Archive for military council

Judicial sources: Prosecutors investigate complaints against Tantawi, Anan

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November 12th, 2012

Civilian prosecutors plan to speak to those who have filed complaints against former military council head Hussein Tantawi and his deputy, Sami Anan, before their grievances are referred to the Military Prosecution for further investigation, sources at the Justice Ministry told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

The sources said prosecutors on Monday began investigating a complaint filed by former MP Mohamed al-Omda, accusing Tantawi, Supreme Constitutional Court head Maher al-Beheiry and former Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri of squandering public funds.

The sources, however, said Justice Minister Ahmed Mekky excluded Tantawi from complaints related to the killing of protesters during the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces’ rule, only considering complaints against Anan and former military police commander Hamdy Badeen.

Various complaints have been filed against Tantawi and Anan demanding that they be prosecuted for corruption and the murder of protesters in several bloody incidents during the transitional period from 11 February 2011 to 30 June 2012.

President Mohamed Morsy sent both military leaders to retirement in August before granting them honorary medals.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Al-Gomhurriya editor suspended for reporting SCAF travel bans

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October 17th, 2012

Shura Council speaker Ahmed Fahmy, the head of the Supreme Press Council, decided on Wednesday to replace Al-Gomhurriya Chief Editor Gamal Abdel Rahim after the paper published false reports on Wednesday that former military council leaders Hussein Tantawi and Sami Anan were banned from leaving the country.

Fahmy appointed Abdel Azim al-Bably acting editor-in-chief until the next council session, which would discuss the matter.

Al-Gomhurriya had published on its front page that Tantawi and Anan are not allowed to travel outside Egypt. A judicial source had earlier denied that travel bans are in place for the two former military leaders.  

An official military source told state TV's website that the Armed Forces are deeply dissatisfied over the story and consider it a great insult to the leaders and symbols of the Armed Forces.

“The men of the Armed Forces demand that the media exercise precision and caution in dealing with stories about the military, lest they negatively impact Egyptian national security,” the source said.

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NGO calls for referring Tantawi, former intelligence chief to trial

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August 17th, 2012

A human rights report issued by an NGO called on President Mohamed Morsy to refer current and former officials to trial in the aftermath of an attack at the border earlier this month.

The Appropriate Communications Techniques for Development group issued the report, which asked that former military council head Hussein Tantawi, former intelligence chief Mourad Mowafy and the North Sinai governor be charged with “gross negligence, the willful harm of the safety of the homeland, and failure to perform the tasks entrusted to them after 16 recruits were killed in an attack on a military checkpoint in Sinai two weeks ago.”

The organization issued another report evaluating Morsy’s performance. It accused him of following “policies to crack down on the freedom of opinion and expression, contrary to his promises during the [campaigning] period, as he said freedom of information during his reign would not be harmed.”

The report accused the Muslim Brotherhood of adopting exclusionary policies that favor the interests of the group over the interests of the nation.

The suspension of Al-Faraeen channel and the confiscation of an edition of Al-Dostour newspaper is a “severe blow to public freedoms that strike warning bells about the rights and freedoms in light of the choice of chief editors of national newspapers,” the report further said.

The report said Morsy “let women down for the second time” after the appointment of only two women in the Cabinet, which it said brings to mind policies of the formerly ruling National Democratic Party pertaining to women’s representation and participation.

Women’s representation in the Cabinet under Prime Minister Hesham Qandil is no more than 5.7 percent, the report stated.

Granting Tantawi and former Armed Forces Chief of Staff Sami Anan orders and medals of the republic and making them presidential advisers is a “deviation from the path of the revolution and confirms the lack of real political will to eliminate corruption,” the report said.

Morsy had forced Tantawi, the former defense minister, and Anan into retirement Sunday, appointing replacements for their posts and canceling a military-issued supplement to the Constitutional Declaration that had diminished the president’s powers.

Novelist Alaa Al Aswany had said on Twitter Friday that during a meeting with political groups, Morsy did not rule out the possibility of trying former officials.

Aswany said he asked Morsy about honoring Tantawi and Anan and not referring them to trial, and Morsy responded saying that nobody is above accountability in Egypt anymore.

But military experts criticized revolutionary movements calling for the military retirees to stand trial.

Major General Hossam Sweilem told Al-Masry Al-Youm that calls to prosecute members of the military council without providing real evidence to condemn them is a “lack of decency and a betrayal of Egypt.”

Sweilem described those who call for their trial as “traitors to Egypt and to the efforts of the military council over the transition period.”

Military expert and retired Major General Talaat Mesallam said the movements that demanded the prosecution of former military leaders do not have evidence on what they say. He said what they are calling for are “just slogans that aim to separate the people and the Armed Forces.”

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Adviser: Morsy studying Camp David Accords amendment issue

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August 13th, 2012

President Mohamed Morsy is studying whether to amend the Camp David Accords to ensure Egypt’s full sovereignty and control over every inch of Sinai, said Mohamed Gadallah, legal adviser to the president.

Calls for amending the peace treaty with Israel, which also governs the security presence in the Sinai Peninsula, have been on the rise since last week’s attack on a military checkpoint at the border left 16 Egyptian security officers dead.

Former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi called for the amendments Saturday. The Revolutionary Youth Union has filed a lawsuit before an administrative court demanding that the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel be amended.

Morsy has vowed several times since he took office to preserve international treaties that Egypt has signed.

Gadallah didn’t give more details on the issue while speaking to Al-Masry Al-Youm Monday. He added that Morsy would soon order the release of another batch of military detainees.

On Thursday, the Personal Freedom Protection Committee, formed by Morsy to review cases of civilians held in military prisons since the 25 January revolution, completed its second report. It submitted suggestions for amnesty or reduction of sentences for those tried by military courts to the president.

Based on the committee’s first report, on 19 July, Morsy ordered the release of 572 detainees, drawing criticism for including certain extremist Islamists in his pardon.

Regarding Morsy’s latest decision, Gadallah added that there is no disagreement with the armed forces.

“Abolishing the Constitutional Declaration supplement was necessary to correct an exceptional situation,” he said, referring to a document passed by the formerly ruling military council shortly before the presidential election that diminished the president’s powers. “The military council, which reports to the president, should not have legislative powers.”

He said the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces was not involved in the decision.

“The military council was not involved in the appointment of the new defense minister and chief of staff,” he added. “This is the inherent right of the president as supreme commander of the armed forces.”

Gadallah said the dissolved Parliament would not be reinstated, but that legislative power would move to the new parliament. The president would call for its election after the constitution is instated.

But Mahmoud al-Khodeiry, who had been chairman of the dissolved Parliament’s legislative committee, said Parliament should be reinstated to fill the current legislative vacuum.

A July court order dissolved the lower house of Parliament, the People’s Assembly, ruling that parts of the electoral law had been unconstitutional.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Wednesday’s papers: Court strikes back

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July 11th, 2012

With a standoff between the military council and the newly elected president regarding the fate of the Parliament, the Supreme Constitutional Court joined in on Tuesday, adding one more player to the power struggle currently gripping the nation.

State-run daily Al-Ahram reports Wednesday that the country’s highest court halted President Mohamed Morsy's decision to reconvene the lower house of Parliament and decreed that its initial ruling be executed as issued. The military council disbanded the People's Assembly last month after the court ruled that the election of a third of MPs was unconstitutional due to a provision in the electoral law.

The court said in its Tuesday ruling that the interpretations of its decisions are binding for all state institutions, according to Al-Ahram.  Parliament was elected based on unconstitutional laws and is therefore illegitimate,  which necessitates its disbandment by law, with no need for any additional decisions, the state's flagship newspaper reports the court as saying. The court considers the president’s decision an obstacle to the execution of its ruling and consequently issued the decision to halt it, according to Al-Ahram.

Liberal Al-Wafd newspaper, in line with its party’s opposition to Morsy’s decision, leads with, “The constitutional court slaps Morsy back.” The paper quotes a constitutional expert saying that the court’s decision is final, cannot be appealed and returns legislative authority to the military council.

Freedom and Justice, the mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood, responded by casting doubt over the court’s original ruling against the Parliament. The paper announces that FJP lawyer Mokhtar al-Ashry will challenge the court’s decision, alleging that the ruling was published in the Egyptian Gazette, the official publication listing new laws and government decisions, prior to its announcement in court.

The paper also referred to a 1990 Supreme Constitutional Court ruling to justify Morsy’s decision to go against the recent verdict. The 1990 ruling stated, according to the paper, that the president’s decisions are sovereign and outside of the court’s jurisdiction.

The paper quotes the presidency, which has declined to comment to other papers, denouncing judiciary interference in its work.

The FJP also overplays a demonstration organized by the party in Tahrir Square on Tuesday to support the president’s decision to reinstate Parliament. The protest was too small to make it on most front pages, but the FJP described it as “a million-man protest in Tahrir, the uprising of the people to support the president.”

Before the late-evening court ruling, Parliament held a brief session in the absence of many liberal and independent candidates who were boycotting Morsy's decision.

According to independent newspaper Al-Shorouk, Parliament Speaker Saad al-Katatny used the 13-minute long session to refer the ruling to an appeals court to decide on the fate of the Parliament.

In other news, privately owned Al-Watan reports that the Constituent Assembly debate regarding constitution Article 2 is nearing an end as an assembly committee has finally agreed on a phrasing stipulating the “principles of the Islamic Sharia” as the main source of Egypt's legislation.

Emad al-Din Hussein writes in his Al-Shorouk column that the reason for the “security, legal and political maze” that’s engulfing the whole country is the faulty road map adopted at the start of the transition period.

Hussein speculates that Morsy’s decision to reinstate the lower house could be an attempt to prove that he has the power to stand up to the military council, or part of a plan to take over legislative power.

Egypt’s papers:

Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt

Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size

Al-Gomhurriya: Daily, state-run

Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run

Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned

Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned

Al-Watan: Daily, privately owned

Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party

Youm7: Daily, privately owned

Al-Tahrir: Daily, privately owned

Freedom and Justice: Daily, published by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party

Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned

Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Nasserist Party

Al-Nour: Official paper of the Salafi Nour Party

 

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Campaign calls on Morsy to release military trials detainees

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July 9th, 2012

Members of the No to Military Trials campaign called on President Mohamed Morsy on Sunday to release all detainees tried before military tribunals, as a committee formed by the president to investigate the issue begun to meet.

“We have a very bad history with investigative committees,” said journalist and campaign member Rasha Azab in a press conference held at the Journalists Syndicate.

“Nothing has happened from tens of such committees to investigate violations by the military,” she added.

Morsy has formed an investigative committee including representatives from the military judiciary, the military council, legal experts and prominent rights lawyer Ahmed Saif al-Islam Hamad.

The campaign, launched in February last year to end military trials of thousands of civilians, denounced Morsy’s decision to form the committee and urged him to use his executive and legal powers granted by him to pardon all detainees.

At the Sunday press conference, the campaign called on Morsy not to divide the detainees into thugs and political detainees, and to deem free and fair trials as a right for all.

“These victims of such differentiation are the poor, those who could be easily identified as thugs, those who do not have the proper legal and media support to prove their innocence," said activist and campaign member Mona Seif.

“Such division hurts the poor, who are the majority of those tried in front of military courts,” she said.

The latest official numbers released by the military judiciary estimate the numbers of civilians who were subject to military tribunals at 12,000 detainees.

“These estimates are a year old, yet the military judiciary keeps repeating the same number although the trials are continuing,” Seif added. 

She argued that the lack of transparency and referring to detainees as thugs are tools used by the ruling military council in its media offensive against the campaign.

The campaign urged the president-elect to issue a formal apology to the detainees after releasing them, in addition to opening an investigation into violations by the military associated with the tribunals.

The violations included torture, illegal detention and so-called virginity checks on female protesters.

“The president is obliged, as he ordered the dissolved Parliament to return, to outline the legal framework to end military trials against civilians,” said Ahmed Ragheb, head of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center.

The campaign also called on the president not to give any legal immunity to members of the ruling military council, who they said must held accountable for the violations against civilians.

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Lawsuit filed against SCAF to hand full powers to Morsy

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July 2nd, 2012

Lawyer Mohamed Abdel Al filed a lawsuit on Monday at the State Council’s Administrative Court requesting that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces hand over full power to President Mohamed Morsy.

“The military council caused political and economic deterioration and a decline in Egypt's international role by taking over power out of necessity when the former president was ousted. Its policies proved that it considers the Egyptian revolution a mere uprising, and it is trying to restore the former regime,” Abdel Al stated in his lawsuit.

He also said that the supplement to the Constitutional Declaration robbed the powers of the elected institutions, and that the March 2011 declaration had stated that the transitional period would end in six months, but it was unlawfully extended until the end of June 2012.

The lawsuit requested the immediate handing over of power to the elected civilian legislative and executive authorities.

A few days before announcing the results of the presidential election, the ruling military council added a supplement to the Constitutional Declaration that has governed Egypt since March 2011.

The addendum limits the powers of the president and adds to those of the military council with respect to the state budget, the Constituent Assembly tasked with writing the new constitution, and the ability to declare war, for which the president must first obtain approval from the military council. The document also takes the title of commander-in-chief of the armed forces away from the incoming president.

Thousands of Egyptians protested in Cairo and various governorates against the issuance of the supplementary constitutional declaration. Although the military council formally handed over power to President Mohamed Morsy on 30 June, there are still small groups protesting in Tahrir Square demanding the president to be granted full powers.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Kefaya criticizes Morsy for thanking military council

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July 1st, 2012

The Kefaya movement condemned President Mohamed Morsy on Sunday for thanking the military council during his speech at Cairo University on Saturday.

The movement said on its Facebook page that it “rejects and criticizes Morsy for praising and thanking the military council.”

The statement mentioned some of the military’s mistakes during the interim period, which officially ended with the transfer of power to Morsy on Saturday.

The Kefaya statement went on to wonder why the Muslim Brotherhood is still staging a sit-in in Tahrir if, according to Morsy, the military council has already fulfilled its promises.

“Principles cannot be divided and constants do not change, whatever the goals were,” it concluded.

In his speech on Saturday, Morsy expressed appreciation toward Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the ruling military council, and leaders of the armed forces, saying, “I’d like to thank Field Marshal Tantawi, all of the attendees, soldiers and armed forces members.”

The Kefaya movement was established in 2004 during the rule of ousted President Hosni Mubarak. It has consistently criticized the military council that took power after Mubarak’s ouster in 2011.

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Egypt army to say it has kept pledge to cede power

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June 30th, 2012

Egypt's ruling military council will say on Saturday that it is fulfilling its pledge made when it took over from ousted leader Hosni Mubarak to transfer power to an elected president, according to a statement obtained by Reuters.

"The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces announced on 11 February 2011 it was not an alternative to legitimacy sought by the people, had no aspiration for power or to pursue it and would deliver power to a president elected by the national will," according to the statement to be issued later in the day.

"Today is the day to fulfill the pledge, the day that our great army and its national leadership proves that it is the guardian after God," said the statement, which was obtained before a formal handover ceremony to Egypt's newly elected Islamist president, Mohamed Morsy.

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Protest staged outside Myanmar embassy against Burma Muslim massacre

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June 28th, 2012

Political movements organized a sit-in Thursday outside the Myanmar Embassy in Cairo to denounce the massacre of Muslims in Burma.

The protesters said the killers of the Muslims are terrorists and raised banners reading, “Stop killing Muslims,” “Stop mass murder,” “Down with the military of Burma” and “Get out of the land of the Nile, ambassador of the pigs.”  

Former MP Mamdouh Ismail from the Salafi Asala Party participated in the protest. He said that he was not representing any political group and was expressing his personal anger over the massacres of Muslims in Burma and the ban on Muslim prayer. He called on the UN Security Council to quickly take decisive action against Burma.  

He said that Egyptian media has been disregarding the massacres, explaining that, “Egyptian media is the media of Tawifik Okasha.” Okasha is the controversial host of a talk show on Al-Faraeen satellite channel who regularly attacks revolutionaries and Islamists and defends the military council.

“We came from Tahrir Square after we heard about this sit-in to send a message to the government of Burma that we will not be silent about the massacre of Muslims,” said Wael Allam, a protester outside the embassy. Allam added that protests would continue until the international community took action against Burma.

Protesters have been sitting-in in Tahrir Square to demand that the ruling military council reverse the decree that limits the powers of President-elect Mohamed Morsy and completely transfer power to a civilian government.

The Rohingya, a Muslim people of South Asian descent, are currently facing what has been called one of the worst instances of sectarian violence in the recent history of Burma, a Buddhist majority country.

More than 80 people have died in clashes between Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya this month, the government said, according to AFP.

A number of Rohingyas have tried to flee Burma for the neighboring country of Bangladesh, but most have been refused entry.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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