Egypt | The Gad About Town

A Missed Opportunity to Help Shawkan?

Posted on January 14, 2017 by Mark Aldrich

On Tuesday, eight TDs from the Dáil Éireann, Ireland’s lower house in its legislature, visited a young man who was arrested in Egypt in August 2013 and has been held in prison ever since: Ibrahim Halawa. The TDs also met with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who told them that he could not intervene on behalf of the young prisoner, but that upon the conclusion of his trial Halawa would be free to return to Ireland.

Ibrahim Halawa is a citizen of Ireland, born there in 1995 and raised there. His family is Egyptian, and he and his sisters traveled to Egypt in the summer of 2013 and took part in the protests riling that nation that summer. The previous president, Mohamed Morsi, had been kicked out of office in a coup, and everyday citizens who support democracy joined with Morsi’s supporters and with actual members of his political party, the Muslim Brotherhood, in the street protests.
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Oct. 22: Where is Shawkan?

Posted on October 21, 2016 by Mark Aldrich

Update, October 21/22, 2016: A source close to Mahmoud Abou Zeid, the Egyptian photographer known as “Shawkan,” reported to me today that there is less that is known with certainty about Shawkan’s whereabouts than what has been reported in the media in the last 48 hours, including in this website.

What is known this Friday night/Saturday morning is that when Shawkan’s brother, Mehmet, visited Tora Prison to see his brother earlier this week, he was informed that Shawkan was not at the prison. (Mehmet confirmed that himself to this website and to other publications.) This was the first time that anyone had learned of Shawkan’s transfer. To the best that I have been able to ascertain, even Shawkan’s lawyers had not been contacted in advance or advised about any changes in Shawkan’s status.

It is understood that about 300 prisoners were moved from Tora Prison recently (even the date is not yet known) and Shawkan is believed to be one of the prisoners. Because no one has been in contact with Shawkan himself, it is not known where he is tonight: he could be back in Tora Prison or still be at another location.
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Justice Delayed for Photographer Shawkan

Posted on October 8, 2016 by Mark Aldrich

In a court hearing in Cairo, Egypt, earlier today, the trial of the photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid (“Shawkan”) and the 738 other defendants in the “Rabaa dispersal” case was adjourned once again, this time until November 1. This means he will spend his fourth consecutive birthday in jail; he turns 29 on October 10.

A similar reason to one given by the court in the past was given today: its judges are examining video evidence. Also, one defendant who has cancer was released today after confirming his home address.

The photo above, of Shawkan in court, is from today. Anyone can see that the waiting is wearying. The trial is trial enough for Shawkan, who is a photojournalist who was arrested in a general roundup of a protest in August 2013. He was a credentialed reporter covering the story of the protest and the crackdown and was arrested in the general chaos of the roundup. He should have been released by the Egyptian authorities within days when they realized what they had done, and his name should not be leading the litany of names of reporters who were arrested for doing their job in recent years.

But more than three years later, Shawkan still sits in prison, sometimes in solitary confinement, and he awaits each new, now monthly, delay in the delivery of any news, any change in status, any justice.
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