While the hundreds of court cases that are currently happening
in Egypt continue, on Sunday the Egyptian courts ordered the release on bail
pending trial of one of a key activist
who took part in the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak, Abdel-Fattah. The
case that is being drawn up against this activist as well as against the other
24 defendants has been criticized by many rights groups in Egypt. These arrests
took place under one of the many crackdowns on Islamic supporters as well as
the secular opposition’s activists.
The Egyptian courts are currently overburdened with
thousands of defendants arrested in the past eight months, including Morsi and
leading members of his Muslim Brotherhood. The fairness of these trials (seeing
as how there are so many) is beginning to be brought to attention.
Abdel-Fattah is an interesting case because his was the
first case since Morsi’s ouster against secular activists and it was also the
first moved against protesters for violating the new law adopted in November,
calling for more regulation of street protests.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch has been expressing its
concern that Egypt has "demonstrated almost zero tolerance for any form of
dissent, arresting and prosecuting journalists, demonstrators, and academics
for peacefully expressing their views." This new law even crackdowns on
people expressing dissent through Twitter, even though the new constitution
grants the freedom of thought and opinion.
There is also still great disagreement over Egypts decision
to crack down on the Muslim Brotherhood which they feel is necessary to stop
potential terror acts by militants linked to the Brotherhood.
This is also coming at a time where Egypt is calling on the
Arab League to also recognize the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist
organization not just a political party. The outcomes of this may affect the
trials happening in Egypt, or Egypt’s government may just continue to pursue
justice in their overburdened court systems.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/lawyer-egypt-trial-545-set-verdict-23018343?page=2
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/lawyer-egypt-trial-545-set-verdict-23018343?page=2
I continue to find the current events of Egypt very interesting because of the drastic changes that are taking place on a regular basis. It is also noteworthy how the Muslim Brotherhood has transition from being a political party to possible terrorist organization so rapidly. It would be interesting to know exactly what role the United States government is playing in all of this.
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