tolerated, remains the nation's most organized opposition group.
Last December, for the first time, the government tolerated protesters chanting anti-Mubarak slogans. But it has shown no tolerance for protesters backing the judges. That has put the United States, which considers Egypt one of its closest allies in the region and gives it nearly $2 billion annually in aid, in an awkward position. But, faced with huge challenges in the region — from Iran to Sudan — the United States has appeared to back off on putting pressure on Egypt over its domestic policies.
The State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, issued a statement about Thursday's violence. "We are deeply concerned by reports of Egyptian government arrests and repression of demonstrators protesting election fraud and calling for an independent judiciary," it said. "Particularly troubling are reports of Egyptian police tactics against demonstrators and journalists covering the event that left many injured."
The statement urged Egypt to permit peaceful demonstrations on behalf of reform and civil liberties and said the United States would raise its concerns with the Egyptian government. In the last week, the authorities have detained about 50 demonstrators outside the Judges Club, for showing support for the judges' cause. Some have been charged with "insulting the president."
"The regime is sending a message saying, 'Everyone will bow down and prostrate and shut up, and there will be no other voice but me,' " Hazem Farouq Mansour, a member of Parliament affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, said Thursday in an interview at the scene of the demonstrations. "They think that the judges have empowered the people against the regime in the elections. And the status of the judge in the eyes of the Egyptian citizen is very high. This is no doubt terrifying the authorities."
From early Thursday morning, huge green troop carriers rumbled into the center of the town. People who planned to demonstrate were at first unable to gather, and as they tried to find a way to regroup, it was mostly regular Egyptians trying to go about their lives who confronted the police over the blockade.
"How can you block the way like this," Saneya Mohamed, a poor woman from the countryside who was trying to get into the court to help her son meet a lawyer, screamed at the wall of police before her. "I swear it is the people running this country that have destroyed it like this."
At times, small groups of protesters organized at the edge of the police barrier but were beaten and dragged away. At least six journalists were said to have been detained, and Al Jazeera said its cameraman had been severely beaten.
Ten riot police officers were killed Thursday when their van fell off a bridge as they drove toward the center of the city, officials said.
"We are coming to say that the regime is prohibiting freedom in the country," said Hafez el-Fergany, a demonstrator who said he was an Islamist. "We are coming to support the judges. This is an issue that concerns every Egyptian, from all the different factions in Egypt. This is our country, and we feel like we're outsiders in it."
The New York Times
May 12, 2006
CAIRO, May 11 — President Hosni Mubarak's government dispatched thousands of riot police officers into the center of the city on Thursday to silence demonstrators intent on showing support for judges demanding independence from the president.
The police clubbed men and women trying to demonstrate as well as half a dozen journalists.
"This is a farce in every meaning of the word," said Salah Zidan, a lawyer involved in pressing for more freedoms. "There has never been anything like this: that someone should express his opinion is committing a crime."
The police also blocked streets and subway stations, disrupting the lives of thousands of residents and workers. Officers sealed off the Judges Club, a stately building that has become a kind of headquarters for people calling for more democracy.
"I am just trying to go to work," said Fatma Shoeib, a lawyer who could not get to her office because of the police blockade. "But we are witnessing a farce. We are in a police state; this cannot be a state of law."
After small steps last year toward greater political freedom, Mr. Mubarak's government stopped when it came to Egypt's nearly 7,000 judges, who have called not only for independence, but also for the right to be the sole monitor of elections. The judges say the system is corrupt at least in part because the justice minister, appointed by the president, oversees the judiciary.
Two of Egypt's most senior judges, Mahmoud Mekki and Hisham Bastawisi, were to appear Thursday in the High Court to face disciplinary proceedings for publicly charging electoral fraud during parliamentary elections late last year. But the proceedings were postponed after the two judges refused to enter the court amid a huge contingent of riot police officers. Security forces also refused to admit the judges' supporters to the chamber.
Government officials have said the judges have adequate independence and security decisions are made to protect people and property. The government's chief spokesman could not be reached for comment. The case of Judge Mekki and Judge Bastawisi, and the drive for independence from Mr. Mubarak's oversight, have become a flash point and a rallying point in the push to bring democratic changes to a system where one party has a monopoly on power and all major decisions are made by the president, or his appointees.
With Egypt's political opposition parties impotent and ineffectual, professional organizations, like those formed by the judges and university professors, have emerged as the forces pressing for change. The Muslim Brotherhood, which is illegal but tolerated, remains the nation's most organized opposition group.
Last December, for the first time, the government tolerated protesters chanting anti-Mubarak slogans. But it has shown no tolerance for protesters backing the judges. That has put the United States, which considers Egypt one of its closest allies in the region and gives it nearly $2 billion annually in aid, in an awkward position. But, faced with huge challenges in the region — from Iran to Sudan — the United States has appeared to back off on putting pressure on Egypt over its domestic policies.
The State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, issued a statement about Thursday's violence. "We are deeply concerned by reports of Egyptian government arrests and repression of demonstrators protesting election fraud and calling for an independent judiciary," it said. "Particularly troubling are reports of Egyptian police tactics against demonstrators and journalists covering the event that left many injured."
The statement urged Egypt to permit peaceful demonstrations on behalf of reform and civil liberties and said the United States would raise its concerns with the Egyptian government. In the last week, the authorities have detained about 50 demonstrators outside the Judges Club, for showing support for the judges' cause. Some have been charged with "insulting the president."
"The regime is sending a message saying, 'Everyone will bow down and prostrate and shut up, and there will be no other voice but me,' " Hazem Farouq Mansour, a member of Parliament affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, said Thursday in an interview at the scene of the demonstrations. "They think that the judges have empowered the people against the regime in the elections. And the status of the judge in the eyes of the Egyptian citizen is very high. This is no doubt terrifying the authorities."
From early Thursday morning, huge green troop carriers rumbled into the center of the town. People who planned to demonstrate were at first unable to gather, and as they tried to find a way to regroup, it was mostly regular Egyptians trying to go about their lives who confronted the police over the blockade.
"How can you block the way like this," Saneya Mohamed, a poor woman from the countryside who was trying to get into the court to help her son meet a lawyer, screamed at the wall of police before her. "I swear it is the people running this country that have destroyed it like this."
At times, small groups of protesters organized at the edge of the police barrier but were beaten and dragged away. At least six journalists were said to have been detained, and Al Jazeera said its cameraman had been severely beaten.
Ten riot police officers were killed Thursday when their van fell off a bridge as they drove toward the center of the city, officials said.
"We are coming to say that the regime is prohibiting freedom in the country," said Hafez el-Fergany, a demonstrator who said he was an Islamist. "We are coming to support the judges. This is an issue that concerns every Egyptian, from all the different factions in Egypt. This is our country, and we feel like we're outsiders in it."
posted by Hanan Elbadry at 5:44 AM
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