A regime keeps perpetuating more and more injustice, thinking that by keeping the people preoccupied all the time with its current crimes, they will somehow forget its past crimes and fear its future ones.
In doing so, a regime adopts one single method: namely absolute denial. (Victims are terrorists… There are no detainees… There is no torture… demonstrations are not prohibited… The law prohibiting appeal of contracts is in the interest of the poor… Coal does not pollute the environment). I feel things in Germany 90 years ago were much more creative.
Anyway, the following injustice occurred in the city of Suez from July to September 2013. In light of the theory of a regime constantly committing acts of injustice, and since I see no difference between civil and military justice, I will close an eye to the fact that those detainees were tried before a predisposed military court for entirely fabricated charges and summoned before a military prosecution that kept them into custody for a whole year.
The Egyptian judiciary spared no effort to issue a record of unjust death and prison sentences for certain people, while it acquitted all the murderers of the Interior Ministry that have been killing demonstrators since the revolution.
And the Public Prosecutor's Office kept detainees in one year more than it did in decades.
In fact, whenever we started talking about the practices of a regime, another regime came with practices that were worse.
Mohamed Morsy’s regime set a record from January to March 2013 in the number of minors who were arrested by the Interior Ministry. Today, the 3 July regime broke that record by far.
Ahmed Hassan Fawaz is a blacksmith in his twenties. He was arrested on 14 August 2013 while he was taking measurements to install an awning in a quarry and sentenced to 25 years in the Borg al-Arab prison.
Mahmoud Abdel Hady, a telephone worker in his early thirties, was arrested on 14 August 2103 and sentenced to 15 years in the Gamasa prison.
Mostafa Hani, 15, has been charged with burning armor vehicles, stealing weapons and possessing Molotov cocktails. He is currently detained at Agroud headquarters of the Third Field Army.
A 50-year-old worker of an electricity company who has diabetes and is infected with Hepatitis C was arrested on 14 August 2013 from the street and left for a full month without treatment, which led to a severe deterioration in his health. He was sentenced to three years in the Gamasa prison.
An oil company employee was stopped on 14 August 2013 while driving his car only because he was bearded. They assaulted him and broke his ribs. He was sentenced to three years in the Borg al-Arab prison.
A teacher was arrested on 5 July 2013 and sentenced to one year in the Damanhur prison. His brother was killed on 14 August in Suez in the demonstrations that followed the dispersal of the Rabaa sit-in.
A street cleaner was arrested on 15 August 2013 while on duty. He had a little girl who was sick. He was not released until after she died.
A delivery worker on a motorcycle was arrested during the delivery of an order. he is currently detained in Agroud.
A 50-year-old man was arrested on 2 September at his shop because his name resembled that of a wanted person. He has been in Agroud ever since.
A 20-year-old man was arrested in August 2013 and wounded in the head during the arrest. He did not receive any treatment. He has been detained in Agroud ever since.
A student of medicine was arrested on 14 August 2013. He has been detained in Agroud ever since.
A carpenter was arrested on 14 August 2013 near a mosque in Suez and sentenced to three years in Borg al-Arab prison.
Between 14 August and 3 September, 200 people were detained in Agroud, of whom 152 had a military trial in only three weeks and received sentences between three and 25 years in prison.
Another 1,000 people from the same city were arrested in similar circumstances and tried before a civil court on charges not different from those levelled by the military court. They serve similar sentences in the Gamasa, Damanhur, Borg al-Arab and Wadi Al-Natrun prisons.
All these are crimes that the regime will pay for sooner or later.
Looay al-Qahwagy is a prominent pro-democracy political activist from Alexandria. He was arrested last December for protesting without permission as he and other activists including Mahinour al-Masry organized a protest outside a court for the retrial of the murder of Khaled Saeed.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
