Egyptian Peace Activists Tortured - PROTEST in Central London

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg@tin.it>]

 Monday, 24 February 2003, from 18:00 to 19:00, outside the Egyptian
Embassy, 26 South Street W1
At least 15 Egyptian activists and organisers against war on Iraq have been
arrested in Cairo. Ten remain in detention without charge. Most have been
tortured with electro-shock. Several of those tortured are school students.
Fourteen peace and human rights groups in Egypt have asked us to do what we
can to get them released.
Organised by Stop the War Coalition, email findjonathan@hotmail.com


EGYPTIAN ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS ARRESTED AND TORTURED

By Ahmed Ben Bella, George Galloway (MP), John Rees, Stop the War Coalition

At least 13 Egyptian activists against the war on Iraq have been arrested.
Ten of those 13 remain in custody, including a journalist and a film maker,
and we know that eleven of the 13 arrested have been tortured. We have
received a plea for solidarity from a broad range of anti-war and human
rights groups in Egypt, asking us to protest to the Egyptian embassy in each
of our countries, and to the Egyptian government. As signatories to the
Cairo Declaration of December 2001 against war and globalisation, we ask you
to support their appeal.

For further information, or to register support, contact Jonathan Neale of
the International Campaign against Agression against Iraq at
findjonathan@hotmail.com, or by phone on 44 (0)7986-220641.

The phone number of the Egyptian embassy in London is 0207-499-2401. Speed
is of the essence.

The appeal from Egypt reads in part:

"On the 18th of January State Security Police arrested 11 activists
participating in an anti-war demonstration in Cairo. In the dawn of the 8th
of February they arrested and issued an order of detention for Ibrahim El
Sahari, Journalist at El Alam El Yom, founding member of Center for
Socialist Studies and prominent activist in the Egyptian antiwar movement.
On 9 Feb, at 2 p.m., they arrested another antiwar activist, Sabri El
Sammak, director of production at Aflam Misr El Alameya, the production
company of Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine.
"A vicious war is about to hit the region causing a damage whose proportions
no one can fully predict. It is the people of the region who are going to
pay for this war. In those black moments of history the least the peoples of
the world can do, and the Egyptian people are no exception, is to raise
their voices against that war and the interests it serves.
"We demand the immediate release of our detained colleagues and to stop the
harassment of the Egyptian solidarity movements, which are exercising their
legitimate right in collective peaceful expression, a fact supported by the
recent court order which rejected the government's decision to ban the
organization of peaceful demonstrations against the war on Iraq."
The names of those still in custody are Sabri Al Sammak, Ibrahim Al Sahari,
Tamer Hindawi, Abdel Gawad Ahmed, Mohammed Khalil, Samir Al Foli, Magdi Al
Kordi, Mahmoud Hassan, Mohammed Dakhli, and Mohammed Hosni. The activists in
Egypt are worried that many more will be arrested in the next few days if
there is not sufficient international pressure for their release.

Please protest to:

President Hosni Mubarak, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Telegram: President of the Republic, Cairo, Egypt.
+ 202 390 1998
webmaster@presidency.gov.eg

And to General Habib al-'Adeli, Ministry of the Interior
Telegram: Minister Interior, Cairo, Egypt.
+ 202 579 2031
moi@idsc.gov.eg

And to diplomatic representatives of Egypt accredited to your country.

office@stopwar.org.uk   www.stopwar.org.uk
 07951 235 915 or 020 7053 2153/4/5/6  PO Box 3739, London E5 8EJ


**************************************************
Nello

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