Demonstrations in solidarity with two Egyptian judges facing disciplinary hearings on Thursday morning were forcefully put down and dispersed in downtown Cairo.
At least ten thousand security force members prevented 2 000 activists from the Muslim Brotherhood and the left-leaning opposition umbrella movement, Kifaya/Enough, from demonstrating, said security sources.
At least 237 demonstrators were arrested, said security sources, most of them from the Muslim Brotherhood. A large number of activists were seriously beaten and then arrested. The number of arrests could be higher. Some activists were bleeding as they were taken away in armoured cars.
Journalists attempting to cover the demonstrations were harassed by security forces and prevented from reporting the events.
A cameraman from the Arabic satellite channel al-Jazeera was seriously beaten and had his camera confiscated while a photographer from Reuters had his camera broken. Reporters and photographers from other news agencies also reported that they were beaten.
A number of streets in downtown Cairo were entirely sealed off as were the Judges’ Club, the Lawyers’ and Journalists’ Syndicates.
Smaller demonstrations taking place in the northern city of Alexandria and the southern city of Assiut were also forcefully put down, and at least six activists were reported arrested in Alexandria. Further arrests could be expected in these two areas.
Meanwhile the two judges, Mahmoud el-Mekki and Hisham al-Bastawisi, who were facing disciplinary hearings, were prevented from entering the courtroom with their accompanying judges and lawyers.
They then ”refused to enter the courtroom without their defence team” said Mahmoud al-Askalani, the media spokesperson for Cairo’s Judges’ Club. Their case has subsequently been postponed until Thursday May 18.
Mekki and Bastawisi have been stripped of their immunity and are facing disciplinary hearings for their role in leaking reports to the media regarding electoral violations and acts of vote-rigging allegedly perpetrated during the Parliamentary elections of October-December 2005. — Sapa-dpa