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21. Jun 2006

Alaa er fri: One down, more than 1,000 to go

 
Egypt Fra Free Alaa!-bloggen:
The Heliopolis State Security Prosecutor today told Alaa his detention will not be renewed. Alaa will now spend at least a day on a tour of police stations, and will likely be interviewed at Lazoghly, the headquarters of the Interior Ministry. But he should be back where he belongs, with Manal, within the next 24-48 hours.

Congratulations to Manal and thanks to all who worked on his behalf!

Now for the 26 Kifaya protesters and the more than 1,000 Muslim Brotherhood members arrested over the past months...
Ibn ad-Dunya skriver på Fustat:
Due to bureacracy, paperwork and stuff he will not be released today, perhaps tomorrow, or the next day for sure! Here is a few voices from the Egyptian blogosphere on his release.

A big thank you, is due to everybody who has helped during this 45 days, in Egypt and around the world! Let´s be happy today!
Midt i al glæden er der dog grund til ikke at glemme den dybere sammenhæng i feængslingen og den generelle undertrykkelse i egypten, nemlig de diktatoriske tilstande i et land, der i medierne alt for ofte beskrives som en slags frit land, et ferieparadis og en allieret i "krigen mod terror".

Man kunne indvende, at Mubarak ikke rigtig tør gå videre med pressefrihed og politisk åbenhed, eftersom det Muslimske Broderskab udgør for stor en del af oppositionen.

Men dethar regimet nu kun sig selv at takke for: Hvordan skulle en stor sekulær opposition nogen sinde have slået rod, når ethvert tilløb til en sådan er blevet slået ned med jernhånd?

Den egyptisk-amerikanske journalist Mona Eltahawy gav fornylig en manende men desværre præcis beskrivelse af regimets nuværende kurs:
President Hosni Mubarak's message to Egyptians lately could not be clearer: I control everything and there's nothing you can do to change that. Peacefully, anyway.

What else could he mean when he sends his security forces to brutally beat and drag to jail men and women peacefully demonstrating for the very reforms that just a year ago Mubarak himself claimed to be championing.

What else could Mubarak's message have been when two of Egypt's most respected judges had their immunity lifted and were sent to a disciplinary hearing daring to expose fraud in November’s parliamentary elections?
(...)
Mubarak's message is equally deafening to journalists and bloggers determined to tell the world what he is doing to Egypt. Ask Abeer al-Askary the journalist with the independent newspaper al-Dostour whom his security forces dragged to a police station where they beat her blue, ripped off her headscarf and some of her clothes, threatened her with rape and then dumped on a street corner.

Ask Manal Bahey El-Din, activist and blogger whose husband Alaa Abdel Fattah was abducted by security forces from a peaceful demonstration in support of the judges. Alaa, along with 47 others arrested at protests over the past few weeks, has been charged with among other things "insulting the president".

That such a charge even exists highlights what Egyptians who dare to challenge the State are up against.
Myndighedernes strategi er med andre ord: Lad os slå så hårdt ned vi lige kan, så de kan lære, hvem det er, der bestemmer her!

Med Alaas og de fleste andre aktivisters løsladelse synes i det mindste denne fase i "fængsel-og-tæsk-for-fredelig-protest"-strategien overstået. Men der er nok ingen tvivl om, at mere vil følge efter.

Lad os håbe, de egyptiske systemkritikere og aktivister ikke lader sig skræmme til tavshed.

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