Shawkan

Not Abandoned: #FreeShawkan

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

August 14, 2013, was 994 days ago. On that date, Mahmoud Abu Zeid was arrested in Egypt. He is a photojournalist who was arrested while being a photographer. Four times since December of last year, his first court hearing has been postponed; the next attempt at a hearing will come on May 10.

Under Egyptian law, there is a two-year cap on pre-trial detention; 994 days is longer than two years.

You may very well have seen some of his work in recent years, as his photographs have appeared in Time magazine, in periodicals throughout Europe, and they have been distributed by Corbis, a major syndicate. (One photo is reprinted below the fold.) Mahmoud, who publishes under the name “Shawkan,” 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.

Today is World Press Freedom Day, an annual commemoration established by the United Nations in December 1993. It celebrates the vital importance of a free press around the world, of the importance of the freedom of expression. What I write here is not important, but the fact that I can hit the “Publish” button in a few moments and send this into the world, that fact is.
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984 Days in Prison: #FreeShawkan

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

For the fourth time, the trial for Mahmoud Abu Zeid, the photojournalist known as “Shawkan,” was postponed today, April 23, by an Egyptian court, this time until May 10. He will remain in detention between now and then, and he will pass a grim milestone in two weeks: 1000 days in prison.

[Update: According to one source, a journalist named Mada Masr, “The court delayed the hearing because one of Shawkan’s co-defendants, who is in police custody, was not present in for the trial, said Karim Abdel Rady, a lawyer with the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, who is representing Shawkan.”] The source reports that the co-defendant was not present because the police were detaining the person.

The photo above, credited to Mohamed Meteab, is from the court proceeding today: Shawkan is the smiling face on the left. Other photos from today’s hearing show him smiling the toothy grin that has become familiar to human rights supporters around the world, and other photos show the gritty reality, even when appended to a message of thanks from Shawkan himself, like this one, also from today (Below the fold):
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Another Delay for #Shawkan

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

UPDATE, March 26, 2016: For the third time, the trial for Mahmoud Abu Zeid, the photojournalist known as “Shawkan,” has been postponed by an Egyptian court, this time until April 23. The court cited the same reason it gave for the first postponement in December and the second one in February: 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 Sit-in 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.

In February, Shawkan was confined to a “disciplinary cell” for four days, in other words, solitary confinement. His social media accounts describe a tiny cell, six feet by five-and-a-half feet (take a moment and measure that out), a daily slice of bread, a bucket, no blanket. There is a disgusting irony in placing him in this small cell for any length of time, whether one hour or from December till April 23, when the reason for all three court hearing delays has been the lack of space.
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