Reuters
Dina Rayed
Actor Aly Sobhy's trial in an Egyptian military court lasted just 20 minutes, hours after he was detained in March with more than 160 other protesters in central Cairo.
He was among a score of lucky ones acquitted of charges of "thuggery" after a campaign for their release. But he spent four days in custody and now questions the army's intentions.
"There are thousands of youth held in military prisons simply for the reason that they were on the street at the wrong time. It's a plan to dismantle the revolution. If they arrest some, others will be scared to go protest," he told Reuters.
Anger at the army's handling of the transition to civilian rule is growing. Demonstrators camped out in Cairo's Tahrir Square say the army is taking too long to purge the system and end the corrupt practices of the Hosni Mubarak era.
Protesters cite the widespread use of military courts to try civilians, a common practice under the ousted president and since adopted by the army council led by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak's defense minister for two decades.
Even under Mubarak, civilians subjected to military trials were often suspects in security cases, particularly during an armed Islamist uprising in the 1990s, not common criminals.
Rights groups and activists say the wholesale use of military trials in the last few months calls into question the willingness of the army council, which took over after Mubarak resigned in February, to transform Egypt into a democracy.
The military says such trials are reserved for serious crimes and not to quash freedom of expression. But activists and rights groups point to at least six incidents of random arrests to disperse demonstrations in the past few months.
"The military has shown itself to be guilty of many of the same practices used under the Mubarak regime," said Shadi Hamid, director of research at Brookings Doha Center.
"Being condemned to prison for protesting is the complete opposite of what people are calling for in Tahrir Square."
EMERGENCY SITUATION
Rights groups say the trials undermine the rule of law and hinder an orderly transition, arguing that it was better to use the civilian judicial system, despite its flaws and slower pace.
At least 10,000 civilians have faced military trials since the uprising that toppled Mubarak, according to Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other rights groups.
Charges vary from petty theft to violent crime. Sentences can be tough. A shop-owner was sentenced to seven years in jail after a tribunal convicted him of stealing four pairs of shoes and a mobile phone card. He denied the charge.
The army accepts the principle, enshrined in international law, that military courts should not try civilians, but says they are needed temporarily to handle Egypt's security problems.
"No civilian should be tried in front of military courts," General Mamdouh Shaheen of the ruling military council told reporters. "But in this emergency situation ... military courts took the place of civilian courts until they were able to work."
In response to criticism, the generals have now offered a contact numbers for queries and complaints on past convictions. For Sobhy and others, such offers are inadequate.
"Their insistence on defending military justice is a problem," Adel Ramadan, a human rights lawyer with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said. "This is a policy that the armed forces has adopted and it is not willing to give it up."
Dina Rayed
He was among a score of lucky ones acquitted of charges of "thuggery" after a campaign for their release. But he spent four days in custody and now questions the army's intentions.
"There are thousands of youth held in military prisons simply for the reason that they were on the street at the wrong time. It's a plan to dismantle the revolution. If they arrest some, others will be scared to go protest," he told Reuters.
Anger at the army's handling of the transition to civilian rule is growing. Demonstrators camped out in Cairo's Tahrir Square say the army is taking too long to purge the system and end the corrupt practices of the Hosni Mubarak era.
Protesters cite the widespread use of military courts to try civilians, a common practice under the ousted president and since adopted by the army council led by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak's defense minister for two decades.
Even under Mubarak, civilians subjected to military trials were often suspects in security cases, particularly during an armed Islamist uprising in the 1990s, not common criminals.
Rights groups and activists say the wholesale use of military trials in the last few months calls into question the willingness of the army council, which took over after Mubarak resigned in February, to transform Egypt into a democracy.
The military says such trials are reserved for serious crimes and not to quash freedom of expression. But activists and rights groups point to at least six incidents of random arrests to disperse demonstrations in the past few months.
"The military has shown itself to be guilty of many of the same practices used under the Mubarak regime," said Shadi Hamid, director of research at Brookings Doha Center.
"Being condemned to prison for protesting is the complete opposite of what people are calling for in Tahrir Square."
EMERGENCY SITUATION
Rights groups say the trials undermine the rule of law and hinder an orderly transition, arguing that it was better to use the civilian judicial system, despite its flaws and slower pace.
At least 10,000 civilians have faced military trials since the uprising that toppled Mubarak, according to Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other rights groups.
Charges vary from petty theft to violent crime. Sentences can be tough. A shop-owner was sentenced to seven years in jail after a tribunal convicted him of stealing four pairs of shoes and a mobile phone card. He denied the charge.
The army accepts the principle, enshrined in international law, that military courts should not try civilians, but says they are needed temporarily to handle Egypt's security problems.
"No civilian should be tried in front of military courts," General Mamdouh Shaheen of the ruling military council told reporters. "But in this emergency situation ... military courts took the place of civilian courts until they were able to work."
In response to criticism, the generals have now offered a contact numbers for queries and complaints on past convictions. For Sobhy and others, such offers are inadequate.
"Their insistence on defending military justice is a problem," Adel Ramadan, a human rights lawyer with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said. "This is a policy that the armed forces has adopted and it is not willing to give it up."
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