Online protest against military trials for civilians is a success

Activists launch an hour-long online campaign targeting the government and ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, calling for an end to the military trial of civilians

An online protest planned for Saturday night proved successful, leaving more than 130,000 protest comments on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' Facebook page, more than 80,000 on the Cabinet's page, and more than 13,000 on Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's page.
All the comments condemned military trials for civilians and demanded that those detained or tried by the military be referred to civil courts.
According to rights activists, at least 12,000 civilians have been referred to military courts in the past six months. Mona Seif of the No to Military Trials Campaign says that the sad fact is that most of those who attract media attention for being tried militarily are activists. This accounts for a tiny minority of those who have been referred to military courts.
Seif adds that a large proportion of those who face military trials come from poor backgrounds, which reveals the class discrimination present in the way the detained are being judged.
The online protest called for by the No to Military Trials Campaign involved posting comments for a continuous 15 minutes on the Facebook pages of the military council, the Cabinet, the prime minister and the Ministry of Interior. The protest was launched at 11pm on Saturday.
Several online Facebook groups and blogs also posted statements or articles against the military trial of civilians. Among the better known groups who contributed on their Facebook pages are We are All Khaled Said (the Facebook group that called for the 25 January protests that snowballed into the January revolution), Egypt's Second Anger Revolution page, the ElBaradei Campaign, the National Council, the Free Egyptians Party and the Abdel Moneim Aboul-Fotouh Presidential Campaign.