Photo Credit: Al Ahram
ABCNews is reporting that Ahmed Douma and Ahmed Maher are set to face trial following their arrests last week. The hearings would be the first prosecuted under the new protest law. A warrant was issued for Ahmed Maher’s arrest after allegations that he attacked a police officer and stole his walkie-talkie while violating the new protest law. However, Maher has denied all the accusations against him saying that he was not aware that the protest law was in effect when he joined the demonstration. Ahmed Douma is accused of inciting violence at a protest outside of a Cairo courthouse. Douma tweeted from jail, “I am now present in Basateen police station. I still don’t know the accusation against me or the reason for my arrest.”
Meanwhile, Human Rights First published a report titled, “How to Turn Around Egypt’s Disastrous Post-Mubarak Transition,” which details steps the United States can take to “help arrest Egypt’s dangerous drift towards instability and move the country towards constitutional legitimacy, the rule of law, and legal guarantees for the rights of all Egyptians.” Neil Hicks of Human Rights First cited failures of U.S foreign policy saying, “the U.S. government has lost respect and trust from all parties in Egypt by being seen as too willing to adjust its positions to accommodate the supposed preferences of a succession of authoritarian rulers in Cairo, and by failing to stand up clearly for universal values of human rights.”
The BBC published a video showing what seems to be a shirtless blindfolded man lying on the floor with red skin suggesting he may have been beaten. When asked about the video Hussien Fekry, the head of the human rights department of Egypt’s interior ministry said, “the faces in the video are not clear. Who are these officers that you are asking me to bring to account?” Fekry added that officers are “trained to be more sensitive, and are showing more self-control,” but employees of the Interior Ministry absorbed a culture of abuse.