Egyptian crackdown targets secular activists as well as Islamists
Source: LA Times
In a case that was seen as part of a broadening crackdown on secular activists, a brother and sister who were active in the uprising against Hosni Mubarak were given suspended one-year jail terms on Sunday in connection with an attack on a campaign headquarters in 2012.
Liberal activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, his sister Mona Seif and 10 others were found guilty by an Egyptian criminal court of assault, property damage and theft in the attack on the headquarters of former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq.
The verdict comes as human rights advocates decry a crackdown that began by targeting Islamist supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi and now is reaching secular and leftist opposition youth.
The suspended verdict means that the defendants will not serve the jail term unless they are indicted on any other charges in the next three years -- a measure that could have a chilling effect on any further activism.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-egyptian-crackdown-secular-20140105,0,2912365.story#ixzz2pZHcXCY7
JoeyT
(6,785 posts)to tell us all why this is totally awesome.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)RiverNoord
(1,150 posts)Basically, it resulted in one long-term, oppressive military strongman being replaced in little over one year by another military government, with the added plus that the military now has the opportunity to crush dissent in a manner that would not have been realistically possible before...
I think a bit of buyer's remorse among the Egyptian electorate after their first legitimate elections would have vastly preferable to the costs of begging the military to depose the government they elected...
rpannier
(24,304 posts)I'm sure Bill Kristol will be able to explain why it's a good thing and Syria will benefit from a similar gov't