facility:tora prison

Galal El-Behairy - PEN America
▻https://pen.org/advocacy-case/galal-el-behairy

https://pen.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/el-behairy-galal-headshot.jpg

Galal El-Behairy is an Egyptian poet, lyricist, and activist who has been in detention in Tora Prison in Cairo since March 2018. Early this year he collaborated with musician Ramy Essam on the song “Balaha” and was planning to publish a book of poetry, both of which caused him to be detained, tortured, and imprisoned unjustly for several months awaiting a court indictment. El-Behairy was arrested five days after the release of “Balaha,” disappeared for a week, and exhibited signs of torture when he appeared before the High State Security Prosecution. El-Behairy is currently being held in detention under the High State Security’s charges of terrorist affiliation, dissemination of false news, abuse of social media networks, blasphemy, contempt of religion, and insulting the military. The verdict in his case was expected on May 16, but was then rescheduled to June 27, 2018, and again to July 28, 2018.

En définitive, c’est 3 ans de prison.

▻https://www.raialyoum.com/index.php/%d8%ad%d8%a8%d8%b3-%d8%b4%d8%a7%d8%b9%d8%b1-%d9%85%d8%b5%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d8%

#poésie_arabe #égypte

Writer Ahmed Naji prevented from leaving Egypt | MadaMasr
▻https://www.madamasr.com/en/2017/07/06/news/culture/writer-ahmed-naji-prevented-from-leaving-egypt

Writer Ahmed Naji was prevented from leaving Egypt early on Thursday morning. On attempting to fly out of Cairo International Airport, he was informed that he is still banned from travel, based on a decision issued by the public prosecutor’s office.

On May 21, Naji won an appeal against a two-year prison sentence — 300 days of which he had already served — for “violating public modesty” when a chapter of his novel Istikhdam al-Haya (The Use of Life, 2014) was published in the weekly Akhbar Al-Adab newspaper. He was released from Tora Prison in December, after the South Cairo Criminal Court suspended his prison term.

Et pour faire bonne mesure : Censorship Board bans songs from Cairokee’s new album : ▻https://www.madamasr.com/en/2017/07/05/news/culture/censorship-board-bans-songs-from-cairokees-new-album

Aya Hegazy trial postponed for 5th time after court unable to turn on laptop | Mada Masr
▻http://www.madamasr.com/news/aya-hegazy-trial-postponed-5th-time-after-court-unable-turn-laptop

The defendants, who run the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Belady Foundation for Street Children, face a total of seven criminal charges for running an unlicensed organization, inciting street children to join pro-Muslim Brotherhood protests and sexually assaulting minors.

Hegazy’s brother Basel told Mada Masr that when the court-appointed technician failed to turn on a laptop that was confiscated from Belady’s headquarters, the Abdeen Criminal Court summoned a committee from Maspero to attend the next hearing. The committee would be required to present its report on the prosecution’s technical evidence on April 20.

The trial has now been postponed five separate times, with Hegazy and the other female defendants held in pretrial detention for more than 600 days at Cairo’s Qanater Women’s Prison, while the male defendants are in custody at Tora Prison. One defendant is being tried in absentia. The case goes back to May 2014, when police raided the Belady Foundation’s headquarters and arrested everyone on the premise.

Only four hearings have taken place so far. At the first session, the trial was postponed for six months due to the absence of witnesses, while the second hearing was postponed for another six months when the police force tasked with transporting the defendants from their respective prisons to the courtroom showed up late. The court has yet to hear any witnesses, and the prosecution has yet to present any evidence.

l’ #égypte quoi !...

Imprisoned activist Alaa Abd El Fattah speaks from Tora | Mada Masr

▻http://www.madamasr.com/sections/politics/imprisoned-activist-alaa-abd-el-fattah-speaks-tora

Alaa Abd El Fattah, outspoken software tecchie, blogger and political activist, has spoken to the media for the first time since he began serving his latest sentence at Tora Prison.

Abd El Fattah is serving a five-year prison sentence for being at a civil gathering in front of the Shura Council in November 2013 to protest a constitutional provision allowing the military to court-martial civilians.

The questions were sent by journalist Moataz Shams al-Din to Abd El Fattah’s mother, mathematics professor Laila Soueif, who put them to her son during a visit. On the way home she wrote down his responses and relayed them back to the journalist. No papers were exchanged between Alaa and his mother.

Recently, the courts upheld a one-year sentence against Abd El Fattah for “burning down the headquarters of [presidential candidate] General Ahmed Shafiq.” The prosecution has also brought another case against him for “insulting the judiciary."

Egypte : Le journaliste Mahmoud Abou Zeid (Shawkan) détenu depuis près de 2 ans sans charges ni procès - CPJ

Il devrait être entendu par la justice aujourd’hui. A suivre sur Twitter : @sharifkouddous

Affiliation: Freelance
Prison term: Pre-trial detention
Charges: No charges
Held at: Tora Prison

Mahmoud Abou Zeid, a freelance photographer who is known professionally as Shawkan, was one of several journalists detained in Cairo while covering clashes between Egyptian security forces and supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi on August 14, 2013, according to news reports. Abou Zeid, who has contributed to local and international websites, has been accused of illegal assembly, murder, attempted murder, and possessing weapons—the same allegations levied against hundreds of protesters detained during the clashes last summer. No charges have been filed against Abou Zeid, but his appeal for release has been denied. His pretrial detention has been extended several times.

The photographer has contributed to the U.K.-based citizen journalism site and photo agency Demotix and digital media company Corbis. After he was detained, Demotix sent a letter to Egyptian authorities confirming that Abou Zeid was covering the clashes for the agency, the photographer’s brother, Mohamed Abou Zeid, told CPJ.

Key fact : In 2012, no journalists were in prison in Egypt, compared with five in late 2013.

Key works : A source close to Abou Zeid snuck out his written account from Tora Prison for an article published on March 3.
Abou Zeid’s profile page at Demotix features several of his photos.

Sur @OrientXXI Massacre de Rabaa : le rapport que les autorités égyptiennes ne veulent pas qu’on lise ▻http://www.orientxxi.info/lu-vu-entendu/massacre-de-rabaa-le-rapport-que,0654

Égypte, guerre ouverte contre le journalisme ▻http://www.orientxxi.info/magazine/egypte-guerre-ouverte-contre-le,0605

Jailed Leaders of Egypt’s 2011 Revolt Describe Beatings - NYTimes.com
▻http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/jailed-leaders-of-egypts-2011-revolt-describe-beatings

In a letter smuggled out of Tora Prison over the weekend, Mr. Maher wrote of recently encountering another group of activists who took part in the 2011 uprising and were jailed for protesting on the revolution’s third anniversary in January. Those detainees, Mr. Maher wrote, “exhibited signs of exhaustion and torture.”

According to an English translation of the letter provided to The Lede by Michelle McElroy, an activist in Los Angeles who acts as a United States spokeswoman for the April 6 Youth Movement, Mr. Maher discussed the issue of torture in Egypt’s prisons at length, and concluded with a warning that such violence by the state would lead to only more violence against the state:

#Egypt: Mubarak Holdovers Make Political Comeback
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/egypt-mubarak-holdovers-make-political-comeback

http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/4cols/leading_images/048892-01-08.jpg

An Egyptian supporter of former Egyptian president #Hosni_Mubarak ululates as she raises up his portrait outside the Tora prison where Mubarak is detained, on August 22, 2013 in Cairo.(Photo: AFP - Mohamed El-Shahed). An Egyptian supporter of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak ululates as she raises up his portrait outside the Tora prison where Mubarak is detained, on August 22, 2013 in Cairo.(Photo: AFP - Mohamed El-Shahed).

Cairo – It seems that the holdovers of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s regime have been slowly creeping back to political life, albeit donning a new political livery, away from the slogans of the #National_Democratic_Party (NDP) that ruled Egypt for more than three decades before its (...)

#Mideast_&_North_Africa #Abdel-Fattah_al-Sisi #Articles #National_Front_Coalition

Egyptian anger grows after latest case of death by torture | World news | guardian.co.uk
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/28/egypt-anger-grows-death-torture

Egyptian officials have tortured a 24-year-old prisoner to death, provoking accusations that the increasingly unpopular junta is failing to dismantle Hosni Mubarak’s brutal security apparatus.

Essam Ali Atta, a civilian serving a two-year jail term in Cairo’s high-security Tora prison following his conviction in a military tribunal earlier this year for an apparently “common crime”, was reportedly attacked by prison guards after trying to smuggle a mobile phone sim card into his cell.

According to statements from other prisoners who witnessed the assault, Atta had large water hoses repeatedly forced into his mouth and anus on more than one occasion, causing severe internal bleeding. An officer then transferred Atta to a central Cairo hospital, but he died within an hour.