Witnesses to horror
Physician Tarek Loubani and filmmaker John Greyson are witnesses to horror, not radicals bent on overthrowing a government. That much should be clear by now, even to Egypt’s benighted political elites and their security thugs.
The two Canadian men arrived in Cairo on Aug. 15, planning to travel directly on to Gaza where Loubani helps train hospital medical staff. But they were stranded by the political turmoil that has plagued Egypt since July 3, when Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s military overthrew President Mohammed Morsi’s elected, Muslim Brotherhood-led government. They were arrested exactly one day later. They didn’t have time to conspire with the Brotherhood to reverse the coup, much less take up arms against it.
This is a point Prime Minister Stephen Harper should shout down the phone line to his Egyptian counterpart, if that is what it takes to get the two men freed from jail where they have been held for 45 days (and remanded for 45 more) without being formally charged. Their crime, if any, was to foolishly decide to “check out” Ramses Square, as they put it, on Aug. 16 just as a protest turned ugly. It was a bad moment to be in the street.
What they encountered was horrifying. People were shot and Loubani found himself trying to save lives. Greyson began taking video. “The wounded and dying never stopped coming,” the pair said in a statement from their jail cell that was issued on the weekend. “Between us, we saw over 50 Egyptians die: students, workers, professionals, all shapes, all ages, unarmed.” They were witnesses to carnage. More than 100 died that day.
When they left the scene to head back to their hotel they were snagged by the police cordon around the area, arrested, beaten and jailed. Like 600 others caught in the crackdown on dissenters of every stripe including Brotherhood activists, journalists and labour leaders, they face potential charges of conspiracy, terrorism, arson, possession of weapons and attacking a police station.
The Canadians, who are on a hunger strike protesting their incarceration, say they have the video footage to prove that they were too busy helping the injured, and filming, to have played any role in the violence. Far from making a credible case against them the Egyptian courts seem fated only to embarrass themselves if this goes to trial. Both are idealists, not violent radicals. Dr. Loubani is a professor at Western University and a well-known humanitarian. Greyson is an award-winning filmmaker who teaches at York University. The Canadian government has vouched for them.
This is the depth to which Egypt has sunk with the coup’s betrayal of the 2011 democratic revolution. This contempt for elementary due process and the law is straining relations with friendly countries including the United States and Canada. It is frightening away investment, tourism and aid. And it is further blackening the new regime’s already tarnished image.