CAIRO: After a meeting with Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and Minister of Justice Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz El-Gindi, a youth activist said there remained a need to take to the streets. “We are still on our own and our resort is the street,” activist Salma Said told Daily News Egypt on Thursday. Sharaf and El-Gindi met Wednesday with over 20 youths, some independent and others affiliated with political movements, to discuss their demands. According to Said, a member of the No to Prosecuting Civilians before Military Courts Movement, both Sharaf and El-Gindi ignored participants' call for the caretaker government to intervene and disallow civilians from being tried in military courts. “We presented a file containing the details of the 150 detainees listed so far as well as violations protesters were subjected to by military police and documented by local rights groups, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International,” she said. Military police have allegedly committed violations against protesters including arbitrary detentions, torture, forced virginity examination of female protesters as well as referring civilians to military courts, with some already handed down prison sentences. “We called for the immediate release of the detainees … but the issue was ignored by Sharaf and El-Gindi altogether,” she said, adding that El-Gindi only said the detainees could “contest the verdicts.” The youths also criticized a draft law proposed two weeks ago criminalizing some protests, strikes and sit-ins, still pending the official approval of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Workers have been holding nationwide strikes and sit-ins calling for better wages and working conditions. The draft law dictates that those who organize protests or sit-ins that lead to obstructing work at one of the state's institutions, public authorities or private and public workplaces will be fined between LE 50,000 and LE 100,000 or imprisoned. Those who organize violent protests that involve the sabotage of production tools, harm national unity or social peace, cause public disorder, or damage or occupy public or private property will be imprisoned for no less than one year and fined between LE 100,000 and LE 500,000. “The justice minister defended the draft law, insisting that it was fair and sought the welfare of Egypt…and at the end he only promised to reconsider it,” Said explained. Activist Shady El-Ghazaly Harb, on the other hand, said he could not describe the meeting as either negative or positive. “The meeting was similar to previous ones conducted with the government and the army deriving promises,” Harb, a member of the January 25 Youth Coalition, told DNE, adding that he cannot be optimistic about it until the youths' demands are met. “A positive aspect was Sharaf's promise to [seek a technical solution] that enables Egyptian expatriates to cast their votes in elections,” he added. Meanwhile, Sharaf welcomed the idea to form an advisory committee of youths to act as a mediator with the government.
