Year: 2014

New telecommunications law nearly completed: Communications minister

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Atef Helmy
(Photo courtesy of Atef Helmy)

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Atef Helmy said that the ministry is in the last stages of completing the final draft for the new telecommunications law, which will be sent to the legislature next week. The electronic signature law has also been amended, he said.

Helmy explained during a conference held on Tuesday that the founding committee of the national entity for the communications infrastructure has conducted 40 meetings to finalise its establishment, which will help improve the quality of services provided in the telecommunications market.

He added: “An expert firm headed by Hany Serry El-Din will help complete the process of distributing the share, while another committee was formed to discuss granting a license to the entity.”

At the conference, the minister described the role of the telecommunications sector in developing the Egyptian economy, noting the sector’s GDP amounted to EGP 58.3bn and is expected to reach EGP 195bn in 2020.

Hesham El- Alayli, CEO of the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority, said that the sector represents about 2.85% of Egypt’s GDP.

He also confirmed that 4 million subscribers left mobile services in April because of the lack of updated information, and that 3.8 million subscribers were suspended from accessing services until their information was updated, the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) and mobile companies indicated that they would continue operations to record data, as 14 million subscribers recorded their information this year as a result.

Alayli added that the Board of Directors of the NTRA agreed to activate Internet services via satellite.

The minister pointed out that the sector’s vision is aimed at harnessing information technology in order to bring about a digital society, and allow the sector to contribute to improvements in GDP.

Helmy hopes for communications’ services to be available in all governorates of Egypt and emphasised the importance of developing government services that are provided to citizens.

He explained that the ministry considered sector infrastructure a priority, including high-speed Internet, marine cable projects, and cloud computing services. The ministry is finalising the issuance of a communications law as well as free circulation of information laws.

He pointed out that a digital economy is a stimulus that helps increase actual growth from 5% up to 9% of GDP in advanced countries, and the government is moving to remove obstacles that impede the transition to a digital economy.

September 23, 2014
Mehleb puts Disability Council under social solidarity ministry’s supervision

Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb
(AFP File Photo)

Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb amended on Monday a cabinet decision governing the National Council for Disability Affairs (NCDA) putting the council under the supervision of the Ministry of Social Solidarity.

The NCDA head Hossam Al-Massah resigned on Wednesday after the Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali had said that she doesn’t understand the disabled.

“If she doesn’t understand the disabled, then how will she deal with them?” said Al-Massah on Mehwar TV Channel.

Al-Massha resigned in protest at perceived disrespect of the handicapped and the council, calling the decision to place the council under the ministry’s control as unconstitutional.

“We exerted a lot of effort on the constitution’s articles,” said Al-Massah, who was on the 50-person committee that drafted the 2014 constitution.

“The disabled are far from the interests of the government,” he said.

September 23, 2014
Released activist Mahienour El–Massry begins hunger strike

Released activist Mahienour El–Massry begins hunger strike.
(Photo from Free Mahienour)

Alexandrian lawyer and activist Mahienour El-Massry started a hunger strike on Tuesday in solidarity with all those detained over the controversial 2013 Protest Law, according to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI).

In a Tuesday statement, ANHARI said that El-Massry will stage her hunger strike for two days to show support to all hunger striking detainees and demand the amendment of the Protest Law.

El-Massry was released on Monday, after an Alexandria Court accepted her appeal against a six-month prison sentence.

She had been initially sentenced to two years in prison and fined EGP 50,000 alongside eight others for violating the Protest Law, after being arrested while participating in a protest in solidarity with torture victim Khaled Said on 2 December 2013.

The number of those on a hunger strike in solidarity with prisoners and detainees of conscience in the country has been increasing, reaching 1,081, excluding the number of hunger striking prisoners, the “Freedom for the Brave” movement said Tuesday.

September 23, 2014
Hunger striking activist’s trial postponed

The Cairo Court has postponed hunger striker Mohamed Soltan’s trial, commonly known as the Rabaa Operations trial, to 11 October
(AFP PHOTO / STR)

The Cairo Court has postponed hunger striker Mohamed Soltan’s trial, commonly known as the Rabaa Operations trial, to 11 October, according to Soltan’s family.

Soltan, detained in one of Torah Prison’s solitary confinement cells, has been on a hunger strike for over 240 days to protest his detention.

His is the longest current hunger strike in Egypt.

“The judge started the hearing with this ridiculous decision,” his family’s Facebook page, Free Soltan, said. Soltan’s lawyers demanded the decision be reconsidered, but the court has upheld its verdict.

On 22 September he was found unconscious and “bleeding profusely from his mouth,” his family said.

In an examination administered by a prison physician, Soltan had “very obvious blue spots under his skin all over his body,” a statement on the page said. His blood pressure was 70/30 as opposed to the normal 119/79, while his glucose level registered 45, as opposed to the normal 70.

“He was unfocused and unable to speak clearly,” the statement added.

Soltan was arrested on 26 August 2013, after security forces raided his home in search for his father and prominent Islamist figure Salah Soltan.

In a visit with his mother, a cancer-patient, Soltan said: “She shouldn’t worry about him and that he would continue his hunger strike until release or death.”

Egyptian authorities are putting the life of the jailed activist at risk, Amnesty International said in a statement last week.

There are currently around 90 hunger strikers in Egyptian jails.

Hundreds of journalists and activists in Egypt and abroad have also been going on hunger strikes in solidarity with Egyptian detainees.

September 23, 2014
Activist Ahmed Douma’s trial halted

Cairo Criminal Court decided to halt the proceeding of political activist Ahmed Douma’s trial along with 268 other defendants on Tuesday.
(AFP FILE PHOTO / KHALED DESOUKI)

Cairo Criminal Court decided to halt the proceeding of political activist Ahmed Douma’s trial along with 268 other defendants on Tuesday.

The proceedings were halted until the submitted challenge against the judge is reviewed.

Lawyers from multiple rights groups have submitted a challenge to the court against the judge presiding over the trial as he was “untrustworthy”.

The Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) released a statement Sunday which stated that the court has claimed that police forces didn’t attack the protesters, but that protesters did attack the police.

According to Aly Atef, a lawyer in ANHRI, the court will not be fair in its judgement, especially as the court has refused most of the defence’s demands,including Douma’s right to leave the air-conditioned glass cage due to deteriorating health.

Atef added that the challenge submitted against the judge will be looked into Wednesday 24 September. If it’s accepted then Douma will be tried by a different judge.

Douma also has expressed his “lack of confidence in the court”.

Amongst other accusations, Douma and the fellow defendants were charged with attacking the cabinet building, security personnel and the Scientific Institute in Cairo in December 2011.

On his last trial on 17 September, Douma arrived in an ambulance to the court room where he filed a request to challenge the court, but the judges refused to step down.

Douma is currently serving a three-year prison sentence for violating the 2013 Protest Law in protests in front of the Abdeen Court in November 2013.

According to Freedom of the Brave, an Egyptian initiative supporting detainees, Douma has been detained since December 2013 and has been on a hunger strike since 28 August 2014.

September 23, 2014
Gaza talks continue despite West Bank killings

Preliminary negotiations in preparation for indirect talks between Israel and Palestinian factions will continue despite Israel’s killing of two Palestinians on Tuesday morning, Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahar said.

“The meetings are only to set up a schedule for the indirect talks yet to come, but there is no discussion of other details until now,’ Al-Zahar said.

Israeli troops killed Amer Abu Aisha and Marwan Qawame, two Palestinians that Israel suspected of murdering three Israeli teenagers, on Tuesday morning.

“Overnight, Amer Abu Aisha and Marwan Qawsame, murderers of Eyal, Gilad and Naftali — were killed in exchange of fire with IDF [Israel Defense Forces] forces,” Israeli army spokesman Peter Lerner said on his Twitter account.

According to a statement released by the IDF, Qawasme and Abu Aisha are “Hamas terrorists [that] abducted and murdered three Israeli teenagers.”

Israeli authorities have previously detained the two men. Israeli officials arrested Qwasme five times, and detained Abu Aisha twice.

“What happened in al-Khalil is a crime. Israel chose this timing for the assassination to avoid its responsibilities in the ceasefire,” Al-Zahar said.

Hamas spokesperson Abu Marzouq said that after the “assassination crime” the Palestinian delegation will “look into its position and reply to the crime”.

Hamas condemned the “crime” and said in a statement that it was an Israeli “attempt to avoid fulfilling the ceasefire agreements”. The crime, the statement added, “will not escape peoples’ anger”.

Hamas also said in a press statement that the pathway of its resistance “will continue and will not be defeated.”

“This is the choice of continuing the resistance,” the statement read. “The assassination and imprisonment campaigns will not break it.”

The abduction and later murder of three Israeli teenagers last June as they were hiking in the West Bank triggered an Israeli campaign in which they arrested over 400 Palestinians and killed at least five in the West Bank.

Israel accused Hamas of murdering the three teenagers but Hamas denied the allegations.

On 8 July Israel began a series of attacks on Gaza and killed at least 2,137 Palestinians, including 577 children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. According to the United Nations the fighting killed 69 Israelis, including three civilians and one child.

The 50-day fighting came to an end after an Egypt-brokered ceasefire on 26 August. The factions agreed to resume negotiations within one month.

“As we have seen with the recent devastation in the Gaza Strip and rising tensions and violence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, it is becoming increasingly difficult to contain the situation,” Ban-Ki moon said at a United Nations meeting on the situation in the Middle East.

He said the absence of a “political solution” has “severe consequences”.

Relations between Egypt and Hamas are currently improving, Al-Zahar said.

Ties between Egypt and the Islamist group have been tense since the ouster of Islamist former president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Cairo is due to host a conference to discuss the reconstruction of Gaza on 12 October. Egyptian authorities maintained the closure of the Rafah border crossing, with the exception of a few days, during Israel’s offensive.

September 23, 2014
EIPR calls for dialogue between Egypt, ‘competing social forces’

The Egyptian Center for Personal Rights (EIPR) called for a dialogue between the state of Egypt and “competing social forces” in a study, titled “Opportunities for Social Dialogue in Egypt”, released by the organisation Monday.

According to the study, a lack of dialogue hampered the state from seeking fundamental solutions.

The principle causes of civil strife in Egypt were “the absence of effective, national channels for discussion or negotiation”, the study said.

The study cited a total number of 5,232 protests in 2013, to which the state responded with suppression.

Amnesty International reported early July that over 16,000 people have been detained by the Egyptian state since the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi’s in July 2013.

Amnesty also noted there was a “surge in arbitrary arrests, detentions and harrowing incidents of torture”.

The EIPR study said, however, that prior to the 25 January Revolution, “Egypt was in a state of increasing political and social distress”.

The study called on the state to raise awareness for “economic and political compromises,” and that lack of compromise has come “at the expense of a commitment to social justice”.

The study added that without an attempt to draw in participants from across the political spectrum in public policy, conflict would continue.

“The state made no serious attempt to address the issue” EIPR said. “Stable institutional frameworks for social dialogue must be created.”

The study had a focus on trade unions, the right to assembly, and the right to strike.

The study added that there was a need to “establish and protect the right of freedom of association and the swift issuance of a fair law regulating trade-union freedoms.”

The organisation stressed that joining trade unions must be encouraged and that deficiencies in the Egyptian economic structure need to be addressed.

The currents trade union law does not allow for freedom of association, the study said, and “in real practice, the independent unions are not legally recognised in many workplaces or according to Egyptian laws”.

“So far, the right of workers to strike has been curtailed,” the study added.

EIPR also called on the Egyptian state to “avoid any meddling in any social actors structures” that could de-legitimise their decision making.

“The state should be willing to offer compromises and engage in political and economic exchanges with the different social actors.”

EIPR is an independent rights organisation that works through advocacy and litigation in the fields of civil liberties, economic justice and democracy.

September 23, 2014
Al-Sisi delivers speech before Climate Change Summit at the UN

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi held talks with the United States’ former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton during his current visit to the United Nations as head to Egypt’s delegation in the 69th General Assembly
(Photo State Information Service handout )

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi called on countries to invest in renewable energy during a brief speech delivered before the Climate Change Summit at the 69^th United Nations General Assembly.

Al-Sisi represented the UN’s Arab group in the speech. The president said there is a need for collaboration of efforts to reduce global warming.

The speech comes after several meetings held during his trip to New York.

He discussed the threat of terrorism in the Middle East and Africa with prestigious political and economic figures.

The president claimed that such terrorist groups share a similar ideological framework from which they base their actions.

According to a Tuesday statement by the State Information Service, Al-Sisi met American former foreign ministers Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, former president Bill Clinton as well as Brent Scowcroft National Security Adviser, in the presence of Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.
During the meetings Al-Sisi discussed the current regional situation, Egypt’s role in the Gaza ceasefire talks, Egypt’s support for the legitimate government institutions in Libya and Iraq, as well as the danger of terrorism in the region.

Al-Sisi also met with representatives of the American Chamber of Commerce, representatives of major US companies operating in Egypt, prominent members of the Congress, and the chairman of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab.

On an economic level, Al-Sisi praised the efforts of the Egyptian government in terms of attracting investment.

He also met Egyptian businessmen in the US, who vowed to cooperate in aiding the Egyptian economy.

September 23, 2014
Shoukry discusses independent Palestinian state at the UN

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry noted that utmost importance should be given to preparing the Palestinian state to become politically and economically independent during a meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) on Monday.
(Photo by Ahmed Al-Malky/DNE File)

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry noted that utmost importance should be given to preparing the Palestinian state to become politically and economically independent during a meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) on Monday.

Shoukry claimed that intensive Egyptian efforts have had a significant impact on reaching a ceasefire agreement, and stressed the need to focus on the overall framework to resolve the conflict, especially in the light of the current situation with the absence of any political horizon for ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state.

The minister was part of the delegation that accompanied President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi on 21 September in his visit to New York to participate in the 69^th session of the UN General Assembly.

On the side of the UN General Assembly, Shoukry was planned to attend more than 20 organisational meetings.

Shoukry met with a number of his counterparts, including the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Italy, and the foreign ministers of Cyprus, Greece, Algeria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Portugal, Slovakia, North Korea, Eritrea, South Sudan, India, Brazil, Albania, and Lithuania.

He also met with US National Security Advisor Susan Rice and discussed regional and international issues, focusing on the Palestinian issue and the situations in Syria, Iraq and Libya, as well as ways to combat terrorism.

Shoukry also attended the ministerial meeting of the Coordination Committee for Africa-Arab Partnership on Monday, which works on the implementation of the decisions agreed upon in Arab-African summit held in Kuwait in November 2013 which has to do with bilateral relations between Egypt and African countries.

During the meeting, Shoukry discussed the Egyptian efforts to reach stability in Libya as well as Palestine, and the Egyptian government’s efforts in peacemaking in the African continent.

September 23, 2014
NCHR orders investigation into security forces assault on Minya’s Copts

NCHR orders investigation into security forces assault on Minya’s Copts.
(AFP Photo)

The Free Egyptians Party called on Monday for an “urgent and transparent” investigation into the Jabal al-Tair incident in Al-Minya where police stormed into Copts’ properties and hit them.

Last week, 22 people were detained for rioting. Christians were protesting to call for the return of a kidnapped Christian woman who has been missing for more than a week, demanding that the police locate her. Her husband had filed a report on her kidnap, but nothing had been done, according to Nader Solaiman, founder of the Christian Youth movement.

The police clashed with the protesters and on the following night stormed houses and shops belonging to Christians and beat people, including women and children, said Solaiman. Some were tied and hit, others dragged, while men and women were “insulted”.

The National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) ordered an investigation on Monday. “The council is looking into criminal evidence,” said the council’s head Hafez Abo Saada.

“The police deal with Egyptians in an inhumane way,” said Fady Yousef, head of the Egypt’s Copts Coalition. “We are going back to the Mubarak era…when there were ‘night visitors’, only they were less chaotic,” said Yousef, in reference to a technique used by state security during toppled president Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

People are being forced to accept “reality”, said Youssef, that churches are burnt, girls kidnapped and Christians beheaded in Sinai without arresting the criminals, yet protesting these incidents gets people in trouble. “There is no social justice,” he added.

The Free Egyptians’ Monday statement said that the incident might escalate, especially as it occurred near the tense region where supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood burnt churches in the wake of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya Square sit-in dispersal in August 2013.

The party expressed its fears that “the escape of the girl”, a social issue, would turn into a sectarian one, “especially at a time when the country is facing increasing terrorism and the President is on an important visit to the US”.

The statement added that the churches and Al-Azhar need to address the crisis socially, asking the police to understand the problems and not act in a way that ends in security escalation, “which may complicate matters further”.

There have been 239 kidnaps in the last six months from Al-Minya, Assiut, Sohag and other governorates, with the majority of kidnaps occurring in Al-Minya. Copts have had to pay EGP 21m in total to ensure their return, as security forces were ineffective, according to Egyptian Union for Human Rights Organization (EUHRO) head Nagib Gabriel.

The behaviour of security forces is the same as it was during Mubarak’s era, said Gabriel. The situation facing Copts is extremely bad, and they are excluded from interior ministry and other posts, the lawyer added.

September 23, 2014