The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said today that on the occasion of the 66th anniversary of the execution of Kafr al-Dawar workers “Mosatafa Khamis and Mohamed al-Baqary” following an unfair and invalid military trial, ANHRI’s Freedom of Expression for Workers and Social Movements republishes “Retry Kafr al-Dawar Martyrs…Mosatafa Khamis and Mohamed al-Baqary” book.
The handbook consists of three articles written by the late labor lawyer “Ahmed Sharaf” in the third, fourth and fifth issues of Sawt al-Amel (Workers’ Voice) magazine, published in October 1985, January 1986 and April 1986.
The book addresses the incidents of Kafr al-Dawar labor strike that started on 12 August 1952, in the wake of the “Free Officers Movement” in July in 1952, when workers from Kafr Al-Dawar’s Misr Fine Spinning and Weaving Company in Beheira governorate announced going on a labor strike. The strike started with a protest led by worker Mosatafa Khamis to raise their grievances against the company’s board of directors before the Free Officers, and nearly 8,000 workers participated in the strike. Following the protest, Khamis was arrested, along with more than 567 from the factory’s workers.
Two cases were then filed against the company’s workers. The first one was the protest case, in which the military court sentenced Mostafa Khamis to death by hanging after a trial deemed void which lasted for only 9 hours. The second case was the strike case which involved 29 of the company’s workers and in which Mohamed al-Baqar was sentenced to death and 12 other workers to hard labor.
Less than a month later, particularly on 17 September 1952, Mostafa Khamis and Mohamed al-Baqary were executed at Hadra prison in Alexandria.
The publishing of the book comes in the context of the commemoration of the peaceful strike of the Misr Fine Spinning and Weaving Company’s workers and the execution of workers Mostafa Khamis and Mohamed al-Baqary.
The Freedom of Expression for Workers and Social Movements publishes this book to emphasize the right of workers to peaceful strike and highlight its rejection of military trials of civilians. The book also came to strengthen the manifold demands of holding a retrial for Khamis and al-Baqary as well as a civil trial in which terms of justice are met; after many pieces of evidence have been discovered over the past years to prove their innocence and gain their rehabilitation.
The booklet is available in Arabic through this link:
