Egypt detains 24 for protesting
Court hands down 11 years jail term to 21 women
CAIRO, Nov 27, (Agencies): Egyptian authorities took a step Wednesday toward prosecuting 24 detained activists for holding a street rally and violating a new law banning protests without permits, fueling calls for new protests in a mounting confrontation between the militarybacked government and democracy advocates.
The Cabinet vowed to continue implementing the law, linking it to Egypt’s fight against terrorism, a term used to label actions by supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood group. Still, the Interior Ministry appeared to be trying to avoid an immediate clash, saying it has granted a permit for a protest Wednesday
The announcement by prosecutors that the activists would be held for questioning came a day after security forces broke up two small protests in Cairo by secular activists, blasting them with water cannons and beating many. A group of around a dozen female protesters were detained by police and dropped off in the desert in the middle of the night to intimidate them, several of them said.
It was the first implementation of the controversial protest law issued earlier this week which rights experts, activists and some politicians allied to the government have blasted as dragging Egypt back into the authoritarian ways of Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in 2011.
The government has said the law is necessary to put an end to persistent protests by supporters of Morsi, the elected president who was removed by the military in July in popularly backed coup. Instead, it has sparked a confrontation with secular youth activists and revealed fragility of the loose alliance that emerged after the coup against Morsi.
Youth groups called for protests Wednesday to press for the detainees’ release and push the government to abolish the law. By midday, a handful of protesters headed to Cairo’s city center.
Meanwhile, two Egyptian pro-democracy campaigners renowned for their role in the popular uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak are to be arrested for inciting protests, a source in the prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.
The arrest orders for Ahmed Maher, head of the April 6 youth movement, and Alaa Abdel Fattah were issued a day after they joined demonstrations outside parliament in defiance of a law passed by the army-backed government on Sunday to curb protests.
Meanwhile, an Egyptian court has handed down heavy sentences of 11 years in prison to 21 female supporters of the ousted Islamist president, many of them juveniles, for holding a protest.