Is the Egyptian Army/Military still a Sacred Cow?

Non Violence is stil illegal in Egypt.
What can one do from far away except spread the word?


Cairo/London, 3 April 2011

PRESS RELEASE:
EGYPT: Trial against detained pacifist blogger and conscientious
objector Maikel Nabil Sanad adjourned to Monday 4 April

The trial against Egyptian pacifist blogger and conscientious objector Maikel Nabil Sanad on charges of "insulting the military" and "obstructing public security" has again been ajourned, this time to tomorrow, Monday, 4 April 2011, War Resisters' International's observer, conscientious objection campaigner Andreas Speck reports from Cairo.

Maikel Nabil Sanad was arrested by military police in the night of 28 March (see co-alert, 29 March 2011, and has been kept detained since. He is being tried in a fast-track trial in a military court, although he is a civilian. "According to international human rights standards, civilians should not be tried in a military court", says WRI's conscientious objection campaigner Andreas Speck. "Especially on charges of 'insulting the military', there is serious doubt that a military court can be impartial. In fact, the whole way this trial is being conducted is a clear violation of article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the right to a fair trial. Maikel Nabil Sanad has no time to prepare an effective legal defence with his lawyers, with only a few days between arrest and sentencing, which we expect to happen tomorrow. In addition, interested members of the public - such as myself, and his friends and supporters - have not been allowed to attend the trial, thus there is a clear breach of the principle of trial in public," he adds.

"Besides these shortcomings in relation to procedure, the charges themselves do not stick. Maikel Nabil Sanad only exposed the truth when he published his blog post on the role of the Egyptian military during and after the revolution. But this is probably what the military does not like, and why they are having a go at him. He showed that the military does everything but defending the revolution - it is defending the status quo. But then, you probably insult someone more by telling the truth than by spreading lies", he continues.

"However, his blog posts are protected by the right to freedom of opinion and expression. And the UN Human Rights Committee is very clear that this freedom also has to include the freedom to criticise the authorities and the military - whether they like it or not."

"War Resisters' International calls on the Egyptian authorities to immediately release Maikel Nabil Sanad and all those other activists arrested during and after the revolution. And we call on everyone to make their protest heard with letters to Egyptian embassies wherever they live", he adds.

Ends

Contact:
Andreas Speck, War Resisters' International (in Cairo)
Mobile: +44 (0)79-7368 3936

Javier Garate, War Resisters' International (in London)
Mobile: +44 (0)78-5303 8160

War Resisters' International office
Tel +44 (0)20-7278 4040
Email: info@wri-irg.org

Addresses for protest letters

Director of Military Judiciary
Major-General Ahmed Abd Allah
Military Judicial Department
Cairo, Egypt
Fax: +202 2 402 4468 / +202 2 411 3452 (ask for fax)

Military General Attorney
Major-General Medhat Radwan
Military Judicial Department
Cairo, Egypt
+202 2 412 0980 (ask for fax)

Minister of Defence
His Excellency Muhammad Tantawi
Ministry of Defence
Cairo, Egypt
mmc@afmic.gov.eg ; mod@afmic.gov.eg
A protest email can be sent at http://wri-irg.org/node/12474.

Egyptian Embassy in Britain
26 South Street, London W1K 1DW
Tel.: 020 7499 3304,
Fax: 020 7491 1542,
E-Mail Address: eg.emb_london@mfa.gov.eg
A list with contact details for Egyptian embassies is available at
http://www.mfa.gov.eg/English/Embassies/Pages/Listing.aspx

--
War Resisters' International
5 Caledonian Road - London N1 9DX - Britain
tel +44-20-7278 4040 - fax +44-20-7278 0444
Skype warresisters
email info@wri-irg.org http://wri-irg.org
Use email encryption! More information at http://wri-irg.org/node/11496

Incredible Cheap Beer

I know close to nothing about Iran today or since the Islamist Revolution.



I know some about suffering complete, immediate, fully conscious fear of annihiliation.



Burried deep in my heart and essence, rearing it's trembling head daily throughout this modern brutal existence.



Like a soothing balm to the soul come noble people from the forty corners of the world and say, Let's stick together.



Happy new year, Universe.

No, no: MultiVerse.

A New Era

Well, I cannot claim I've discovered those on my own, my ten fingers (I'm typing "blindly") were helped by others' deft ones.



Although I've been on and off working on this blog for a long time (in-between the publications of two new books, writing the fifth, building a Hebrew site etc), I was still waiting for the day to attain perfection. Now, with the instalation of an active site meter, I find, to my great surprise, that some people have stumbled upon my site.



(So, from now on I must be real careful. The world is watching...)



To my great surprise? I should add, to my gratitude, as it turns out those are amazing, most intelligent eye-opening blogers, the kind that makes you bless the Creator of the blogosphere for Her gift to humanity.



Look at Pejman Yousefzadeh.

A lawyer with a genuine voice no less than Eugene Volokh's.

I was led to him by a mysterious line on my site meter: "Brooding Persian".

Beautiful alliteration. So much to learn. So many religions s/he points to. And here and there glimpses of life in Iran 2004. I felt honored in seeing a link to my site.



And then, on the other side of the world, in Poland, a most sensitive young woman who signed a comment by Natalia, and her blog is named The Lightness of Being.

She's studying the Orient and has some Iranian bloging friends.



It's time to be paying more attention to Iran...

If only the "real" world will finally become sans frontier!

A Miracle

I must confess that a year ago I didn't even know, or rather I was too scared to even dare think of websites.

I even avoided dreaming about them, except the one dream of having a website of my own.



Yet, surprise, a year since then my very website is, almost entirely, of my own design.



Not technically, not at all, but from the moment I started confronting the dream on my own terms, I spent close to half a year searching and researching the Net.



First of all I discovered that designing a site is an Art, and that among the website designers there are some excellent and most exciting real artists.

And believe me, I've visited many.



They taught me the importance of order (no one can stand the insecurity of a maze), perfectionism (which all art demands and here especially, since one single mistaken dot might lead you astray), and the power of color.



The last was indeed a kind of revelation, as I tend to regard color as a matter of fact element, while words... Being a writer I could only remember that in the beginning was the Word, and by word alone the world was created. (look at this! We do not have this similarity in Hebrew).



Well, Hebrew was created before the Word, wasn't it?



So, like our famous God, when I finally knew what I wanted, it was easy to draw a map and say to the designer in Israel: this is what I want to have, show, express, on my site (and don't you dare change a dot, I whispered unheard).

Let there be a Website!



The only things, and maybe the most important parts, the designer did provide, were the colors, which I'm very happy with, as they express my nature - and the idea to write my name in handwriting for the title. I've tried this earlier with a pen, but it did not work. So Netta at Atarim advised me to use a marker. This solved the problem.



Now that you know my secrets all around, you're welcome to visit my website.



And while there, why not visit my generous host, the Patchword site.



More on Patchword in my next installment. Stay tuned!