By Mai Shams El-Din
CAIRO: The “No to Military Trials for Civilians” campaign held its third conference at the Journalists’ Syndicates Monday to pressure the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to release civilians tried in military courts.
Journalist Rasha Azab, who filed a lawsuit before the State Council against the SCAF to stop military trials, claimed that more than 7,000 people have undergone such trials over the past two months.
“Before the revolution, military trials were the exception, now they are the rule,” Azab said.
“Military trials in Mubarak’s era were used against politicians, now they have become a tool used against all Egyptians.”
Azab urged the SCAF to transfer those convicted to the civil prosecution, even though, she said, “We should call for their immediate release because they are truly innocent.”
Rights activist and lawyer Adel Ramadan said that a fair trial is a human right, recounting a published interview with the Minister of Justice who opposed the idea of trying ousted former president Mubarak before a military court.
“Minister of Justice Abdel-Aziz El-Guindy said that such a trial would be unfair, but what about civilians who were illegally detained, tortured and tried in a military court? Don’t they deserve a fair trial too?” said Ramadan.
The conference also featured families and lawyers of Islamists who have been detained by Mubarak’s regime and not been released until now.
Sayed Fadl, an Islamist lawyer who was detained in a military prison for 15 years, recounts the tragedies of Islamists tried before State Security courts and military courts.
“There are 79 Islamists who are still detained,” said Fadl.
“Mubarak’s regime was merciful with spies like Azzam Azzam while it continues, even after its downfall, to arrest innocent people and subject them to unfair trials,” he added.
Activist Ahmed Saif Al-Islam presented a document in which a former military officer appealed to the Egyptian Chief of Staff of the Naval Forces General Osama El-Guindy to end a dispute over a piece of land owned by the officer’s wife.
“The people who the military officer is appealing against were tried in a military court. But why is the SCAF interfering in land disputes between civilians?” Saif Al-Islam said.
Actress Jihan Fadel condemned military trials of civilians, confirming that one of the revolution’s main demands was the release of all political prisoners.
“We cannot be happy with the achievements of the revolution while its heroes are inside military prisons,” Fadel said.
Head of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) lawyer Gamal Eid condemned the silence of the media over the issue of military trials for civilians, describing all media institutions as “complicit.”
“Right after our two conferences, newspapers interviewed members of SCAF who denied all the detentions and torture allegations, presenting the other point of view,” said Eid.
“That is extremely complicit and unfair for our cause.”
Architect and political player Mamdouh Hamza said that solidarity with those detainees is very crucial at the moment, “because if we stay silent over this injustice we will be all in the same situation one day.”
Hamza revealed that one of the recommendations of “Egypt’s First Conference” which he organized last Saturday, was to form a national committee concerned with the affairs of the revolutionaries, including the families of the martyrs and the injured, in addition to the cases of civilians tried before military courts.
“I called well-known lawyers to handle these cases like Yassir Fathy and Saleh Sadek who urged me to give them a chance to negotiate with the SCAF to release all the detainees,” Hamza said.
“If those efforts are in vain, then an open strike in front of the military prosecution will be our only solution,” he added.
The organizers then showed a video featuring the families of the detainees recounting how their sons were detained, urging the military council to release them.
Other families of detainees spoke at the conference. Most of them confirmed that their sons were arrested during the military police’s violent crackdown on Tahrir protesters, even though many of them were only passing through.
The wife of Sameh Milad Rizk said that her husband was detained in Sadat Metro Station on March 9 when the military police violently dispersed Tahrir protesters.
“My husband was not protesting; he was going back home from work when he and his brother were randomly arrested and sentenced to three years in military prison,” she said.
Abdullah Adel-Halim Ali, 70, said that his four sons were detained by the military ruler during a dispute over a piece of land.
“These disputes happen every day, and are normally solved before civilian courts; why would my sons get seven years in military prison?” he said.
Abeer El-Aswany recounted the ordeal of her brother Mohamed, an Islamist, who has been in jail since 1981.
“He is now very old and severely sick. All we want is to release him so that he can spend his last days with his grandsons,” she said.
