'People thought that military trials are only for thugs,' but personal and family accounts of Egyptians detained while simply excercising freedom of speech tell of torture and harsh military trials of civilians While many people are closely observing the actions of Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) concerning the upsurge in tensions between Egypt and Israel, the No for Military Trials Campaign held a press conference at the Journalists' Syndicate Saturday, drawing the attention back to the victims of military prosecution. The conference was held in the wake of the release of April 6 Youth Movement member Asmaa Mahfouz and blogger Loai Nagati after SCAF dropped their respective charges. Both activists attended the conference, as well as presidential hopefuls Ayman Nour and Bothina Kamel, among other public figures who all showed their sympathy towards people standing military trials. The families of the defendants shed tears on numerous occasions as they were telling their stories of their relatives' arrests and the physical and psychological abuses they have been endured afterwards, such as beatings, electric batons - and worse. Nagati, who was accused of insulting the army and inciting violence, spoke of his unfortunate experience himself. He said: “I was arrested on 29-6 [June 29] in the wake of the clashes near the Ministry of Interior building, and in less than 14 hours I was incarcerated in a military prison. “There were other detainees there. We were beaten up and humiliated. Abuses were as bad as sexual assaults and some people are suffering from extremely deteriorating health. Asmaa Mahfouz and I were freed, but there are still more people held in the military prison.” Mahfouz was initially released on a LE 20,000 bail before she was pardoned. She states: “People used to think that military trials are only for thugs, but after my case they realised that this is not true. “It was great to see people from across the political spectrum unite to say ‘No' to military trials, but it's important to keep that unity" she urged "because a lot of people are still being tried by military courts.” Michel Nabil's hunger strike Father of Michel Nabil, the blogger who has been arrested for writing a blog titled The People and the Army were Never One Hand also attended the conference. He revealed that his son will start a hunger strike on Tuesday until his conviction of "insulting the military" and "disturbing public security" is revoked. “My son is a veterinarian, but he opted to blog and get involved in politics because of the widespread corruption,” the father said. “He was arrested and tortured for his blog before being sentenced to three years in a military facility. “He will start a hunger strike on Tuesday. He decided not to eat until he's freed and exonerated.”
