Egyptian Security Besieges Press Syndicate, Blocks Detainees Solidarity Conference

The Egyptian security forces blocked a demonstration and a large conference scheduled to be held on Sunday evening at the Press Syndicate in solidarity with fellow journalist Ahmed Ezzuddin and other Muslim Brotherhood detainees.

The security forces besieged the Press Syndicate and sealed off all streets leading to it to prevent supporters from reaching the syndicate building .

The security forces did not allow supporters to reach Abdul Khalek Tharwat street, where the syndicate headquarters are based, except for journalists who carry press cards only, leading to canceling the conference.

Also the security forces harassed wives of the Muslim Brotherhood detainees who came to attend the conference, but the demonstrating journalists forced the security forces to allow them enter. In spite of the blockade imposed by the security forces around the Press Syndicate, dozens of journalists staged a demonstration in front of the syndicate and chanted slogans like:

“Tell me Mr. president why have you swallowed (frozen) Al Shater’s money”

“You have imprisoned journalist Ezz Al-Din because he revealed your scandals”

“Ayman Nour is bleeding but injustice will be replaced by justice”

“Muslim Brotherhood, Leftists, Rightists… all of them fight tyranny and injustice”

For his part, Dr. Ahmed Abu Baraka, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s parliamentary bloc, confirmed that he was denied access to the Press Syndicate, but he manages to enter only after he negotiated with senior security leaders .

He pointed out that these exercises which are committed by the Egyptian regime prove that it is an authoritarian and tyrannical regime that wants to ratify the constitutional amendments; also it is an unprecedented regime, as it uses all these huge numbers of soldiers to face about twenty unarmed people; he added that the state of frailty that presages the fall of the Egyptian state is very similar to the case of Iraq that collapsed in the first minutes of the invasion.

For his part, Mohamed Abdul Qoddous, the secretary general of the freedoms committee in the Press Syndicate, denounced the security’s preventing them from holding a conference on the Muslim Brotherhood detentions, confirming that he will hold an open sit-in till Monday morning in front of the Press Syndicate; also, he said that he will hold next week a conference in which all political powers will participate to discuss the security aggressions on the Press Syndicate.

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