25 May 2012 | Egypt
Fifteen months after Hosni Mubarak ’s ouster, this week Egyptians headed to the ballot box to choose a new President in the country’s first multi-candidate Presidential election. Unlike previous polls when election results had invariably been foregone conclusions, the outcome of this historic vote is uncertain with analysts and voters unable to speculate who the likely winner may be. Braving soaring temperatures, voters lined up in orderly queues at polling stations across the country on Wednesday 23 May (the first day of the vote) displaying passion and a rare patience to put up with the bureaucracy and the long wait.
“I’ve been waiting three hours in line but will wait no matter how long it takes,” said 32 year- old housewife Walaa Dweedar, one of the scores of women waiting outside the Thanaweya Girls School in the upper class residential neighborhood of Maadi. “We’ve never had a chance to freely choose our President. In the past, the authorities had always fixed the results beforehand.”
She said she planned to vote for Hamdeen Sabahi, the left leaning social activist who’s fast becoming the “revolutionary” choice of many voters seeking change. Sabahi’s popularity has surged recently thanks to his campaign promise to bridge the vast gap between the country’s rich and poor.
Standing behind Walaa in the lengthy all-women queue was 33-year-old Injy Hamdy, another housewife who eagerly told Index she was keen to vote “to diminish the chances of an Islamist contender”.
Security and stability are high priority demands for many voters worn out after months of chaos, street violence and a surge in crime rates .
Standing a few meters away was a woman in a full face veil who introduced herself as “Om Ahmed”. Her choice was vastly different from that of the other two women who were both younger and were clad in Western-style jeans and T-shirts. She said she would vote for Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s presidential nominee.
“I want a President who is honest and who is worthy of our trust. Morsi will implement Islamic Sharia law” she explained.
Morsi is the more conservative of two Islamist Presidential hopefuls taking part in the race. He was nominated by the Muslim Brotherhood after the group’s original nominee Khairat el Shatter was disqualified from the race by the National Electoral Commission because of his “criminal record.” Morsi’s last minute nomination has earned him the nickname of “the back-up” or “spare candidate”.
Addressing Cairo University students in a recent election campaign speech he stated that “ the Koran is our constitution, Jihad is our path and death in the name of Allah is our goal.”
Mohamed Yehia, a 21 year-old graduate of the Faculty of Agriculture at Cairo University paraded back and forth between the gender segregated lines carrying a placard that read “Martyrs of the Revolution , we shall not forget your sacrifices”. Another young man raised a poster depicting some of those killed by security forces during the January 2011 mass uprising. Yehia said he and his friend were hoping to remind voters that it was because of the spilt blood and the sacrifices made by the brave young people who confronted Mubarak’s brutal security forces, that Egyptians were now able to freely choose their President. Yehia said he would vote for Abdel Moneim Aboul Fottouh who has been described as a “liberal Islamist”. One of the front runners in the election, Aboul Fottouh’s moderate policies have earned him the support of liberals, ultra-conservative Salafis and Egyptians of starkly different ideologies .
In the populous low income district of Boulak where voter turnout was low, there was clear rejection of the Islamist candidates owing to what one voter described as “their broken promises.”
“There has been little change since they came to parliament. They’ve been concentrating on trivial issues and have not dealt with the important issues like security and the economy,” complained Nasser el Leithy, a trader in a workshop selling car parts .
“The revolution had no leader and so we have been left with the old regime remnants or felool and the Islamists. I’m voting for Ahmed Shafeek…better the devil you know,” he said shrugging his shoulders.
A former Air Force commander, Shafeek is one of the Presidential candidates and a former Prime Minister under Mubarak .
“The country has stalled since the revolution. All we want is for things to starting moving again so that we can get on with our lives. And we don’t care who gets it moving. All we want is to be able to feed our children,” said Tamer Yehia, a mechanic.
Hence the strong showing by former regime figures who are seen by many in this deprived neighborhood as officials with experience in government. But not everyone sees Shafeek as a force for stability as was evident when some protesters threw stones and shoes at the presidential candidate minutes after he cast his ballot, taking aim at him for “being a felool” an expression used by Egyptians to describe those who served under deposed leader Hosni Mubarak.
“Down with military rule! Down with the old regime,” they chanted. “The blood of the martyrs is on your hands.”
With election results expected on the 29 May and a second round anticipated in mid June the country is polarised and skeptics doubt that the appointment of a new President will bring stability anytime soon. They worry that the choice of the new President may in fact deepen the divisions between the secularists and the Islamists and further fuel the already heightened tensions.
24 May 2012 | Leveson Inquiry
Revelations filled Court 73 at the Royal Courts of Justice today, as Adam Smith, former special advisor to Jeremy Hunt, and Frédéric Michel, chief lobbyist for News Corp took to the stand at the Leveson Inquiry.
Adam Smith, who resigned from his position as Jeremy Hunt’s aide after the Inquiry released a collection of emails between himself and Michel, told the court that David Cameron had appointed Hunt to oversee the BSkyB bid, despite demonstrating his support for the move to the Prime Minister.
Smith explained that Hunt sent the Prime Minister a memo, firmly taking the side of James Murdoch, dismissing and criticising the BBC. In the memo, Hunt also tells Cameron the bid should not be blocked, and asks him to intervene in the decision which should have been the sole responsibility of Vince Cable.
The former aide described a “very close working relationship” with Jeremy Hunt, and described that the pair had an understanding of what was expected of him in his role as special advisor. He added that he and his team were unfamiliar with a “quasi-judicial role”, until Hunt was appointed to oversee the bid, but explained that he approached it in the same way as every other policy.
He added: “My understanding was that Mr Hunt had to decide on the media plurality issues, and Mr Hunt himself had to decide on the bid. There was no difference in the way I approached it.”
Describing his role as Hunt’s advisor, Smith explained acted as a point of contact for organisations wishing to speak to the Secretary of State. He said he would be on the “receiving end of people phoning up to have a grumble about a process”. With particular focus on the BSkyB bid, Smith told the court he acted as “a buffer and a channel of communication” for News Corp.
When asked by Robert Jay QC whether he felt the assertion that Hunt was a “cheerleader” for News Corp as true, Smith disagreed, stating: “He didn’t really have that much of a relationship with ether of the Murdoch’s — he tended to deal with, as the inquiry has heard, Michel.”
Towards the end of his brief spell of evidence, which will continue tomorrow, Smith told the court that his views on the bid which were based purely on expert evidence, were broadly the same as Hunt’s. He added: “I didn’t particularly mind either way whether it happened or not. In a funny sort of way I didn’t see what everyone was getting so worked up about.”
In a much longer session of evidence, Jay thoroughly questioned Frédéric Michel on the emails exchanged between himself, Jeremy Hunt and Adam Smith. Jay detailed more than 1000 text messages which were sent between News Corp and the bid office, along with 191 phone-calls and 158 emails.
Michel insisted to the court that he was under the “impression” that Hunt was aware of the details being passed to him by Smith, in relation to the BSkyB bid, and believed that the “feedback” he was receiving from the aide had been discussed with Hunt. Michel added that the purpose of his contact was to “check the temperature at Westminster.”
The lobbyist also told the court that he received no legal advice into the meaning of a quasi-judicial role, but was aware it was regarded as inappropriate to have discussions with the Secretary of State.
He said: “It was the first time I had to deal with such a transaction — I didn’t have specific detailed reminder of what it meant to have a quasi-judicial process. I was never of the view that it was inappropriate to try to put the view to these offices. The legal team assessed that they key element of a quasi-judicial process was not to have inappropriate contact with the secretary of state.”
Despite that, Jay outlined a range of text messages and emails contacting Hunt, and raised the question of whether his contact with Smith was appropriate. Michel consistently denied that the contact was inappropriate, and stressed that Smith did not offer him a “running commentary” of the proceedings related to the bid.
Michel said: “Smith gave me updates on timings, process, atmospherics of the day. We were in contact a lot and I guess he was being helpful on the process. I think running commentary is a very broad definition. I think it was much more precise than chit chat commentary.”
He added: “Adam has always been a very warm, professional, available adviser, and always very diligent in his work with me. The only interactions I have had with him were always professional and reliable.”
Adam Smith will appear before the inquiry to complete his evidence tomorrow morning, and Jeremy Hunt is expected to be called to give evidence next week.
24 May 2012 | Middle East and North Africa
A Bahraini court today ruled that activist Zainab Alkhawaja will serve an additional month in prison for allegedly attacking a policewoman during anti-government protests. Alkhawaja was initially arrested on 21 April, during the weekend of the controversial Bahrain Grand Prix. The activist is also the daughter of jailed activist and hunger striker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, who is currently serving a life sentence for his involvement in anti-government protests last year. Zainab wrote a letter from prison on 19 May, saying that she would not attend any hearings, even if a court appearance could secure her release:
The judge might think that I will be attending my next trial session. He told my lawyer the last time I was not present that he might have considered releasing me had I gone to court. Not only does that statement carry no weight when spoken by a judge who is ruling in an unfair political trial but what he should release is that it is not my release from prison that I seek.
Yes, I do dream of my daughter, while I sleep and also when I’m awake, but when I am home with her, I know my mind won’t be at peace. Jaffar, an innocent man who was shot in the face with birdshot gun, Jaffar who lost both his eyes. Jaffar who was sentenced in a trial that lasted less than 15 minutes, without a lawyer, without any family members, the judge looked at the blind injured man, and he shouted “Don’t bother sitting, you are sentenced to 2 years in prison.”
I could hold my daughter in my arms, but ill close my eyes and imagine Jafffar hearing his daughters voices after months and months living in prison, in darkness. But as he reaches out to his babies, a guard shouts at him “You’re not allowed to touch them!”
Among them ill see, a handmade wrist band, made by a political prisoner. Hassan Oun, a boy who has been arrested more than 5 times in his young life. Hassan Oun who is a torture victim who spoke out, he dared to come forward and speak up. But his courage did not save him from the hands of his torturers. Hassan was re-arrested, and we could not save him from being subjected to the same nightmare again. Though I never met Hassan, I did meet his younger brother. I still remember his smile as he drank warm milk and told me to take a picture of him “who knows, I might be the next detainee” he said. In a call from prison I was told Ahmed has been injured, when he went to hospital he was detained, for the second time.
In the same prison the Oun brothers are detained in there are hundreds of other political prisoners. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are cells kept for specific families, for example the family of 14yr old martyr Ali Al-Shaikh. Not only was Ali killed, but his family are being punished. Many of his family members have been in and out of jail. Some, the ones who witnessed the killing, have not come out.
I might get released, but young Mansoor won’t be waiting to ask me “what abuses are we documenting today?” Although a high school student he was determined to become an activist, to help in any way he could. Last time I spoke to him he did not ask me what he could do to help, but he asked me to plz pray for him, to pray that they don’t take him back to the interrogation room.
If I get released, every village I pass through will shout the names of countless prisoners of conscience. All the walls will show me their faces. Around me, I will see their grief-stricken mothers and fathers, their wives, their children crying for her children as I write. I am not Zainab only, I am Jaffar and Hassan, I am Ahmed and Abbas, I am Masooma and Mansoor. My case is the case of hundreds of innocent political prisoners in Bahrain, my release, without them, means nothing to me.
I will not be attending my trials, no matter how many they are. Freedom, and not my release, is what I want and dream of. I will sit in my prison cell, I will listen to its walls reciting the poetry of another political prison Sadeq Al-Ghasra, reminding me that our struggle for liberty shall continue not only from inside this prison but even from under the soil.
All my admiration, for my imprisoned brothers and sisters. Whose determination and patience give me hope.
–Zainab Alkhawaja Isa Town Prison 19th May 2012
24 May 2012 | Middle East and North Africa, Uncategorized
Anonymous renowned Tunisian caricaturist _Z_ is under fire. His bold caricaturist style, no stranger to his fans, has landed him in trouble.
For years, his caricatures mocked Ben Ali’s autocratic and corrupt regime. The regime censored his caricatures, but did not succeed in tracking him down and exposing his identity. In 2009, police arrested blogger Fatma Riahi, and accused her of being behind _Z_.
More than 18 months after the fall of the regime, _Z_ still desires to conceal his identity. His caricatures now target the Islamists of Tunisia. _Z_ knows no boundaries, no red lines. For him anything can be caricatured and ridiculed. Something, many in Tunisia will not like, especially when it comes to what they consider as “sacred”, and “immoral”.
On 18 May, Facebook removed two cartoons by _Z_ following complaints the social networking site received. The cartoonist wrote about the decision on his blog the same day:
“Two caricatures published on my Facebook page DEBA Tunisie have just been censored. Each caricature contains little bit of sex, little bit of politics, and little bit of religion. There will always be an orthodox Tunisian who would snivel about them [caricatures] to Zuckerberg. My friends, according to our morality guardians there is inevitably a boundary that should not be crossed when it comes to tackling the Saint Trinity of the three Tunisian taboos: politics, sex, and God”
One of _Z_’s censored caricatures ridicules the members of Tunisia’s constitutional assembly, showing them taking part in various distracting activities during a meeting, apart from actually drafting the country’s constitution. Two MPs are shown having anal sex, and others are shown masturbating, playing chess and gambling. Another shows a lively party where a “cleric” says: “have sex, enjoy, and have fun. Paradise is down here. Up there is only bla bla bla!”
Some of _Z_’s caricatures also depict god and Prophet Muhammad, considered to be forbidden in Sunni Islam, leading to the launch of a fierce social media campaign against the artist. Tunisian journalist Thameur Mekki, believed by some to be the anonymous artist, has been the target of death threats meant for _Z_.
Both _Z_ and Mekki have denied these allegations. Mekki told Mag14.com that “this is a murder incitement matter” and said he would “lodge a complaint against those who are disseminating lies”.
