Free Shawkan

A New Delay for Shawkan Zeid

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

UPDATE, February 6, 2016: For a second time, the Egyptian court hearing for Mahmoud Abu Zeid, the photojournalist known as “Shawkan,” has been postponed, this time until March 26. The court cited the same reason it gave for the first postponement in December: that it does not have the space to accommodate the hearing. Because he was arrested in a widespread government crackdown, which was known as the “Rabaa Dispersal,” Shawkan has been included with 737 other individuals. All face similar charges of offenses against public order and national security, violence, murder, attacking security forces and civilians, engaging in armed conflicts, and destroying public facilities.

Multiple sources are reporting today that Shawkan has been moved to a “disciplinary cell,” in other words, solitary confinement. His social media accounts describe a tiny cell, a daily slice of bread, a bucket, no blanket. There is a disgusting irony in placing him in a small cell for any length of time, whether one hour or until March 26, when the reason for the two delays has been lack of space.
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A Message from Shawkan

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Mahmoud Abu Zeid is a photojournalist whose work you may very well have seen in recent years, as his photographs have appeared in Time magazine, news services throughout Europe, and they were syndicated by Corbis, a major syndicate. (One photo is reprinted below the fold.) He photographed everyday life in Egypt as well as breaking news stories like the protests in Tahrir Square and the trial of former president Hosni Mubarak. His professional name is Shawkan.

Shawkan was arrested in Cairo, Egypt, in a round-up during nation-wide protests on August 14, 2013. He was arrested while doing his job, while taking photos of the protests and the crackdown. It is believed that about 1000 people lost their lives across Egypt in the police actions against the protests that day, and several thousand were arrested, all in the name of stopping the Muslim Brotherhood. Shawkan was arrested in a mass round-up, and he remains just one more face and name in a large crowd: on December 12, he will be a part of a “mass trial of 738 defendants.”

As of today, December 4, 2015, he has spent 842 days in pre-trial detention. Even though his first court session is due to take place on December 12, his lawyer reported to Amnesty International this fall that he had yet to see Shawkan’s case file. Under Egyptian law, there is a two-year cap on pre-trial detention; 842 days is longer than two years.
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