Ya Libnan

Egypt bans Lebanese human rights advocate from petition against death sentences

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egypt pro morsi protestEgypt has barred entry to a Lebanese activist who wanted to deliver a petition against a court’s death sentences for 529 alleged rioters, an official with the activist’s group said Friday.

Wissam Tarif, a member of the U.S.-based Avaaz human rights organization, was detained at Cairo airport for several hours and put on a flight back to Lebanon, said the group’s spokesman Sam Barratt.

A court in southern Egypt sentenced 529 people to death last month for deadly rioting, after a perfunctory trial.

The sentences are likely to be overturned on appeal because the court did not even bother confirming the presence of the defendants at the start of the trial, legal experts say.

Tarif had planned to present the petition that of more than one million signatures gathered online to the mufti, the government’s official interpreter of Islamic law.

Egypt courts consult the mufti on death sentences as a formality, before holding a final hearing to confirm the judgment.

Hundreds of alleged Islamists have also been sentenced to prison terms for violence in the wake of the army’s ousting of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July.

Naharnet

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7 responses to “Egypt bans Lebanese human rights advocate from petition against death sentences”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    No Activism Allowed. Had enough of that stuff.

  2. Btru2u Avatar
    Btru2u

    A 31-year-old farmer from Qena Governorate in Upper Egypt, Omar Abul Maged, got sentenced to a year in prison on Sunday due to naming his donkey after former military chief and now presidential candidate, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

    Earlier in September 2013, Abul Maged – a pro-Morsi citizen – protested against the military-led government in quite the unusual manner.

    He dressed his donkey in a military hat, as well as military style clothing, slapped al-Sisi’s name onto the side of the donkey, and paraded the animal across his village. Seeing this as a sign of great disrespect, anti-Morsi villagers notified the police and Abul Maged was held in custody for six months.

    After a six month long wait, the Qena Misdemeanor Court finally issued its verdict on Sunday, sentencing Abul Maged to a year in prison for “humiliating the military.”

    Recently, there has been a number of judiciary penalties issued against government and military dissenters.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      Yup. Nobody can take a joke anywhere ‘over there’.
      (Great Costume – although spreading it on the net might make the year in jail more difficult,)

  3. Btru2u Avatar
    Btru2u

    A 31-year-old farmer from Qena Governorate in Upper Egypt, Omar Abul Maged, got sentenced to a year in prison on Sunday due to naming his donkey after former military chief and now presidential candidate, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

    Earlier in September 2013, Abul Maged – a pro-Morsi citizen – protested against the military-led government in quite the unusual manner.

    He dressed his donkey in a military hat, as well as military style clothing, slapped al-Sisi’s name onto the side of the donkey, and paraded the animal across his village. Seeing this as a sign of great disrespect, anti-Morsi villagers notified the police and Abul Maged was held in custody for six months.

    After a six month long wait, the Qena Misdemeanor Court finally issued its verdict on Sunday, sentencing Abul Maged to a year in prison for “humiliating the military.”

    Recently, there has been a number of judiciary penalties issued against government and military dissenters. “CONTINUE THE REVOLUTION “

  4. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    Speaking of ‘Human Rights’ …. (In Lebanon, of course) (a misunderstood concept it seems)

    SO HEZZY’S ARE NICER ??
    “It’s a familiar story to Dr. Kassem al-Zein, a Syrian national who runs a field clinic in Arsal and said several of his patients had been beaten at an informal checkpoint in the Labweh area before reaching the hospital.
    While patients with manifest injuries are mostly allowed to pass without much hassle, Zein said, those who appeared only lightly wounded or had internal injuries were often harassed at the checkpoint.
    “All the patients who can move can be subject to a severe beating … at the Labweh checkpoint,” he said.
    The informal checkpoint was erected by Hezbollah a few months ago on the sole road leading into Arsal, an isolated border town high up in the Anti- Lebanon Mountain range, and is policed by armed members of the party. The men, who sometimes wear Hezbollah armbands, wave cars to the side of the road, tersely open trunks and question passengers they deem suspicious.
    Another doctor in Arsal, who wished to remain anonymous, said his patients often told him similar stories. “Several of the patients said that some of the armed people shouted at them, and others said they were beaten. They [the gunmen] say, ‘Where is the injury? I want to see the injury.’”
    The doctor added that while his work was strictly humanitarian, he tried not to leave Arsal often for fear of being stopped at the Labweh checkpoint and harassed – or worse.
    Zein said the checkpoint had taken its toll, particularly on patients who required specialist doctors such as optometrists.
    “There are several patients who have eye injuries or diseases who have suffered some complications, and in some cases even lost their sight, because we couldn’t transport them to better hospitals,” he said. “One patient who initially needed vein reconstruction surgery was beaten and now needs eye surgery too.”

    AND ON THE OTHER HAND ….

    But the issue of obstructing basic health care for sectarian reasons is not limited to Arsal.
    Patients in the overwhelmingly Alawite Tripoli neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen in North Lebanon have suffered a similar fate during recent clashes in Tripoli, with Sunni gunmen sniping at ambulances in an attempt to stall them, according to health professionals in the area.
    During clashes in the last few months, it has proven extremely difficult to evacuate critical patients from Jabal Mohsen. When someone from the neighborhood is injured and needs to be evacuated, the Lebanese Red Cross is required to call the operating militia leaders in the area and ask them to stop shooting so they can retrieve the patient.
    “You have to make many calls to different militias,” said Roger Bafitos, who works with a Red Cross ambulance crew. “It takes time. … Sometimes there are complications.”
    According to Noureddine Eid, the managing director of a clinic in Jabal Mohsen, some patients died needlessly because medical staff were unable to get them to a hospital in time.
    “You have the feeling that you’re standing above a patient who is dying, and there is nothing you can do for him,” Eid said.
    “If an Alawite gets killed, it’s easier than getting shot. Because if he dies, it’s over. But if he gets hit in a critical place, he needs treatment and he needs to get out [of Jabal Mohsen].”
    (Daily Star)

    1. Comtessa di Alba Avatar
      Comtessa di Alba

      You shall be witness..

  5. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    Speaking of ‘Human Rights’ …. (In Lebanon, of course) (a misunderstood concept it seems)

    SO HEZZY’S ARE NICER ??
    “It’s a familiar story to Dr. Kassem al-Zein, a Syrian national who runs a field clinic in Arsal and said several of his patients had been beaten at an informal checkpoint in the Labweh area before reaching the hospital.
    While patients with manifest injuries are mostly allowed to pass without much hassle, Zein said, those who appeared only lightly wounded or had internal injuries were often harassed at the checkpoint.
    “All the patients who can move can be subject to a severe beating … at the Labweh checkpoint,” he said.
    The informal checkpoint was erected by Hezbollah a few months ago on the sole road leading into Arsal, an isolated border town high up in the Anti- Lebanon Mountain range, and is policed by armed members of the party. The men, who sometimes wear Hezbollah armbands, wave cars to the side of the road, tersely open trunks and question passengers they deem suspicious.
    Another doctor in Arsal, who wished to remain anonymous, said his patients often told him similar stories. “Several of the patients said that some of the armed people shouted at them, and others said they were beaten. They [the gunmen] say, ‘Where is the injury? I want to see the injury.’”
    The doctor added that while his work was strictly humanitarian, he tried not to leave Arsal often for fear of being stopped at the Labweh checkpoint and harassed – or worse.
    Zein said the checkpoint had taken its toll, particularly on patients who required specialist doctors such as optometrists.
    “There are several patients who have eye injuries or diseases who have suffered some complications, and in some cases even lost their sight, because we couldn’t transport them to better hospitals,” he said. “One patient who initially needed vein reconstruction surgery was beaten and now needs eye surgery too.”

    AND ON THE OTHER HAND ….

    But the issue of obstructing basic health care for sectarian reasons is not limited to Arsal.
    Patients in the overwhelmingly Alawite Tripoli neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen in North Lebanon have suffered a similar fate during recent clashes in Tripoli, with Sunni gunmen sniping at ambulances in an attempt to stall them, according to health professionals in the area.
    During clashes in the last few months, it has proven extremely difficult to evacuate critical patients from Jabal Mohsen. When someone from the neighborhood is injured and needs to be evacuated, the Lebanese Red Cross is required to call the operating militia leaders in the area and ask them to stop shooting so they can retrieve the patient.
    “You have to make many calls to different militias,” said Roger Bafitos, who works with a Red Cross ambulance crew. “It takes time. … Sometimes there are complications.”
    According to Noureddine Eid, the managing director of a clinic in Jabal Mohsen, some patients died needlessly because medical staff were unable to get them to a hospital in time.
    “You have the feeling that you’re standing above a patient who is dying, and there is nothing you can do for him,” Eid said.
    “If an Alawite gets killed, it’s easier than getting shot. Because if he dies, it’s over. But if he gets hit in a critical place, he needs treatment and he needs to get out [of Jabal Mohsen].”
    (Daily Star)

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