Journalism Is Not a Crime

Justice Delayed for Photographer Shawkan

Posted on 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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Is Dawit Isaak Still Alive?

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

In a rare interview in June with France’s RFI (Radio France Internationale), Eritrea’s Foreign Minister, Osman Saleh, spoke with RFI’s Anthony Lattier about Eritrea’s “political prisoners,” and he specifically revealed that one who has been in prison since 2001, the journalist Dawit Isaak, is still alive.

It was the first official Eritrean acknowledgement of Isaak’s existence since 2009, when the nation’s president, Isaias Afwerki, ominously told a Swedish journalist that Eritrea “knows what to do with” Isaak. Osman Saleh told Lattier that Isaak “is alive, he’s alive” and that all of the nation’s “political prisoners” are alive and well. He rebuffed any suggestion that any independent agency verify this as a fact, however.
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A New Delay for Shawkan

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

The second hearing in the trial of the photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid (“Shawkan”) was delayed until August 9 due to the “involuntary absence” of Shawkan and the other 738 defendants.

Shawkan’s lawyer, Karim Abdelrady, wrote in a social media post, “The Security Directorate addressed the court to announce that the defendants were not able to be transferred from prison to the courtroom, due to security reasons which it did not specify.”
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