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LOCAL Announcement :: Miscellaneous

PROTEST (Thursday, May 25): Demand Release of Jailed Egyptian Pro-Democracy Protesters!

Activists in the U.S. will picket the Egyptian embassy and consulates in Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago and San Francisco (and protests in London and Cairo) on Thursday, May 25 at 12:30PM (local times).
***please forward widely***

PROTEST
Day of Action to Support Arrested Egyptian Protesters!

Demand Release of Jailed Egyptian Protesters!

What: Picket at the Egyptian Consulate!
Where: 500 N. Michigan Ave., Suite #1900
When: Thursday, May 25, 2006 at 12:30pm

Activists in the U.S. will picket the Egyptian embassy and consulates in Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago and San Francisco (and protests in London and Cairo) on Thursday, May 25 at 12:30PM (local times). Activists will demand the immediate release of all jailed pro-democracy protesters recently arrested in Cairo. See the statement below, signed by Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Alexander Cockburn, Michael Albert, John Pilger and others…

Statement Opposing the Arrest of Pro-Reform Activists in Egypt
May 9, 2006, updated May 11, 2006
WE OPPOSE the violent repression and arrests in Egypt, where state forces have cracked down on peaceful protests for the independence of the judiciary. On May 11, journalists, judges, activists and other reformers were surrounded by thousands of riot police and beaten. Since April 24, activists taking part in protests at the Judges’ Club and the Ministry of Justice in Cairo have been attacked by the police, hundreds have been reported arrested, and 40 detainees remain on hunger strike against their brutal treatment. According to the New York Times, up to 10,000 riot police were deployed in central Cairo on April 27, beating judges and their supporters who had come to express solidarity with judges Hisham Bastawisi and Mahmoud Mekki at their disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Justice. The two judges exposed fraud in the recent parliamentary elections. On May 5, the Committee to Protect Journalists joined acclaimed Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz in calling on Arab governments to free jailed journalists including two Egyptian reporters detained while covering demonstrations in Cairo. New York-based Human Rights Watch called upon the Egyptian government to halt the proceedings against the two judges. "The government should investigate the fraud that marred the polls instead of intimidating judges who reported it," said the statement.
We wish to express our distress at the brutal treatment of peaceful demonstrators calling for legal reform. Among those beaten by the police was Judge Mahmoud Mohamed Abdel Latif Hamza, Chief Judge of the North Cairo Court. We oppose this attempt to silence voices in the judiciary and the media who have exposed electoral fraud, state violence and corruption.
We also condemn the refusal by Egyptian authorities to allow defense lawyers to attend court sessions and advocate on behalf of their clients. We call upon the Egyptian authorities to show respect for human rights and the independence of the Egyptian judiciary by releasing the detainees without delay.

Signed (list in formation, send messages of support to FreeEgyptians (at) yahoo.com)
Michael Albert, Znet, Z Magazine; Anthony Arnove, author, Iraq, The Logic of Withdrawal; Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition (USA); Professor Douglas Anderson, Southwest Minnesota State University; David Becker, filmmaker; Jim Bouton; Former New York Yankees All-Star; author, Ball Four; Professor Kevin M. Brien, Washington College; Professor Noam Chomsky, MIT; Alexander Cockburn, co-editor Counterpunch, columnist, Nation; Michael J. Coyle, Ph.D. student, Arizona State University; Professor Mahmoud El Lozy American University in Cairo; Deepa Fernandes, radio host, WBAI Wake Up Call; Professor Philip Gasper, Notre Dame de Namur University; Craig Hymson, Cabin Creek Films; Shehab Fakhry Ismail—PhD student, The New School for Social Research; Boris Kagarlitsky, Senior research fellow at the Institute for Comparative Political Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Professor William Keach, Brown University; Peter Klosterman, Ph.D. student; Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor, Tikkun; Alan Maass, editor, Socialist Worker; Professor Mahmoud Mamdani, Columbia; Mike Marqusee, author; Yasser Munif, PhD student; John Pilger, journalist; Professor Rush Rehm, Stanford University; Cheryl Rubenberg, author, The Palestinians: In Search of a Just Peace;; Ahmed Shawki—National Council of Arab Americans, editor, International Socialist Review; Professor David Michael Smith, College of the Mainland, TX; Jeffrey St. Clair, co-editor, Counterpunch; author, Grand Theft Pentagon; Elisa Wiehe, PhD student, UMass; Sherry Wolf, editorial board, International Socialist Review; Howard Zinn, author; Dave Zirin—regular contributor to the Nation, columnist for SLAM, TV sports commentator
 
 

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