CAIRO: The Lawyers' Syndicate's freedoms committee announced yesterday that it was launching legal action in the case of a man who died while queuing for state-subsidized bread, as part of its efforts in combating corruption. The committee organized a protest Wednesday against corruption and political detention outside the Syndicate's headquarters in Cairo. Holding up placards reading "No to the political detention of lawyers and "No to a government of businessmen, protestors chanted "The people want freedom and "No to corruption, no to political detention during the two-hour protest. The protest was also used to draw attention to the political detention of two Alexandrian lawyers, Essam Rashwan and Khaled Abdel Maaty. Rashwan and Abdel Maaty were arrested in Rafah when they participated in a Muslim Brotherhood-organized show of solidarity with Gaza. They remain detained in Alexandria although a court has ordered their release. Speakers at the protest of various political leanings condemned the arrest of Rashwan and Abdel Maaty. George Ishaq, the former leader of political opposition movement Kefaya, expressed solidarity with the Lawyers' Syndicate. "I'm in full solidarity with you. Gaza is under siege, and so are political movements in Egypt, he said. During the second hour of the protest the wives and children of political detainees in Alexandria joined the protest and the wife of Ibrahim Zarafany, a member of the Alexandria Doctors' Syndicate, condemned her husband's detention. At the end of the protest Adel Badawy, a member of the freedoms committee, announced plans to instigate legal action against the Ministry of Social Solidarity after a man died of a heart attack while waiting in line to buy state-subsidized bread. There are often long queues for subsidized bread and last month's media reports of government plans to review subsidized goods created a storm of protest. Badawy told Daily News Egypt that full details about the case would be released next week.
