February 3rd, 2011 by Naureen

On Thursday, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and the Egyptian Association for the Advancement of Community Participation announced their concern for the lives and safety of activists who were arrested today including: Ahmed Seif al-Islam Hamad, the director of the Hisham Mubarak Center for Law; Khaled Ali, director of the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights; Said Hadad, researcher at Amnesty International; Daniel Williams, an American researcher at Human Rights Watch; Mohsen Bashir and Mustafa Hassan, Egyptian lawyers; and Nadine Abu Shadi, an Egyptian human rights activist. Military police raided these centers and arrested individuals, while thugs surrounded the buildings. ANHRI and the Egyptian Association have condemned the arrests and called (Arabic) for their release.

POMED’S contacts on the ground have reported to us that the following human rights activists have also been arrested today while leaving Mohamed ElBaradei’s home: Amr Salah, Shady El-Ghazaly, Naser Abdelhameed, Mohamed Arafat, Tarek El-Kholy, Amr Ezz, Ahmed Douma and Mostafa Shawky. Other activists who were arrested while entering Cairo include Mostafa Zaki and Yahia Elhouseiny.

Update: Human Rights First issued a statement calling on the Obama administration to push for the release of detained journalists and human rights activists and press Egyptian authorities to hold accountable those who are using violence to stem news coverage and disrupting  peaceful calls for change.

Update: Writing at The Cable, Josh Rogin states that the Obama administration has raised the need to release activists and journalists with the Egyptian government and that Defense Secretary Robert Gibbs and other administration officials have “impressed upon the Egyptian military the need to protect protesters and support peaceful government transition.” Human Rights Watch Washington Director Tom Malinowski also noted that the Mubarak regime is clearly responsible for the violence which has unfolded in the last 24 hours.

Posted in Egypt, Freedom, Human Rights, Protests |