Egypt’s military has ordered a prominent blogger to be held in custody for 15 more days in a move likely to focus criticism against the country’s ruling generals in the run-up to parliamentary elections, due to begin later this month.
The detention of Alaa Abdel-Fattah, a well known blogger and leader during the 18-day uprising that ousted former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in February, has elicited international condemnation and galvanized those who accuse the army of using Mubarak-era tactics to smear critics.
His family has used his case to draw attention to the 12,000 Egyptians who have faced military trials this year — one of the key issues that have brought relations between activists and the military to a new low.
Protesters welcomed Egypt’s army when it deployed in the streets during the uprising and praised it for not firing on demonstrators. However, months later some fear that the Egyptian Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took control after Mubarak’s fall, will not willingly give up power to a civilian authority.
Others accuse the military of reviving hated practices of the Mubarak era.
“Of course we are frustrated,” the blogger’s father, Ahmed Seif al-Islam, said after Sunday’s decision to renew his son’s detention. “At the same time, this gives us the opportunity to further widen our campaign against military trials of civilians.”
Military prosecutors summoned Abdel-Fattah and detained him on Oct. 30 after he refused to answer questions about his alleged role in sectarian clashes last month that killed 27 people.
He has not been charged, though the head of the military court, General Adel al-Mursi, said in a statement in Egyptian state media on Sunday that Abdel-Fattah is accused of stealing a military weapon, deliberately destroying military property and attacking security forces.
Al-Mursi said Abdel-Fattah “is not being tried on a case of opinion or thought.”
Abdel-Fattah denies all allegations. He refuses to speak with military prosecutors because he insists they must have no role in trying civilians.
Also on Sunday, at least one person was killed and several others injured when armed forces fired tear gas and live ammunition at protesters besieging a vital Nile Delta port. They were protesting expansion plans for a local fertilizer factory they say will cause health problems in the area.
In the southern city of Aswan, police stopped thousands of members of Egypt’s Nubian minority from attacking a police station. Instead, the protesters shattered the windows of a social club for police and set it on fire early on Sunday, witnesses said.
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