{"id":607,"date":"2018-07-26T15:39:33","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T15:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info?p=607"},"modified":"2018-07-26T15:39:33","modified_gmt":"2018-07-26T15:39:33","slug":"two-days-before-the-sentencing-hearing-in-the-dispersal-of-rabaa-al-adaweya-sit-in-case-anhri-reiterates-its-demand-for-an-end-to-the-5-year-injustice-against-shawkan-and-calls-for-acquitting-him-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/?p=607&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Two days before the sentencing hearing in the Dispersal of Rabaa al-Adaweya Sit-in case, ANHRI reiterates its demand for an end to the 5-year injustice against Shawkan and calls for acquitting him and all the others who were oppressed in this case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cairo: 26 July 2018<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information <\/span><\/span><\/span>(ANHRI)<\/span><\/span><\/span> expressed, today, its <\/span><\/span><\/span>adherence<\/span><\/span><\/span> to the legal stance <\/span><\/span><\/span>demanding the<\/span><\/span><\/span> acquitt<\/span><\/span><\/span>al of<\/span><\/span><\/span> its client photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, AKA “Shawkan”<\/span><\/span><\/span>, who has been held on remand pending Rab<\/span><\/span><\/span>a<\/span><\/span><\/span>a al-Adaweya Sit-in Dispersal case <\/span><\/span><\/span>for<\/span><\/span><\/span> 5 years, <\/span><\/span><\/span>and<\/span><\/span><\/span> also <\/span><\/span><\/span>the <\/span><\/span><\/span>implementation of <\/span><\/span><\/span>the <\/span><\/span><\/span>law, justice and the acquittal of every innocent <\/span><\/span><\/span>individual against whom there are no evidence to prove the <\/span><\/span><\/span>use <\/span><\/span><\/span>of <\/span><\/span><\/span>violence, <\/span><\/span><\/span>during <\/span><\/span><\/span>the Saturday, July 28<\/span><\/span>, hearing which is expected <\/span><\/span><\/span>to be <\/span><\/span><\/span>the <\/span><\/span><\/span>hearing in which the <\/span><\/span><\/span>court will <\/span><\/span><\/span>hand down its verdict<\/span><\/span><\/span>. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

ANHRI also <\/span><\/span><\/span>expressed<\/span><\/span><\/span> its concern <\/span><\/span><\/span>over <\/span><\/span><\/span>the <\/span><\/span><\/span>ongoing <\/span><\/span><\/span>protracti<\/span><\/span><\/span>on of<\/span><\/span><\/span> the trial, which in turn leads to the <\/span><\/span><\/span>ongoing prolonging of <\/span><\/span><\/span>the pre-trial detention, that has actually been used as a puni<\/span><\/span><\/span>shment<\/span><\/span><\/span> against its client, who has received the UNESCO\/Guillermo Cano Press Freedom Prize, along with other defendants in the same case. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

During its hearing convened on 30 June 2018, the court decided to extend the sentencing hearing of the case to the Saturday July 28<\/span><\/span> hearing; because the Ministry of Interior didn’t bring the defendants from prison, and to continue deliberations in the case which would lead to the perpetuation of the defendants’ imprisonment pending it.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

ANHRI renewed its previous demand to <\/span><\/span><\/span>clear <\/span><\/span><\/span>“Shawkan” of all the flimsy charges attributed to him, especially in the absence of any evidence against him; as his lawyers had already submitted documents that prove his innocence, which is a testimony by Demotix media agency that shows Shawkan was on assignment to cover the dispersal of the sit-in. This is in addition to two testimonies of <\/span><\/span><\/span>an <\/span><\/span><\/span>American and <\/span><\/span><\/span>a <\/span><\/span><\/span>French journalists who were accompanying Shawkan at time he was arrested, before they were released <\/span><\/span><\/span>and he became <\/span><\/span><\/span>a defendant in the case. These documents prove that Shawkan was present at the time and place of the sit-in to carry out <\/span><\/span><\/span>the<\/span><\/span><\/span> journalistic work <\/span><\/span><\/span>that <\/span><\/span><\/span>was assigned to <\/span><\/span><\/span>him<\/span><\/span><\/span>. Furthermore,<\/span><\/span><\/span> several <\/span><\/span><\/span>photographs taken by Shawkan <\/span><\/span><\/span>of<\/span><\/span><\/span> some incidents prior to the sit-in’s dispersal were also submitted, <\/span><\/span><\/span>to show<\/span><\/span><\/span> that Shawkan has no affiliation to any political faction. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

ANHRI re<\/span><\/span><\/span>calls<\/span><\/span><\/span> that no<\/span><\/span><\/span>t a<\/span><\/span><\/span> single official or police officer was h<\/span><\/span><\/span>e<\/span><\/span><\/span>ld accountable in the case of Rab<\/span><\/span><\/span>aa<\/span><\/span><\/span> al-Adaweya Sit-in dispersal, which resulted in the death of hundreds of people in nearly 12 hours, despite the <\/span><\/span><\/span>high<\/span><\/span><\/span> number of <\/span><\/span><\/span>casualties<\/span><\/span><\/span>. The suspects accused in the case were only <\/span><\/span><\/span>from<\/span><\/span><\/span> the sit-in’s participants along with some passers-by who were present there for reasons that have nothing to do with the sit-in itself, just like Shawkan who was there to do his job covering the sit-in dispersal’s incidents.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

ANHRI said,”The trial of Shawkan, since his arrest on the 14<\/span><\/span><\/span>th<\/span><\/span><\/sup><\/span> of August 2013 <\/span><\/span><\/span>against the backdrop of the dispersal <\/span><\/span><\/span>of Rab<\/span><\/span><\/span>a<\/span><\/span><\/span>a al-Adaweya Sit-in, has lasted for nearly three years <\/span><\/span><\/span>in front of <\/span><\/span><\/span>the cour<\/span><\/span><\/span>t, <\/span><\/span><\/span>in addition to <\/span><\/span><\/span>two <\/span><\/span><\/span>year<\/span><\/span><\/span>s of<\/span><\/span><\/span> investigations by the Public Prosecution, which is the <\/span><\/span><\/span>total <\/span><\/span><\/span> duration <\/span><\/span><\/span>Shawkan spent behind bars <\/span><\/span><\/span>based on <\/span><\/span><\/span>unjust and illegal preventive detention orders. This means that he, <\/span><\/span><\/span>and <\/span><\/span><\/span>many <\/span><\/span><\/span>other <\/span><\/span><\/span>innocent people, have <\/span><\/span><\/span>lost <\/span><\/span><\/span>five years <\/span><\/span><\/span>of <\/span><\/span><\/span>their lives in a prolonged remand”. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cairo: 26 July 2018 The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) expressed, today, its adherence to the legal stance demanding the acquittal of its client photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, AKA “Shawkan”, who has been held on remand pending Rabaa al-Adaweya Sit-in Dispersal case for 5 years, and also the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"labor":[],"years":[],"class_list":["post-607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-statements"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=607"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":608,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions\/608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=607"},{"taxonomy":"labor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Flabor&post=607"},{"taxonomy":"years","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fyears&post=607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}