The Alexandria Military Court postponed the trial session of 26 workers of the Alexandria Shipyard Company on Saturday for the fourth time. The session was rescheduled to Sunday due to the absence of a military intelligence official who is the prosecution’s only witness in the case, according to the workers’ lawyer Mohamed Awad.
The intelligence official had conducted investigations on worker strikes in the company, which led to the referral of the case to the military court.
He had sent a letter to the court, apologising for not being able to attend the court session.
From 22 to 23 May, a group of 26 workers arranged an open sit-in, hoping that the company’s management would act in response to certain demands that they had previously mentioned, but that did not receive any attention.
The workers are accused of inciting other workers to strike and refusing to work in the military institution. As the strike escalated, workers were barred from entering their place of work and military units were deployed.
The workers are standing trial in a military court since, as of 2007, the Alexandria Shipyard Company falls under the supervision and administration of the Ministry of Defence and Military Production.
The company stands as one of the 1960s’ main industrial projects in Alexandria in the maritime field, and is one of the several economic projects that are controlled by the Egyptian Armed Forces.
