Hossam el-Hamalawy, a prominent journalist/activist/photographer, has been ordered to appear before military prosecutors on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 10:30 am Cairo time. This occurred after an ONTv interview, where he spoke against military trials for civilians, spoke against violence perpetuated by the military police against activists/civilians and held the head of the military police responsible for these reported violations. The television station's well known host of the program, Reem Maged, was also summoned for questioning.
Ottawa's CBC radio conducted an interview with Hossam in regard to this summons tonight (May 30, 2011). A link to the full interview can be found below.
http://bit.ly/kcbOIo
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Update: May 31, 2011
Today hundreds of protestors came to SCAF headquarters to support journalists Hossam el-Hamalawy and Reem Maged. The following are the posts made by Hossam on twitter after he returned from SCAF headquarters (please read from bottom to top).
3arabawy Hossam عمو حسام
And seriously I want to thank all of those who came out to day to demonstrate on our behalf, I love u all!
3arabawy Hossam عمو حسام
We were treated with respect inside. But Reem made it clear that just by summoning journalists it's considered an act of intimidation.
3arabawy Hossam عمو حسام
The army doesn't respond that quickly as you all know, except with public pressure.
3arabawy Hossam عمو حسام
But to make sure those cases are looked into, I strongly believe those cases should be highlighted by the media.
3arabawy Hossam عمو حسام
But in all cases, we'll compile a file of the torture accusations and we'll be handing it in the coming days.
3arabawy Hossam عمو حسام
And again, I'd like to stress that those cases we will b reporting have already been reported before, but no action was taken.
3arabawy Hossam عمو حسام
The day ended with the officers promising to look into those cases as well as whatever we'll b presenting them in the coming days
3arabawy Hossam عمو حسام
And we also highlighted quickly some of the cases of the military crackdowns on protests, and the "thuggery" accusations
3arabawy Hossam عمو حسام
We made it clear to military prosecutors that already complaints were submitted b4 to public and military prosecutor, but nothing happened
3arabawy Hossam عمو حسام
I had several human rights lawyers with me, including Rajia Omaran and Ahmad Ragheb, Mohamed Abdel Aziz, Haitham Mohammadein, Tarek, Rami,..
3arabawy Hossam عمو حسام
The visit to the military prosecutor became later a "chat" where they wanted "clarifications" for my accusations against General Badeen.
3arabawy Hossam عمو حسام
And I'm sure today's protest, as well as the public campaign, are the only reasons I'm out today.
3arabawy Hossam عمو حسام
And it was clear the generals were worried about the increasing public pressure on them
3arabawy Hossam عمو حسام
From what I understood Reem was coming in today as a "witness" while I was to be "questioned" about the accusations against Military Police.
3arabawy Hossam عمو حسام
Thanks ya shabab for all the support today. Wallahi Wallahi I'm very humbled by your solidarity.
~ Sofia Smith
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