The European Union Delegation to Egypt
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News Coverage prepared for: The European Union delegation to Egypt . Disclaimer: “This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of authors of articles and under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of IPSOS or the European Union.” 1 . Thematic Headlines Domestic Scene Judges Complain SCAF Protects the Parliament 70 MPs Denounce the Attacks on Judges Shafiq Accuses the Muslim Brotherhood of Attacking Demonstrators Expatriate Votes are Being Counted Judges Complain Women March Sexually Harassed in Downtown Cairo Revolutionary Powers End Tahrir Sit-In Camel Battle Defense Accuses Muslim Brotherhood of Staging It Prison Refuses to Allow Suzanne to Visit Mubarak Indicators of Expat Votes: Morsi Leads in Jordan; Shafiq in Lebanon Islamic Group: Judge Statements Meant to Support Shafiq Judges Complain to Prosecution from MPs War Against Shafiq Continues Political Parties Welcome Constituent Assembly Agreement Armed Forces Hospital Prepares to Receive Mubarak MB Will Nominate El-Bishry to Lead Constituent Assembly El-Katatni: We Will Not Apologize to Judges 38 Activists Participate in Hunger Strike Camel Battle Judge Summons Al-Reweiny, Shafiq and El-Beltagi 2 Newspapers (10/06/2012) Pages: 1, 6 Author: Ahram reporters Judges Complain Hundreds of Judges filed claims to the Attorney General against a number of the members of Parliament accusing them of libel and slander. The claims were a response to the MPs’ attack on the judicial authority upon the court ruling in the case of Mubarak and members of his regime. 3 Pages: 1, 3 Author: Ahram reporters The Constitute Assembly The People’s Assembly will discuss tomorrow the report of the committee of constitutional and legislative affairs about draft law that sets the criteria of forming the Constituent Assembly. The draft was drawn by the political powers in Egypt in a meeting with SCAF. The People’s Assembly will receive the nominations for the assembly until 6 p.m. MP Mustafa Bakri reported on an agreement to choose a nonpartisan expert in constitutional law to head the assembly. Speaker of the People’s Assembly Saad al-Katatni thanked SCAF for its effort in this response, asserting the People’s Assembly completes respect of any ruling that would be of the Supreme Constitution Assembly. Similar news was reported in al-Shurouk, p. 4 4 Page: 1 Author: Mohamed Fares, Mina Ghali and Fadi Francais Women March Sexually Harassed in Downtown Cairo A group of young girls, who staged a march against sexual harassment, were ironically harassed in Downtown Cairo’s Talaat Harb Street. As soon as the march started, some young men started sexually harassing them. They were saved by people in the street. The word about the incident has spread in Tahrir Square. One protester freaked out and hugged his sister to protect her but the others thought he was harassing her, not knowing of course she was his own sister, and beat him up. Political activist and former chief of the UN nuclear body, Mohamed el-Baradei, issued an apology to all Egypt’s women on his Twitter account. 5 Page: 1 Author: Not mentioned Revolutionary Powers End Tahrir Sit-In Several revolutionary powers and movements decided to end officially their week-long sit-in in Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square, which was held to protest the court rulings issued against former president Hosni Mubarak and his regime figures. The movements decided instead to organize night marches until Thursday, the day when the Supreme Constitutional Court issues its final say on the political isolation law. Spokesman of the April 6 Youth Movement (Ahmed Maher Front) Mahmoud Afifi said his movement was not among the sitter-ins and would focus its activities instead outside the square. Meanwhile, spokesman of the Revolution Youth Coalition Mohamed Attiya said his group along with the April 6 Youth Movement (Democratic Front) and the Lotus Revolution group decided to suspend the sit-in and replace it with marches to be held in several neighborhoods, such as Shoubra, Maadi and Helwan. The marches aim to mount pressure to carry out the political disenfranchisement law, retry the former president and his acolytes and call for boycotting the second round of the presidential elections, Attiya said. For his part, political bureau member of the Revolution Youth Union Hamada el-Kashef said his group did not end its sit-in and it will continue to take place until the Supreme Constitutional Court issues a verdict on the political isolation law. Meanwhile, the number of hunger strikers outside the People’s Assembly rose to 45 people, including five girls. They call for enforcing the political isolation law on presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq. The hunger strikers confirmed that three members of parliament are supporting them. 6 Page: 1 Author: Yousri el-Badri Prison Refuses to Allow Suzanne to Visit Mubarak Suzanne Thabet, the wife of former president Hosni Mubarak, visited her son Alaa in Tora Prison but was denied a visit her husband in the prison hospital or her other son Gamal, who is escorting his father. According to official sources, the prison administration informed Gamal that his mother wants to visit him but he has to leave the hospital for his cell. Gamal refused, saying his father would not take his medication unless he was with him. He even begged prison officials to let his mother visit him and his father at the prison hospital, but the officials declined to fulfill his wish. Suzanne visited her eldest son Alaa with his wife Haydi Rasekh in her company for two hours. She told Alaa she was doing all she can to move Mubarak from the prison hospital, where his health has deteriorated sharply. Alaa, with tears in his eyes, told her the prison administration refused to let him visit his father. 7 Page: 4 Author: Gomaa Hamdallah Indicators of Expat Votes: Morsi Leads in Jordan; Shafiq in Lebanon Egypt’s embassies and consulates worldwide started on Saturday counting the votes of expatriates cast in the second round of the presidential elections, held between Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq. According to well-placed diplomatic sources, more than 300,000 Egyptians have cast their ballots in the runoff. Initial results of the count show that Shafiq led the vote in the Australian city of Melbourne (855), with Morsi getting only 128 votes. Shafiq also was number one in Lebanon with 169 votes, while Morsi 132. In Jordan, Morsi led the race with 856 while Shafiq got 407, Egypt’s Ambassador in Amman Amr Attallah said. In Pakistan: Morsi garnered 17 and Shafiq 7. Malaysia: Morsi 196 and Shafiq 23. Addis Ababa: Morsi 22 and Shafiq 18. Sanaa: Morsi 308 and Shafiq 59. 8 Page: 5. Authors: Mahmoud Nafadi and Mohamed Talaat. El-Katatni: We Will Not Apologize to Judges Speaker of the People’s Assembly Dr. Saad El-Katatni confirmed that the parliament does not interfere in the affairs of the judicial authority. He explained that the discussion of the verdicts handed down to Mubarak, his sons and regime figures, at the parliament reflected the pulse of the Egyptian street. “I will not respond to Al-Zend’s accusations to the parliament. I believe Al-Zend owes the parliament an apology, not the opposite,” said El-Katatni, confirming that he refuses to apologize to Al-Zend to diffuse the current crisis between the judicial and legislative authorities. 9 Page: 5 Author: Mohamed Bassyouni and Ahmed Tawfiq Political Parties Welcome Constituent Assembly Agreement Most of political parties welcomed an agreement reached on the composition of the Constituent Assembly under which no side will dominate the constitution-writing body. Founding member of the “Constitution Party” Wael Qandil said the crisis has not ended yet despite the agreement because deliberations were held on the constitution itself and Article 2. Political powers have wasted months in empty discussions, he regretted. Meanwhile, member of the National Association for Change Ahmed Darrag welcomed the agreement reached on the Constituent Assembly members. What is more important now is to lay down well-defined rules for its membership, Darrag said. 10 Page: 1 Author: Khaled Badran War against Shafiq Continues Head of the Helwan Prosecution ordered the detention of 4 suspects, who wore police uniform in a fake video and pretended to bribe the citizens to vote for former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq in the second round of the presidential elections. Two of the suspects admitted the charges against them but did not say what their motive was. 11 Pages: 1 Author: not mentioned 70 MPs Denounce the Attacks on Judges 70 MPs from the different political players represented in the Parliament denounced the Parliament attacks against judges and the judicial authorities days ago. The MPs stressed that Egypt’s judges were decent and fought injustice during Mubarak’s regime rule. 12 Pages: 3 Author: not mentioned Shafiq Accuses the Muslim Brotherhood of Attacking Demonstrators In a press conference presidential candidate Ahmad Shafiq accused the Muslim Brotherhood of breaking into prisons and releasing criminals during the Jan 25 revolution to kill demonstrators in Tahir Square. Shafiq also claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood will give up Sinai on the account of the national security. Shafiq added that the Muslim Brotherhood wanted to take Egypt back to de Lesseps’ time and sell the Suez Canal that was dug by the souls and blood of Egyptians. Shafiq also claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood wanted subservient youth. Shafiq also accused the Muslim Brotherhood’s presidential candidate of trading in the name of the revolution like they traded in the name of religion. 13 Page: 1.