May  06 Newsletter

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400 Arrested as Egyptians Rally To Support Embattled Judiciary
Jennye Greene

Police Crush Everything Save Demonstrators’ Determination
 Everyone said May 18 was going to be a hard day. The hearing for the two justices indicted for their outspokenness had been postponed and thus coincided with the date the Court of Cassation was to hand down its decision on the appeal of liberal activist Ayman Nour who received a five-year sentence on charges of forging documents to license his Ghad party. May 18 followed on the heels of a month of demonstrations and sit-ins. Hundreds of activists, bloggers, journalists, Muslim Brothers had already been detained from previous clashes with the police on the streets. Many others had been rounded up, taken from their homes in the middle of the night.

            The regime made a dernier resort to the Emergency Law a few days prior, the one Mubarak promised during his presidential campaign to revoke, the one the government said would only be used against terrorists, never its citizens. They declared it illegal to form groups of more than 5 persons, illegal to approach the High Court building, illegal to take pictures, illegal to demonstrate. Those sneaky terrorists, terrorizing an ossified and decrepit autocracy with calls for an independent judiciary; what will they think of next?

            The week before, a strange and eerily clear video of a woman being brutally beaten by security forces was circulated. Or at least rumors that this video existed were being circulated. Some believed it; others believed it was a campaign of disinformation aimed at striking fear in the hearts of would-be demonstrators.

            And they had every reason to be afraid. Some 400 demonstrators were arrested on May 18. I saw grown men with looks of terror on their faces cry as they were being shoved by plain clothes police into waiting paddy wagons. They had no doubt heard stories about what would happen to them afterward. I saw at least a hundred of those same police surround two men they had caught and dragged inside the security cordon in front of the high court. They kept calling others over to block the view of the journalists and keep them from getting a clear shot. But through their legs I caught glimpses of bloody faces, bodies on the ground being sporadically kicked, satchels being emptied and ripped apart. Not ten minutes later, an ambulance arrived.

            Women weren’t spared either. The daily “Al-Masry Al-Yom” reported the following day that women were hauled off as well. I saw one woman clubbed so forcefully over the head that she received a concussion and lay motionless on the ground for half an hour. Though violence against women is not surprising in a country where 90% of married women report having been physically abused at least once at home, at the same time, there has long been a taboo against open displays of State-sponsored aggression against women. As a sarcastic aside, one person chimed in, “Finally, equality before the [emergency] law.” Worse than that, women were sexually molested by police in the streets, a forceful message of deterrence in a society which considers that above and beyond shameful and dishonorable.

            And in spite of it all, the recent, stepped-up repression of the Mubarak regime has had a galvanizing effect on all the opposition movements. To some extent the barricades of fear upon which authoritarian regimes prop themselves up have started to crumble. In spite of the emergency law, in spite of the 10,000 central security forces and the hundreds of plain clothes cops, in spite of the arrests, masses of people took to the streets throughout the whole of the day to protest on behalf of the judges and Ayman Nour. Demonstrations are now almost a daily occurrence and every week the action now seems larger, more serious, and better organized than the one before. Every time the security cordon grows larger by a block or so. Every week, there seems to be more of a sense of camaraderie and cooperation between vastly different groups of the opposition.

            In the same protest could be heard: “There is no God but Allah and Mohamed is the Prophet of Allah,” “Ayman Nour, son of the Nile, we’ll opt for you generation after generation” “Down with Hosni Mubarak, and Gamal Mubarak, and Habib el-Adly,” “State Security, Dogs of the State,” “Gird yourselves, O judges! Save us from tyranny,” “Shame on you,” “Freedom for the people of Egypt,” “O Injustice, cry for your loss, the judges are like fingernails in your neck.”

            Members of Kefaya and al-Ghad and others joined a silent demonstration with 20 or so Muslim Brotherhood members of parliament (87 of the 88 of them had descended into the streets and were circumnavigating the security cordon in several groups). There, demonstrators enjoyed a rare, hassle-free moment under their protection. Everyone paused for a photo-op, the parliamentarians wearing banners saying “representatives of the people [in solidarity] with the judiciary of the people.” It was a touching picture of a broad-based and diverse, yet united opposition.

            The moment ended when plain clothes security forces ran in, arms locked, and cornered groups of supporters against the side of building. I personally saw no violence, no arrests at that time; they just held us there. The security forces that held us, the ones that I could see, were nothing at all like the tall, muscular, confident, baton-wielding thugs that had been dragging demonstrators off all morning. At most, they looked maybe fifteen years old, possibly like they had been recruited that morning, like the regime was really scraping the bottom of the barrel in order to regain control of the streets. Eventually, one of the members of parliament reappeared, chatting amicably with an officer who broke the chain and ushered us out. They shook hands and laughed together. The whole episode was almost comical in the context of the violent incidents throughout the rest of the day. The people around me noted the ridiculousness of the situation as well and, once again, the fear temporarily abated.

Judges Pulled in Many Different Directions but Still Determined to Push Forward

Of the two Court of Cassation judges indicted for blowing the whistle in last year’s parliamentary elections, Mahmoud Mekky was cleared of all charges and Hesham al-Bastawisi, who just 24 hours before the hearing was hospitalized with a heart attack, was reprimanded in absence in a hearing that took place on May 18. Many view this as a government maneuver to concede while at the same time saving face. If al-Bastiwisi should for any reason not fully recover from his heart attack, then the case will become something of a moot point. Should al-Bastawisi challenge the ruling, it will happen in a quieter place and less frenzied time without all the accompanying brouhaha.

            The government was clearly forced to back down in this instance, but the danger remains that civil society might be tempted to rest on its laurels, being distracted by one issue while the real battle ultimately lies in the legislative councils. The government is sitting on a new bill that would reform the judiciary but has thus far refused to submit it to public debate. The fear remains that they will rush it through parliament late one night, without the necessary quorum, without the proper open debate and discussion that such important bills deserve.

            Yet at the same time, the judiciary seems to be afflicted by an apparent schizophrenia. Amidst the din of protests and the commotion of the press, the Judges’ Club has tried to remain focused and is determined to press ahead with its demands for an independent judiciary. However, day by day prominent jurists are being pulled into interviews, onto television programs, and of late, large number of judges have been going down into the streets to meet with democracy supporters. Some say that the judges are tarnishing themselves by transforming into what essentially amounts to an opposition party, a position unbecoming a major branch of government.

            Of special significance is that the judges’ cause is solidly backed by Islamists, by far the strongest presences in the streets, led by the Muslim Brotherhood representatives in the parliament; this in addition to being the rallying point for leftist and liberal opposition. Likewise, the judges are even divided amongst themselves with some government loyalists stating that there is no problem and that the judiciary is already fully independent. So are the judges progressive reformers or conservative ones? Are they a part of the government or in opposition to it?

            No doubt some very substantial changes have been taking place at the heart of the Judges’ reform movement. Just a few years ago, the number of reform-minded judges was extremely small; now, of the 8,000 judges in Egypt, all but the 2,000 regime cronies have expressed their solidarity with their colleagues’ cause. Judges used to be aligned with some of the most conservative portions of society; yet the day of the hearing, several women, reporters and activists sat casually on the tables inside the crowded library of the High Court where the judges were awaiting the verdict. As they lit cigarettes, several of them made an offhand comment to the effect that numerous taboos had already been smashed today, what could one more hurt? But still, they said, can you believe it – women smoking in front of the judges? And who among the public even thought about judicial reform before last year? Today, judges are practically treated as rock stars; supporters cheered loudly and threw rose petals from the balconies of nearby syndicate buildings as they passed in the streets on a way to a meeting in the Judge’s Club after the hearing. It should be interesting to observe the image of the judges a year from snow, as it will undoubtedly reflect the outcome of their sparring with the government.