Sunday, May 4, 2014

Muslim Brotherhood Statement on Political Prisoners Hunger Strike

April 25,2014
Source: Ikhwanweb

About seventeen thousand detainees held on remand in the military junta's prisons have started a hunger strike in protest against the gross injustice inflicted upon them. They are illegally detained on open-ended remand, without any justification. If released, they cannot possibly tamper with the prosecution evidence, nor can they flee abroad. Their homes and work places are well known to authorities.


In fact, held hostage, they suffer tremendous ill-treatment and abuse. They can barely breathe in cells packed with ten times the number of inmates they are meant for, with no air vents. Neither their families nor their lawyers are allowed to visit them. Worse still is horrendous and repeated torture, from which no old man nor young minor is exempted, and which often includes violent rape leading to death of detainees.


If anything, this exposes the systematic policy of brutality followed by the mad military junta in order to break the will of the Egyptian people. Coup authorities began with murder, arson and bloodshed, and continue with false imprisonment and torture, hoping the people would abandon their demands for freedom, dignity and all their rights.


The generals are determined to crush the people, together with their children and grandchildren, under their bloody boots. But this will not happen, God willing: "…Honor belongs to God and His Messenger, and to the Believers; but the Hypocrites know not" (Quran 63:8).


If we look at the kinds of people so imprisoned unjustly, we'd find they represent the entire Egyptian people, from scientists, university professors  and students to engineers, doctors and lawyers – men and women, old and young, even minors under fourteen. Some of those have been sentenced to death, some to rigorous imprisonment for up to seventeen years, just for peacefully protesting to express their rejection of the coup.


The Egyptian Observatory for Rights and Freedoms has documented forty five violations against those innocent men, women and youths, some committed by brutal and monstrous police officers. Meanwhile, the prosecution service and the judiciary are most lamentable. They commit dozens of violations of the law themselves, although the people trust them with the task of dealing justice and upholding law and order.


Evidently, there are secret prisons that have been converted into slaughterhouses and torture centers for innocent political detainees, like the notorious Aezoli prison in Ismailia. Located within the confines of a military encampment, this prison had been dedicated to military personnel who had committed serious crimes. However, now it has opened its doors and deadly dungeons for peaceful civilians. Indeed, this is only the tip of the iceberg.


Numerous international human rights organizations have strongly condemned the brutality of violations committed against the Egyptian people. But it seems the heinous junta do not care much for Egypt's reputation nor for Egypt itself or its people. They are heartless ruthless monsters. They seek to drag Egypt into the Syrian trajectory. But for whose sake, whose benefit, would that be? In any event, this will not happen either, God willing.


On the other hand, the real heroes will remain steadfast, fighting the battle of empty stomachs, putting their health and lives at risk, not to demand their own freedom alone, but the freedom of the whole of Egypt and its people. This is all they can do now.


Therefore, the honorable, patriotic Egyptian people must move to support those steadfast heroes. It no longer suffices to tacitly condemn the mad military coup's bloody crimes. Soon, patience and the empty stomachs will triumph over the most advanced lethal weapons, and peaceful civilized humans over the brutal monsters.


"…God will certainly aid those who aid His cause; for verily God is full of Strength, Exalted in Might and Power" (Quran 22:40).


Indeed… "God has full control of all affairs, but most people do not know."  The unjust oppressors will soon see what destiny they will ultimately meet.



The Muslim Brotherhood


Cairo: 24 April 2014


Link:  http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=31640.

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