| Egypt
Executions
Criticized But
UN Guterres
Very Polite To
Egypt Sisi on
Censorship
Birds of a
Feather
By Matthew
Russell Lee, CJR Letter
PFT Q&A
UNITED
NATIONS GATE, February 25
– After the "election" of Abdel
Fattah El-Sisi as Egypt's
president with 97% of the vote
amid fining of media like
Al-Masry Al-Youm and the
expulsion of journalists, the
spokesman for UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres on 2
April 2018 said,
"We were not involved in the
holding of the election, whether
in observing or offering
technical assistance as far as I
know. So, I will leave it
at that." Now on
February 25 from Geneva and another part of the UN
system while Guterres continues
his trends of coddling
human
rights abusers
like himself, this:
"UN human rights
experts* deplore the
executions in Egypt
of nine men
convicted on the
basis of evidence
allegedly obtained
under torture, and
express their dismay
at the
continued disregard
of the legal
process.
Egyptian authorities
went ahead with the
executions of the
nine men in the
early hours of 20
February, even
though an appeal and
a petition to halt
their execution were
before the Supreme
Constitutional
Court, according to
information
received.
“We are all the more
concerned that
several other cases
pending in the
courts of
individuals
convicted in similar
circumstances and
facing the death
penalty amid reports
of a lack of due
legal process,” the
experts said. “These
convictions appear
to be in direct
disregard of both
Egyptian and
international law
and procedure.'
[Note that
Guterres' UN has
no law or procedure,
on press access
/ ouster, etc.]
The
nine men executed
under case 7122/2016
“Case of the
assassination of the
public prosecutor”
are: Ahmed
Mohamed Taha Wahdan;
Abu el-Qasem Ahmed
Ali Youssef; Mahmoud
el-Ahmady Abdul
Rahman; Abdul Rahman
Soliman Mohamed;
Ahmed Mahrous
el-Sayed; Islam
Mohamed Ahmed
Mekkawy; Abu Bakr
el-Sayed Abdul
Mageed Mohamed;
Ahmed el-Degwi and
Ahmed Gamal
Hegazy.
(*) The UN experts:
Ms Agnes Callamard,
Special Rapporteur
on extrajudicial,
summary or arbitrary
executions; Mr. Nils
Melzer, Special
Rapporteur on
torture and cruel,
inhuman or degrading
treatment or
punishment; Ms
Fionnuala Ní Aoláin,
Special Rapporteur
on the promotion and
protection of human
rights and
fundamental freedoms
while countering
terrorism; Mr.
Seong-Phil Hong,
Chair-Rapporteur;
Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention;
Mr. Tae-Ung Baik
(Vice Chair), Mr.
Bernard Duhaime
(Chair), Ms Houria
Es-Slami, Mr.
Luciano Hazan and
Mr. Henrikas
Mickevičius of the
Working Group on
Enforced or
Involuntary
Disappearances. "
On February 9 in Addis Ababa Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric has
issued this, nothing on
press freedom or political
prisoners: "On the margins of
the African Union Summit, the
Secretary-General met with the
President of the Arab Republic
of Egypt, H.E. Mr. Abdel
Fattah Al-Sisi. The
Secretary-General
congratulated Egypt for
assuming the chairmanship of
the African Union and noted
the importance of continuing
to strengthen the UN-AU
partnership in the areas of
peace, security, and
development.
The Secretary-General and
President Al-Sisi also
discussed regional matters,
including the implementation
of the UN Action Plan in
Libya. Addis
Ababa 9 February
2019 Stéphane
Dujarric Spokesman for the
Secretary-General." This
is the same UN - and spokesman -
which evicted independent Inner
City Press (and now banned it
after assaulting it on July 3,
Fox News story
here,
GAP blogs I
and II,
and
put in its work place Sissi's
state media Akhbar al-Youm, in
the form of Sanaa Youssef a
former (1984) president of the
UN Correspondents Association
who hasn't asked a single
question of the UN in more than
ten years. On 17 August 2018
Guterres through Alison Smale banned
Inner City Press for life; on
August 27 his spokesman Stephane
Dujarric said
this was for "creating a hostile
environment" for diplomats.
Really? Now on 9 January 2019 an
Egyptian court sentenced
activist Ahmed Douma to 15 years
in jail for allegedly "rioting"
and attacking security forces in
2011. He was previously
sentenced to three year in jail
over separate charges of taking
part in a 2013 demonstration in
downtown Cairo.
The court on Wednesday
also ordered Douma to pay
$336,000 for damages he was
accused of during the protest
outside the prime minister’s
office in 2011. This is pure
abuse. Inner City Press in
writing asked Guterres, his
Deputy Amina J. Mohammed and
spokesman Stephane Dujarric:
"January 11-5: On Egypt, what is
the SG's comment and action on
that a leading figure in Egypt's
2011 revolution was handed 15
years in prison on Wednesday
after a retrial. Ahmed Douma was
arrested in 2013 on charges of
clashing with security forces in
Cairo two years earlier, and
received a 25-year prison
sentence in 2015?" But there has
been no answer at all, despite
the promise of USG Alison Smale
to UNSR David Kaye that such
written questions would be
answered. Guterres says
nothing: he too is an abuser, in
his UN's new way. On September
25 Guterres met Sisi and
afterward gushed, "The
Secretary-General met with H.E.
Mr. Abdel Fattah Al Sisi,
President of the Arab Republic
of Egypt. The Secretary-General
and the President exchanged
views on a number of issues of
mutual interest, including
developments in Africa and the
Middle East region. The
Secretary-General congratulated
Egypt on a very effective
chairmanship of the G77." Not a
word on press freedom - not
surprising, since Guterres as it
turns out is a dictator on this
too. In the 47th Street protest
pens that day, supports of Morsi
and Sisi shouted at each other,
with Falun Dafa adherents
meditating in between, along
with a clown from Guatemala.
Inside the UN Guterres has
turned it into a circus - of
censorship. On September 17 four
UN rapporteurs for now publicly
silent on the UN's own no due
process censorship called on the
Human Rights Council to respond
to verdicts condemning 75
protesters to death and 47 to
life sentences in Egypt. On 8
September, a Cairo Criminal
Court confirmed the sentences
delivered at a mass trial in
July involving 739 people who
were convicted on charges of
illegal gathering, involvement
in violence and incitement to
break the law. The rights of the
accused to present evidence in
their defense were not
guaranteed as required by the
principle of fair trial.
The experts are Mr.
Michel Forst,
Special
Rapporteur on
the situation
of human
rights
defenders; Mr.
Clément
Nyaletsossi
Voulé, Special
Rapporteur on
the rights to
freedom of
peaceful
assembly and
of
association;
Mr. David
Kaye, Special
Rapporteur on
the promotion
and protection
of the right
to freedom of
opinion and
expression; Ms
Agnes
Callamard,
Special
Rapporteur on
extrajudicial,
summary or
arbitrary
executions;
Mr. Nils
Melzer,
Special
Rapporteur on
Torture and
Other Cruel,
Inhuman or
Degrading
Treatment or
Punishment..
And here's
what they
said: “As
a matter of priority, the
international community must act
to ensure international human
rights standards are applied."
We agree. And what about the UN
Secretariat? On September 9
still new UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights Michelle
Bachelet, to whom the above has
been raised, issued this: "The
UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights Michelle Bachelet said
today that she is extremely
concerned that an Egyptian
court’s confirmation of 75 death
sentences on Saturday did not
result from a fair trial, and
the sentences, if carried out,
would therefore amount to “a
gross and irreversible
miscarriage of justice”. She
also pointed to the stark
contrast between Egypt’s mass
trials and a recent law that
effectively grants members of
the security forces complete
immunity for crimes they may
have committed. The death
sentences were originally
imposed during a mass trial in
July in which a total of 739
people were convicted on charges
that stemmed from a Muslim
Brotherhood-led protest, in
August 2013, which was met with
a lethal military crackdown.
“The conduct of the trial in the
Cairo Criminal Court has been
widely criticized,” Bachelet
said. “And rightly so. The 739
people were tried en masse, and
were not permitted individual
legal representation before the
court. In addition, the accused
were not given the right to
present evidence in their
defence, and the Prosecution did
not provide sufficient evidence
to prove individual guilt. The
evident disregard of basic
rights of the accused places the
guilt of all those convicted in
serious doubt. In particular,
the 75 death sentences affirmed
yesterday, if implemented, would
represent a gross and
irreversible miscarriage of
justice. “I hope that the
Egyptian Court of Appeal will
review this verdict and ensure
that international standards of
justice are respected by setting
it aside,” she added.... In July
this year, the Egyptian
Parliament approved a law that
will effectively bestow immunity
from prosecution on security
force personnel for any offenses
committed in the course of duty
between 3 July 2013 – the date
the military overthrew the
Government of President
Morsi – and 10 January 2016. The
law permits the President to
designate a number of officers
as lifelong reserves, and grants
them the immunities and
privileges of a sitting
Government minister, including
diplomatic immunity when
traveling abroad. “Justice must
apply to all – no one should be
immune." Yes. But doesn't that
apply to Guterres who nominated
her as well? We'll see. In in a
small subset of that news, the
five year jail sentence passed
on Mahmoud Abdel Shakour Abou
Zeid, the photojournalist also
known as Shawkan, means he
should soon be free because he
has already spent five years in
preventive detention. He was
finally convicted at the end of
a mass trial with more than 700
fellow defendants. All this for
trying cover a massacre by the
security forces in Cairo’s Rabaa
Square on August 14, 2013 - as
noted by a stated borderless
freedom of the press group which
has said nothing about the UN
they love having roughed
up and still banning Inner
City Press, despite it being
repeatedly raised in reply to
Julie Bance. One can love the UN
so much it becomes a double
standard - we'll have more on
this. In Egypt the “cybercrime
law” that Sisi signed on August
18 legalizes and reinforces the
existing censorship and blocking
of websites and criminalizes
both those who operate sites and
those who use them, a group who
has yet to act on UN censorship
said. Under article 7 of this
law, Egypt’s authorities can now
legally block access to any
website that is deemed to
constitute “a threat to national
security” or to the “national
economy.” It legalizes a
well-established practice.
Hundreds of sites have already
been blocked in the past few
years, apparently on nothing
more than the orders of security
officials, and the authorities
have arrested several online
journalists and bloggers,
including a news website editor
and satirical bloggers. Even
visiting a banned website is now
punishable by a year in prison
while those who create or manage
a website that is subsequently
banned could be sentenced to two
years in prison. We'll have more
on this - and this: Cairo
national security prosecutor
ordered Mohammed Ibrahim Ezz, a
reporter for the daily newspaper
Al-Nahar, to be detained for 15
days on charges of belonging to
a banned group. Ezz was arrested
in the city of Tanta, north of
Cairo, on July 10; the
prosecutor will look into
renewing Ezz detention again on
August 5. The latest arrest
comes as photojournalist Mahmoud
Abou Zeid, a/k/a Shawkan, is
slated to appear in court to
hear a possible verdict on July
28. Shawkan has been jailed
since August 2013 and faces the
death penalty. On July 18, Inner
City Press
banned from
entering the
UN unlike the
no-question
Sissi (retired)
scribe Sanaa
Youssef in
writing asked
Dujarric and
his deputy
Farhan Haq,
"Given your
belated answer
yesterday on
Saudi King
Salman's
immunity
announcement,
and your now
stated policy,
please provide
comment today
on this:
“Senior
military
officers who
oversaw the
killing of
hundreds of
protesters in
Egypt after
the 2013 coup
that brought
President Sisi
to power are
to be given
immunity from
prosecution.'" To
which Haq
replied, "on
Egypt, we
reiterate our
basic
point:The
United Nations
does not
endorse
amnesties for
genocide, war
crimes, crimes
against
humanity or
gross
violations of
human rights."
Is that why Guterres
shook so
heartily with
Sissi,
and gave Inner
City
Press' work
space to Sissi's
retiree? We'll
have more on
this.
On July 17 Inner City Press
asked Haq and Dujarric, still
UNanswered on July 18: “Egypt's
parliament has approved a tough
new law to regulate social
media, raising fears that it
could curb dissent against
President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi's
regime. The law states that
social media users who have more
than 5,000 followers could be
placed under the supervision of
Egypt's Supreme Council for
Media Regulations. The council
would be authorized to suspend
or block any personal account
which "publishes or broadcasts
fake news” - what is the comment
of the SG / UN?" The
noon briefing
Inner City
Press was
banned from
had few
questions,
none like
this; seven
hours later
Haq had not
provided any
written answer
or even
confirmation
of receipt.
The UN under
Guterres is
failing. On
July 7 the government behind
Guterres' and Smale's favorite
Akhbar al Yom sentenced a
Lebanese woman to eight years in
prison over "insulting
Egyptians" by complaining of
sexual harassment in a video she
posted online, and set July 29
as the date for her appeal. Mona
el-Mazbouh was charged with
"deliberately broadcasting false
rumors which aim to undermine
society and attack religions."
She posted a 10-minute video in
which she used profanities to
describe her vacation in Cairo
where she says she was sexually
harassed. The UN under Guterres,
as Inner City Press first
reported, rejected even a #MeToo
club at its offices in Vienna.
The Sissi government also pushed
back the sentencing of photo
journalist Shawkan or Mahmoud
Abu Zeid and more than 700
others to July 28, while moving
on a law to subject all social
media accounts with more than
5000 followers to monitoring and
immediate blocking for undefined
"fake news." It is lawless -
like Guterres' UN, which on June
22 deployed UN Security guards
who refused to give them names
while equipped with automatic
weapons to oust Inner City Press
from the UN during an Eid al
Fitr event at which Guterres
bragged about fasting in Mali. Video
here,
story here,
new
petition here.
Earlier
the Sisi government grabbed up
Hazem Abdel-Azim, a critic since
the
government
since he left
Sissi’s
campaign in
the 2014
elections. Hazem
Abdel-Azim was
taken from his home in a Cairo
suburb late Saturday on charges
of disseminating fake news (!)
and belonging to an outlawed
group. This follows the
detention of noted blogger Wael
Abbas. Abbas was seized on
accusations including
disseminating false news and
joining an outlawed group. He
was taken blindfolded
from
his home to an unknown location
and not allowed to contact his
lawyer. His YouTube channel was
shut in 2007, resulting in the
removal of hundreds of videos
depicting abuses by security
forces. In December, he posted
on Facebook that Twitter had
suspended his account without
providing any justification.
Last week they arrested labor
rights lawyer Haytham
Mohamedeen for
"belonging to an outlawed
group." (In the UN, the
Department of Public Information
before evicting Inner City Press
told it it would be ousted if it
did not remove the sign of the
Free UN Coalition for Access
from the door of its past (and
future?) office S-303, even as
the neighboring door carried and
carries Turkish government
paraphernalia. That threat, from
DPI's holdover Hua Jiang, cc-ed
to holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric, is here).
In 2016, Mohamedeen was arrested
and later released over calling
for protests against Egypt's
transfer of two strategic Red
Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.
(When Inner City Press asked
Guterres' spokesman on May 23
about Saudi detaining women's
right activist, he spoke vaguely
about space for civil society.)
Apparently Sisi's Egypt is as
much for sale as the UN, to Ng
Lap Seng and more recently
Patrick Ho and their mutual
controller. An independent jury
for a UNESCO prize awarded it to
jailed Egyptian photo journalist
Mahmoud Abu Zeid a/k/a Shawkan,
about whom Inner City Press
asked Amnesty International at
the UN this month. The Egyptian
government, needless to say, has
criticized the award. This is
the Sisi government to which
Guterres sends his warm regards,
and to whose state media Akhbar
al Yom's Sanaa Youssef Guterres
and his Global Communicator
Alison Smale have purported to
assign Inner City Press' long
time work space in the UN. UNCA,
the only claim to UN fame of
Sanaa Youssef, has said nothing,
bungling forward this April 23
with a 5 pm wine event for a
novel seemingly entirely
unrelated to the UN by
Elizabeth Strout, "at the event
marking 'UN English Language
Day', Ms. Strout will be joined
by fiction writer Katherine Vaz
and poet, Major Jackson... with
a with a [sic] wine and cheese
reception beginning at 5:00 pm."
Then on April 24, ghoulishly an
event in their clubhouse for a
movement the UN's exclusion
of which from the public UNSC
stakeout UNCA, heavy with
Moroccan state media, said
nothing. We'll have more on
this. On April 4, again with
Akhbar al Youm's Saana Youssef
nowhere in sight much less
asking a question after a
decade, Inner City Press asked
UN spokesman Dujarric, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press: when you were
asked about the 97 per cent
election of President Sisi, you
said, 'We were not involved in
the holding of the election,
whether in observing or
technical assistance. So,
I'll leave it at that.' I wanted
to ask you, since then, one, a
newspaper, Al-Masry Al-Youm, has
been fined for its independent
coverage of the election.
And now a website, Masr
al-Arabia, has been raided by
the Government. So, beyond
your… what you said on Monday,
do you believe that… that… that…
that the way in which the press
was disallowed from covering
this cake-walk election complies
with the principles of António
Guterres and his open-press
ways?
Spokesman: I think the
Secretary-General, in the run-up
to the election, had expressed
his concern at the limited
political space in the country,
and that is a concern we
continue to have." Really. On
April 5 it emerged that Egyptian
prosecutors ordered the
editor-in-chief of Masr
al-Arabia, Adel
Sabry, be
detained for 15 days pending
investigations. A prosecutor in
Cairo’s Dokki district accused
Sabry of belonging to a
terrorist group, publishing
false news, using text and
visuals that contradict the
constitution, and inciting
demonstrations, according to
Eman Hamed, the defendant’s
lawyer. This is what today's UN
is siding with, in the form of
former UNCA President Sanaa
Youssef of Egyptian state media.
Back on February 28 when
Guterres met Egypt's new
Ambassador Mohamed Fathi Ahmed
Edrees on February 28, Inner
City Press went through the UN's
tourist entrance and then UN
Security on the 37th floor to
cover it. Still, before Guterres
expressed his warm regards for
Sisi, who is arresting all
opponents, the UN Security
officer who has already checked
Inner City Press' microphone
told it it could not record
audio, see below. Now on March
8, Inner City Press asked
Guterres' spokesman Stephane
Dujarric about Sisi's government
seeking the death penalty
against photo journalist
Shawkan, as relates to Guterres
warm regards. From the UN transcript:
Inner City Press: it was
pretty… pretty recently that the
Secretary-General sent his very,
very warm regards to President
[Abdelfattah al] Sisi of Egypt,
and so, in that re… in that
connection, I wanted to ask you,
the noted photographer, Mahmoud
Abou Zeid, also known as
Shawkan, has now been informed
that he faces the death
penalty. He's been in jail
for four and a half years.
It's kind of a cause
célèbre. And I wondered if
the Secretary-General, who has
these warm feelings, is this
something he might have a
comment on, a photojournalist
being… facing the death by
hanging? Spokesman: I will
check on that particular
case. The
Secretary-General stands firmly
against the death penalty.
And as for questions of the
ongoing climate in Egypt, I
think I answered that to Masood
two days ago, and my answer
stands." Masood-ji, Dujarric's
straight man for justification
of eviction of the Press, video
here.
This is censorship, and it
remains ongoing
- they have not answered a
petition with thousands of
signatures. Meanwhile Guterres
and his Global Communicator
Alison Smale have purported to
assign Inner City Press' long
time UN work space to Sisi's no
show state media, Sanaa Youssef
of Akhbar al Yom. We'll have
more on this. Six days before
when Guterres met Ecuador's Vice
President María Alejandra Vicuña
on February 22 it was supposed
to be at 11:50 am. But another
Inner City Press arrived half an
hour before, by the time it was
allowed in at 11:44 am the
meeting was already underway.
There was no handshake,
and the Press was quickly
ushered out. With Guterres was a
single UN staffer: Katrin Hett.
On the elevator down from the
38th floor, UN Department of
Political Affairs deputy
Miroslav Jenca was just
arriving, and UN Photo missed
the shot again. This is a
pattern. The evening before on
February 21 when Guterres met
Cote d'Ivoire foreign minister
Marcel Amon-Tanoh on February
21, Guterres changed the time
twice. First from 5 pm to 6:40
pm - for this, notice was
provided - and then without
notice moving it up to 6:34 pm
such that both the Ivorian
photographer and even UN Photo
missed it. It seems Guterres is
only interested in accommodating
those who can help him - he has
been happy, for example, to have
the investigative Press
restricted for his entire
tenure, with no explanation of
what the rules are. No show
state media in, investigative
press, through the tourist
entrance, minders required. This
is "Big Tony's" United Nations,
do as I say, not as I do. Big
shots are getting over with
sexual harassment, while
directives go to underlings. The
Global Communicator Alison
Smale, censor in chief, is
involved. At the February 21,
restricted Inner City Press was
the only media which asked any
questions, on Justin Forsyth
multiple abuser, now at UNICEF,
about mis-statements about
immunity in India, another
no-answer on Tanzania. The only
media asking, and the only media
restricted by Guterres and
Smale. We'll have more on this.
Amon-Tanoh,
by the way,
spoke well in
the Security
Council,
before having
the time(s)
changed. Present
on the UN side were Katrin Hett
and Khassim Diagne, who's said
Paul Biya is doing a good job in
Cameroon - when Biya's been in
Geneva for four and a half
years, cumulatively. We'll have
more on this. Back on February 2
when Guterres before his
multiple junkets met Qatar's
Foreign Minister Mohammed bin
Abdulrahman Al Thani, he had
with him his outgoing head of
Political Affairs, Jeffrey
Feltman. (Inner City Press
exclusively reported on January
25, in connection with Feltman's
US replacement in the post, Dina
Powell, here.
Now some say Powell turned the
post down, as so many have,
under Big Tony.) The Qatari
minister joked that his
Ambassador told him Feltman was
back from an interesting place -
presumably a reference to North
Korea, where Feltman wants to
score Guterres a high level
meeting, perhaps with Kim Jong
Un, in connection
with having accepted as a UN
Junior Professional Officer in
his Department the son of a DPRK
Workers Party official. Even
before Mohammed
bin
Abdulrahman Al
Thani had
finished
signing the UN
visitors'
book, Guterres
was indicating
that the Press
should leave,
saying
Shukran,
presumably to
the two
traveling
Qatar
photographer
and
videographer.
Earlier in the
day Guterres refused
Inner City
Press'
question if he
told the
International
Criminal Court
in advance of
his meeting
last weekend
with Darfur
genocide
indictee Omar
al Bashir.
Qatar has
played a role
in Darfur... We'll
have more on this.
***
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