Gaddaf Al-Dam deported to Libya SECURITY forces on Tuesday arrested Ahmed Gaddaf Al-Dam, a cousin of Muammar Gaddafi, who is wanted in Libya for his role in the regime of the slain Libyan strongman. Gaddaf Al-Dam, reached on his cell phone, sought to play down the arrest and said he would file a complaint with the Egyptian prosecutor-general and Libyan authorities. “I am on my way now, in the company of lawyers,” he said. A security official and state television said Gaddaf Al-Dam surrendered to police after they raided his home. The official MENA news agency reported that he will be handed over to Libyan authorities who want to put him on trial. Police outside his apartment in Zamalek said Gaddaf Al-Dam surrendered without a struggle after police sent the Libyan consul to persuade him to surrender. However, Gaddaf Al-Dam's nephew and aide said that “masked men” had tried to storm the apartment at 2am. “His bodyguards fired at them and there was an exchange of fire,” he said from the prosecutor's office where Gaddaf Al-Dam was being questioned. Speaking to French satellite channel France 24, Gaddaf Al-Dam said that several people had been injured during the shooting. An official at the Libyan embassy said that authorities had also arrested two other figures, former Libyan ambassador Ali Maria and Mohamed Ibrahim, the brother of senior Gaddafi-era Libyan official Ahmed Ibrahim. “This is part of a plan by the Libyan authorities in coordination with Egyptian authorities to arrest wanted Libyans living in Egypt,” Abdel-Hamid Al-Safi said. Shortly after the start of the uprising that toppled Gaddafi, Gaddaf Al-Dam had announced he had resigned from all official functions. Until then, Gaddaf Al-Dam, who had permanent residence in Cairo, oversaw Libya's relations with Egypt.
Presidential satire THE 6 APRIL activist youth movement held a protest on Monday in support of two students who were suspended from their high schools after reading a satirical poem against President Mohamed Morsi. The protest was held in front of the Ministry of Education in Cairo in solidarity with the students Sally Mustafa and Shams Kotb who were suspended and referred to investigation last week by the head of Sayeda Zeinab School in Gharbiya after reading a morning school radio satirical poem of their own criticising president Morsi's policies. “The freedom of the students is the cornerstone of the freedom of expression,” protesters chanted. They demanded that the Minister of Education close the investigation and honour the students for being “courageous and creative”. Al-Watan newspaper quoted the students as saying their poem was meant to address Egypt's political turmoil which led many people “to be depressed”. After the suspension, hundreds of families of the students protested in front of the school in Gharbiya shouting in a chant: “teaching the kids how to be cowards”, and demanding the resignation of the dean for her limited horizon. “This generation is the only hope we have for a better country, so why do they insist on destroying it,” said a mother attended the protest.
Revisiting Zeitoun THE EMERGENCY State Security Criminal Court has halted the trial in the Zeitoun cell case referring it to the prosecution-general. Twenty-five people were accused of adopting an armed jihadist ideology and armed robbery at a jeweller's shop in Cairo's district of Zeitoun in 2007. Four Copts were killed and two others injured during the robbery. The case was returned to the prosecution in order to determine whether arrest warrants were legal. State Security prosecution accused the defendants of forming a terrorist group called “Regiment of loyalty and disvowal” (sareyet al-walaa wal-bara) that aimed to call for atonement of the ruler, revolting against him and changing the ruling regime by force. The defendants were also accused of monitoring Egypt's oil pipelines and ship movements in the Suez Canal in order to plan attacks on ships. In addition, prosecutors claimed defendants sought to disable the constitution and state institutions, assault the police and tourists, and attacking citizens' personal freedoms. The defendants' lawyers filed an appeal, submitting documents claiming that the decision to arrest the defendants was forged. The lawyers called for halting the trial and transferring the case from an exceptional court to a criminal court instead. Meanwhile, the defendants remain in jail until the appeal procedures take place.
Shadow parliament THE NATIONAL Salvation Front (NSF), the main opposition body, announced that it will form a shadow popular parliament in two weeks following its decision to boycott the upcoming parliamentary election. Mahmoud Al-Alili, a leading member in the NSF said that all political movements and parties are invited to be part of the shadow parliament which will discuss the new laws and political and economic policies of the country. “We will make sure that every single group of society has a voice in this parliament and tries to use it to push the government and country's Islamist rulers to reform their agenda and achieve the goals of the revolution.” Until now the NSF has not decided how the members of the parliament will be selected or where its sessions will take place. In a related development, the NSF announced that it will hold a conference to announce a roadmap that will propose a way out of the country's troubled transition. The roadmap will include solutions for economic and political problems.
