Professor of science at Cairo University, Lila Soueif, issued her first statement two days after going on a hunger strike today, November 8. Soueif is the mother of the detained Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and she said in her statement she decided on a hunger strike after she made sure her son's remanding into custody is a way to torture him as response for his political activities. “This way of torturing was applied by the State Security during former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's regime. It is now applied with the opponents of Egypt's ruling military council,” she said. “Head of military judiciary Adel al-Morsy declared Alaa Abdel Fattah was not interrogated as a political activist but as a criminal defendant. Although Abdel Fattah presented an appeal, his appeal was refused and he is still detained,” Soueif added. “Abdel Fattah is charged with four offenses: 1. Stealing a military weapon. 2. Deliberately sabotaging military properties. 3. Assailing military soldiers. 4. Protesting and using violence against military forces.” Soueif resumed her statement by saying, “I published an open letter, in Al-Shorouq newspaper on November 5, questioning how al-Morsy and the military attorney suspects Abdel Fattah stealing a military weapon, if the attorney did not search his house. The method, which the military attorney took to summon Abdel Fattah, reveals the attorney did not take the accusations seriously. Instead they ordered to remand Alaa to custody and refuse his appeal.” “I refuse transferring my son or any other civilians to the military judiciary because this is against the rules of justice, even if it was legal according to illegitimate authorities who ruled our country for decades,” she added. “I refuse military trails for civilians because I still remember military trails for members of the Muslim Brotherhood before the Egyptian January 25 Revolution, whom almost all Egyptians opposed before the revolution. What about now, after the revolution?” “I personally refused the military attorney in investigating the Maspiro clashes, not only because army members are accused of killing civilians during these clashes, but also because army leaders announced their prejudiced explanation to the clashes and denied all responsibility of the army in these crimes. They also permit army forces to clean up incidents place before ending the curfew, which clearly breaks the rules of justice.” This was Soueif's response for the detaining of her son. Abdel Fattah is a blogger and member of the January 25 Revolution youth activist. He is accused of inciting violence between Coptic Christian and the military forces. He was detained following the Maspiro clashes earlier October. The clashes left 27 demonstrators dead. Abdel Fattah criticized the military's bloody intervention during the Coptic protests. The military decided to detain Abdel Fattah for 15 days pending trial and investigation. He is being held at Torah Prison. The Egyptian military council must immediately release Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, Amnesty International announced yesterday. “The Egyptian military council is criticized for its actions, the claimed political prisoners must be released immediately,” Amnesty's statement read.
