[This is a collection of news updates on Egypt compiled from multiple sources by the editors.]
At Least Eight Killed in Sinai strike
Eight people were killed and fifteen injured in Sinai Wednesday in an Apache helicopter attack targeting “an extremist stronghold,” Al-Ahram reported, although initial reports by state TV suggested that fifteen people were killed in the attack.
Meanwhile, a military source told state-run Al-Ahram newspaper that a security operation is underway in two villages south of Sheikh Zuwayed where several stores of arms were destroyed.
The source said airstrikes continue “killing and injuring over twenty people,” and arresting several others.
Official figures are yet to be released following the security operation, Al-Ahram said.
Attacks targeting police stations, military checkpoints and other government establishments have intensified in Sinai, particularly following the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi on 3 July.
However, many in Sinai attribute the increasing militancy in the peninsula to its economic and political marginalization, which has persisted for decades.
[This article originally appeared on Mada Masr.]
Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr Banned with Three Other Channels
A Cairo court orders Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr, Ahrar 25, Al-Quds and Al-Yarmouk channels all be taken off air.
A Cairo court ordered on Tuesday Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr be taken off air. The administrative court ruling also banned Al-Yarmouk, Al-Quds and Ahrar 25, regarded as channels linked to Islamists, off the Egyptian airwaves.
Al-Jazeera Egyptian channel has come under fire as local media and authorities accused it of bias against the popularly-backed overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on 3 July, in favour of the Muslim Brotherhood from which he hails. Egyptian officials even said the station posed a threat to national security.
The three other channels were also blamed for one-sided reporting in favor of the Brotherhood and its supporters.
Some analysts, however, do not find any value in the ban. "I do not understand the rationale behind such court orders. They are impossible to implement," Khaled Dawoud, a leading member of the liberal Dostour Party told Ahram Online. "If they ban a channel, other channels will come up and find a country to broadcast from."
Dawoud said he had reservations on the coverage of some of these channels for being "platforms" for the Muslim Brotherhood, yet counseled "we should get accustomed to the broadcasting of views we do not sympathize with and stop blaming the media, as we live in an age of diversity."
Egypt`s government had already ordered a ban on the broadcaster`s Egyptian channel last week on allegations it lacked legal permits. The channel, now broadcast from Qatar, later challenged the authorities, publishing an alleged operation license by the Egyptian government.
The Doha-based network said in a statement on Sunday it was concerned over alleged harassment of the channel by the Egyptian authorities, citing "the series of detentions" of its staff and seizure of its equipment.
Police have detained a correspondent for Al-Jazeera`s Arabic channel, Abdullah El-Shami, since 14 August, and a cameraman for its Egyptian affiliate, Mohamed Badr, for over a month. Three foreign reporters for the Qatari-owned channel were also deported on Sunday after being caught covering political events without the required permits.
The ban comes a day after an Egyptian court ordered the permanent closure of the fiercely anti-liberal Al-Hafez channel.
[This article originally appeared on Ahram Online]
Egypt`s Constitution Committee is Balanced: April 6
Co-founder of April 6 youth movement Ahmed Maher says group will work to ensure that new constitution enshrines principles of Egyptian revolution.
The fifty-member committee appointed by the presidency to amend Egypt`s constitution last week is largely balanced, according to April 6 youth movement co-founder Ahmed Maher.
In comments reported by Al-Ahram`s Arabic news website, Maher expressed satisfaction with the number of youth representatives on the committee, but emphasized that the most import thing is the "final product."
April 6 will "deal objectively" with the committee, Maher said, and the objectives and principles of the revolution will be paramount to this process.
"If the draft is in accordance with the values of freedom, democracy, separation of powers, human dignity, social justice, transparency, accountability and equality among citizens, the movement will be satisfied,” Maher said. “However, if the new constitution is in conflict with these values, we will object to it like we did the constitution of 2012," he added.
Maher said April 6 will send the committee a list of proposed amendments, as they did with the 2012 constitution-drafting committee.
The fifty-member committee has been criticized by some for not proportionally representing various political shades in Egyptian society especially Islamists. The presidency named only two Islamists to amend the charter: one belonging to the hardline Salafist Nour Party, the other a former Muslim Brotherhood leader, who is now harshly critical of the group he left last year.
April 6 has come under attack in Egyptian media in recent weeks for alleged ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. The movement is seen by some media representatives as members of the Muslim Brotherhood`s "fifth column", despite its active participation in protests against disposed former president Mohamed Morsi.
Egypt`s Attorney General instructed supreme state security prosecution to investigate charges against Ahmed Maher, on Wednesday. The accusations include conspiring against his homeland and acquiring illegal financial support from abroad.
While members of the Rebel campaign, which organized for the ouster of Mohamed Morsi, have been chosen to represent Egyptian youth in the constitution-drafting committee, April 6, a group which spear-headed the 25 January revolution against Mubarak, was not asked to participate in the process.
The composition of the fifty-member committee was announced on Sunday by the presidency. It will amend controversial articles in the temporarily suspended 2012 constitution as part of a road map declared by the interim-government on 3 July, when Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was deposed following mass protests.
[This article originally appeared on Ahram Online.]
Egyptian Security on Alert Ahead of Planned Islamist Rallies
Military vehicles are deployed near Tahrir Square and Rabaa Al-Adawiya Mosque as Islamists plan to take to the streets on Tuesday.
Egyptian police and army deployed their forces on Tuesday around roads in the vicinity of Rabaa Al-Adawiya Mosque as Islamists plan to hold nationwide rallies commemorating the second month anniversary 3 July ouster of president Mohamed Morsi.
According to state-owned news agency MENA, four military vehicles were deployed on Al-Tayaran Street, which leads to the Rabaa Mosque, and barbed wire barricades stand by for possible road closures. Al-Nasr Street heading towards the Autostrade Road remains open to vehicles.
Rabaa Al-Adawiya was home to the larger of the two protest camps which supporters of the deposed president held for six weeks before it was dispersed by security forces on 14 August, along with its smaller sister camp in Giza’s Al-Nahda Square, leaving at least 600 people killed, according to Ministry of Health figures.
Military forces also blocked the entrance to Tahrir Square from Qasr Al-Nile Bridge. A number of military vehicles were also deployed before the Egyptian Museum, on Mohamed Mahmoud Street, as well as in Bab Al-Louq and Talaat Harb squares.
The National Alliance for the Support of Legitimacy did not specify a location for the rallies, planned under the banner "the coup is terrorism", but said protests would seep to all squares across the country. A press conference exposing what the alliance calls "crimes of the coup" is also expected to take place.
[This article originally appeared on Ahram Online.]
Military Sentences Civilians in Suez
A military tribunal handed a number of supporters of President Mohamed Morsi prison sentences on Tuesday, the state-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported.
Eleven defendants were sentenced to life in prison, forty-five were each given a sentence of five years, and eight were acquitted, Al Ahram said.
Conflicting reports later emerged that the court had sentenced one defendant to life in prison, three were sentenced to fifteen years, forty-eight were sentenced between five and ten years, and twelve were found innocent.
They were accused of attacking the military and setting fire to three churches and five armored vehicles. The accused also faced other charges, including attacking public institutions, spreading chaos, and blocking off roads.
Al-Ahram said that the accused were “supporters of Mohamed Morsi and members of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Gamaa al-Islamiya.”
The Brotherhood’s news website, Ikhwanonline, said that the accused were arrested without firm evidence, and were mistreated while in custody. Its report said “unknown men” attacked the churches.
During the period of military rule following the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak, over 12,000 civilians were sentenced by military tribunals, which do not give the same protections to the accused as civilian courts.
"Military courts are considered exceptional court, and they are formed to be a disciplinary committee for disputes that occur in the military institution itself," said Mona Seif, a founder of the No to Military Trials for Civilians advocacy group.
Military tribunals take place under the umbrella of the Defense Ministry, not the Justice Ministry, and in many cases defendants have no access to a laywer, Seif said.
Civil disputes involving a soldier are often referred to a military court rather than a civilian court.
A military prosecutor ordered that Mahmoud Abdel Razek Shikabala and two other soccer players with the Zamalek club, to be arrested after Shikabala fought with a military officer at Hurghada airport on Monday.
Last month, eight were sentenced by the Suez Military Court to two years in prison.
[This article originally appeared on Mada Masr.]
Nour Party Defends Sharia Article in Constitution
The Salafi Nour Party objected to the removaal of an article detailing the principles and sources of Sharia law is eliminated from the new draft constitution, the privately-owned Al-Masry Al-Youm reported on Tuesday.
In the 2012 Constitution abrogated by the military on 3 July in the wake of the ouster of Brotherhood affiliate President Mohamed Morsi, Article 219 stipulated that the principles of Sharia, which is the main source of legislation, shall include general evidence, foundational and jurisprudental rules accepted in Sunni doctrines.
While Sharia as a main source of legislation remains part of the Article 2 of the amended constitution, Salafis see Article 219 as a necessary articulation.
Meanwhile, Al-Masry Al-Youm quoted Salah Abdel Maasoud, a politbureau member of the Nour Party as saying that nevertheless his party will continue participating in the committee of 50 figures tasked with further reviewing the amended constitutional draft submitted by a group of legal experts last month.
The newspaper also reported that Shaaban Abdel Aleem, vice secretary general of the Nour Party, had slammed the formation of the fifty-member committee, for excluding the Islamist current and granting Islamist parties only one seat. He added that the party`s withdrawal would hence make no difference since they have quite a weak representation in the committee.
However, Mona Zulfaqar, a member of the committee and also a member of the National Human Rights Council, was quoted by the state-run Egynews portal as saying that the committee was balanced and that a presence of Islamists is preserved through figures in the committee representing Al-Azhar.
The fifty-member committee includes a number of figures with Azhar affiliations, while Bassam al-Zarqa of the Nour Party is the only representative of an Islamist party.
[This article originally appeared on Mada Masr.]
Two Months After Morsi`s Ouster, Thousands Protest Across Egypt
Marches by supporters of Mohamed Morsi took place in the capital as well as in Sharqiya in the Nile Delta and Qena in Upper Egypt, but mobilization seems to have lost much of its strength.
Thousands of supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi staged protests across Egypt on Tuesday against what they describe as the "military coup" that ousted him two months previously.
The Muslim Brotherhood`s Morsi was ousted by Egypt`s military on 3 July amid mass nationwide protests against his rule.
Several thousand people marched in Cairo and Giza, Suez, the Nile Delta governorate of Sharqiya and Upper Egypt`s Qena, but the mobilization seems to have lost much of its strength.
The interim authorities violently cleared two large pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo on 14 August, leaving hundreds dead, mostly protesters. There have also been many arrests, both before and after 14 August, of Brotherhood and Islamist leaders who have been slapped with various charges.
Friday 16 August saw huge, heated rallies in support of Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood, with exchanges of fire between protesters and security forces leaving dozens dead.
However, the following two Fridays saw lowered turnout in the two planned pro-Morsi protests, fuelling speculation that the security clampdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies has left the group crippled.
Tuesday`s protests came on the same day as a court ruling which closed down satellite television channel Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr, a local affiliate of the Qatari Al Jazeera network. The channel had continued to cover pro-Morsi demonstrations, unlike most private and state channels broadcasting in Egypt.
In the same ruling, the Administrative Court also took Islamist-affiliated channels Al-Yarmouk, Al-Quds and Ahrar 25 off the air.
The Muslim Brotherhood`s Freedom and Justice Party provided live streaming of Tuesday`s marches on its Facebook page.
Tahrir Square in the capital was closed off by security forces early on Tuesday, as was Gamat Al-Dowal street and El-Batal Ahmed Abdel street in nearby Mohandiseen, the site of several recent pro-Morsi protests.
[This article originally appeared on Ahram Online.]