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Saudi Arabia, Egypt agree to build bridge over Red Sea

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King Salman unveils “historic step to connect Africa and Asia” during Cairo visit as allies seal multiple trade deals.

abdel-fattah-al-sisi-and-king-salman

by Al Jazeera

King Salman of Saudi Arabia has said that an agreement has been reached with Egypt to build a bridge over the Red Sea connecting the two countries.

The monarch made the announcement in televised comments on Friday – the second day of his visit to Cairo – after meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and before representatives of the two countries began signing investment deals.

“I agreed with my brother, his Excellency President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, to build a bridge connecting the two countries,” Salman said.

“This historic step to connect the two continents, Africa and Asia, is a qualitative transformation that will increase trade between the two continents to unprecedented levels.”

It was not mentioned where the bridge would be built, but at the closest point – Nabq, just north of Sharm el-Sheikh, in Egypt, and Ras Alsheikh Hamid, in Saudi Arabia – the two countries are 16km apart.

The plan to build a joint bridge over the Red Sea at the entrance of the Gulf of Aqaba has been in the pipeline for several years.

Earlier proposals suggested the causeway would feature a railway line in parallel with the road lanes, integrating both country’s proposed high-speed railway systems. In that plan, the causeway would pass through Saudi’s Tiran Island, which would serve as a connection between the two countries.

Sisi, who minutes before the announcement had presented the king with the ceremonial Nile Collar, suggested the name “King Salman bin Abdel Aziz Bridge”.

“The unique quality of the relations between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the extent to which they are strong and deep-rooted, will allow us to face mutual challenges,” Sisi said.

“Our cooperation will certainly allow us to resolve all of our regional crises, such as in Palestine, Yemen, Libya and Syria.”

Besides the announcement, Saudi and Egyptian representatives signed 17 investment deals and memorandums of understanding.

A government official said that the deals with Saudi Arabia during Salman’s visit would amount to about $1.7bn.

Saudi Arabia is one of the top foreign investors in Egypt, with more than $8bn pledged late last year in sectors such as tourism, agriculture and information technology.

It has also promised to help the country meet its energy needs.

Riyadh has helped to finance Sisi’s government since the Egyptian leader – then army chief – overthrew President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, giving billions of dollars in aid, grants and cash deposits to help buoy the country’s economy.

Egypt has faced years of political upheaval since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak, prompted a foreign-reserves crisis and slowed economic growth.

The country has since grown dependent on aid from abroad, although it says it seeks to wean itself off as soon as possible.

ISIL claims deadly attack in Egypt’s Sinai

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Suicide car bombing targets hotel, killing seven people including two judges, in latest violence to hit peninsula.

ISIL claimed responsibility for the October 31 crash of the Russian passenger jet in Sinai [Reuters]

ISIL claimed responsibility for the October 31 crash of the Russian passenger jet in Sinai [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

A suicide car bombing claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targeted a hotel in Egypt’s northern Sinai region, killing at least seven people, including two judges, according to the state MENA news agency.

The attack on the Swiss Inn hotel in the coastal city of El Arish on Tuesday was the latest violence to hit the troubled peninsula, where Egyptian troops are struggling to put down ISIL.

The attack was quickly claimed by ISIL’s affiliate based in the Sinai Peninsula.

The attack came a day after Egypt held the second round of parliamentary elections. Judges who supervised the vote in Sinai were staying in the heavily guarded hotel.

MENA’s report said four policemen and a civilian were also among the seven killed, and that at least 10 people were wounded. The agency cited an unnamed security official.

 

The attack began as Egyptian troops and policemen guarding the Swiss Inn hotel opened fire on a suspicious, explosives-laden car approaching the building, blowing it up before it reached the hotel, the military said.

In the meantime, two armed men slipped inside the hotel.

One detonated an explosives vest in the hotel’s kitchen, while the second opened fire in a hotel room.

The military said all armed men involved in the attack were killed, but gave no other details.

The Sinai branch of ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on social media accounts.

It said the attack was carried out by two fighters: the suicide car bomber and an armed man, who is alleged to have opened fire inside the hotel before blowing himself up.

The group also posted pictures of the two attackers and identified them as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer and Abu Wadhaa al-Muhajer.

Russian plane crash

Sinai was also shaken last month when a Russian passenger airliner crashed in the north of the peninsula, killing all 224 people on board.

Russia has said an explosive device placed on board the Airbus 321-200 was to blame for the October 31 crash, which took place 23 minutes after takeoff from the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh in southern Sinai.

The local ISIL branch claimed responsibility for the crash and posted a photo purportedly showing the bomb used to down the plane.

The crash led Russia to suspend all flights to and from Egypt, while Britain suspended flights to Sharm el-Sheikh.

The suspensions have dealt a severe blow to Egypt’s vital tourism industry, deepening the country’s economic woes.

More than 200 feared dead in Russian jet crash in Egypt

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Rescue teams locate wreckage of Airbus A-321 belonging to Metrojet which came down in central Sinai Peninsula.

Metrojet's Airbus A-321 is seen in this picture taken in Antalya, Turkey on September 17, 2015 [Kim Philipp Piskol/Reuters]

Metrojet’s Airbus A-321 is seen in this picture taken in Antalya, Turkey on September 17, 2015 [Kim Philipp Piskol/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

A Russian plane carrying more than 200 people has crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Egypt’s civil aviation ministry said.

The statement said search-and-rescue teams found on Saturday the wreckage of the Russian passenger jet in the Hassana area, south of the city of el-Arish, where Egyptian security forces are fighting a local affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

It said the plane took off from Sinai Peninsula’s Sharm el-Sheikh, a popular destination for Russian tourists, and disappeared from radar screens 23 minutes after take-off.

Egyptian search and rescue team members said they heard voices in a section of the plane, an officer on the scene told Reuters news agency.

The black box which contains the flight data was also found at the scene.

“There is another section of the plane with passengers inside that the rescue team is still trying to enter and we hope to find survivors especially after hearing pained voices of people inside,” the officer said.

Separately, Egypt’s top prosecutor ordered an investigation into the cause of the crash, a source at his office said.

Nabil Sadek, the prosecutor general, ordered the formation of a team of prosecutors tasked with going to the site of the crash and investigating the debris.

A centre to help relatives of the passengers has been set up at Pulkovo airport, Tass news agency quoted St Peterburg city officials as saying.

The office of the Eyptian prime minister, Sharif Ismail, earlier confirmed that a Russian airliner with more than 200 people on board had crashed in central Sinai.

The Airbus 321 was at an altitude of 9,450m when it vanished from radar screens, the ministry said in a statement.

Most of the passengers are said to be Russian tourists, according to reports. The plane was operated by the small Russian airline Kogalymavia, based in western Siberia.

The pilot reportedly requested clearance for an emergency landing at Cairo airport due to a technical malfunction.

Plane tracking website Flight Radar said Metrojet flight #7K9268 disappeared over Egypt 23 minutes after departure from Sharm el-Sheikh.

Conflicting reports

The Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsiya said in a statement that flight 7K 9268 left Sharm el-Sheikh at 06:51 Moscow time (03:51 GMT) and had been due into St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport at 12:10.

The authority said the aircraft failed to make scheduled contact with Cyprus air traffic control 23 minutes after take-off and disappeared from the radar.

A Cyprus Civil Aviation official said Cairo air traffic control notified Cypriot authorities that they had lost contact with a Russian aircraft early on Saturday.

The official said the aircraft’s last contact was with Egyptian Authorities before disappearing.

He said the aircraft did not make contact with Cypriot authorities.

Turkish government spokespersons said they had no information about the missing Russian plane ever entering Turkish airspace.

Security sources in the Sinai Peninsula later confirmed reports that an aircraft was missing.

Al Jazeera staff sentenced to jail in Egypt

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Condemnation of verdict as Egypt court finds Baher Mohamed, Mohamed Fahmy, and Peter Greste guilty in delayed trial.

Al Jazeera retrial

by Al Jazeera

A Cairo court has sentenced three Al Jazeera journalists to three years in jail after finding them guilty of “aiding a terrorist organisation”.

Egyptian Baher Mohamed, Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Australian Peter Greste were all handed three-year jail sentences when the court delivered the verdict on Saturday, sparking worldwide outrage.

Mohamed was sentenced to an additional six months for possession of a spent bullet casing.

The journalists had been initially found guilty in June 2014 of aiding a “terrorist organisation”, a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was outlawed in Egypt after the army overthrew President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Judge Hassan Farid, in his ruling on Saturday, said he sentenced the men to prison at least partly because they had not registered with the country’s journalist “syndicate”.

He also said the men brought in equipment without security officials’ approval, had broadcast “false news” on Al Jazeera and used a hotel as a broadcasting point without permission.

The verdict was immediately condemned by Al Jazeera Media Network’s Acting Director General Dr Mostefa Souag, who said: “Today’s verdict defies logic and common sense. Our colleagues Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy will now have to return to prison, and Peter Greste is sentenced in absentia.

“The whole case has been heavily politicised and has not been conducted in a free and fair manner.”

Dr Souag continued, “There is no evidence proving that our colleagues in any way fabricated news or aided and abetted terrorist organisations, and at no point during the long drawn out retrial did any of the unfounded allegations stand up to scrutiny.

“A report issued by a technical committee assigned by the court in Egypt contradicted the accusations made by the public prosecutor and stated in its report that the seized videos were not fabricated.

“Baher, Peter and Mohamed have been sentenced despite the fact that not a shred of evidence was found to support the extraordinary and false charges against them.

“Today’s verdict is yet another deliberate attack on press freedom. It is a dark day for the Egyptian judiciary; rather than defend liberties and a free and fair media, they have compromised their independence for political reasons.”

Speaking from Sydney, Greste labelled the verdict “outrageous”.

“We did nothing wrong. The court presented no evidence. For us to be convicted as terrorists is outrageous. It can only be a political verdict. This is unethical,” Greste said.

Al Jazeera’s next step is to file an appeal before the Court of Cassation. Such an appeal should be filed within 60 days.

In January, an appeals court ordered a retrial, saying the initial verdict lacked evidence against the three journalists working for the Doha-based network’s English channel.

The journalists and Al Jazeera have vigorously denied the accusations during the trial.

Ten previous sessions in the court had all been adjourned.

Greste has already been deported to his native Australia under a law allowing the transfer of foreigners on trial to their home countries, but he was retried in absentia.

Fahmy and Mohamed were on bail ahead of the verdict after spending more than 400 days in detention.

The Cairo court said on Saturday that the previous time spent in prison will be accounted for as time served.

Fahmy renounced his Egyptian nationality hoping he too would be deported.

Canadian Minister of State Lynne Yelich issued a statement after Saturday’s verdict calling on Egyptian authorities to release Fahmy.

“Canada is disappointed with Mohamed Fahmy’s conviction today. ‎This decision severely undermines confidence in the rule of law in Egypt,” Yelich said.

“The government of Canada continues to call on the Egyptian government to use all tools at its disposal to resolve Mr Fahmy’s case and allow his immediate return to Canada.”

The three men have received support from governments, media organisations and rights groups from around the world.

Egypt adopts controversial anti-terrorism law

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President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi approves law that shields police and punishes media for spreading “false” reports.

The law has met support from Sisi's supporters who demand a firm hand to restore stability in the country of 87 million people [EPA]

The law has met support from Sisi’s supporters who demand a firm hand to restore stability in the country of 87 million people [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has approved an anti-terrorism law that sets up special courts and provides protections to its enforcers.

The controversial law, published in the government’s official gazette on Sunday, sets a minimum fine of 200,000 pounds (about $25,000) and a maximum of 500,000 pounds for anyone who strays from government statements in publishing or spreading “false” reports on attacks or security operations against armed fighters.

Critics say the steep fines may shut down smaller newspapers, and deter larger ones from independently reporting on attacks and operations against armed fighters.

It also shields those applying it, such as the military and police, from legal ramifications for the proportionate use of force “in performing their duties.” The law also seeks prison terms for those found guilty of “inciting, or prepared to incite, directly or indirectly, a terrorist act”.

Dalia Fahmy, an assistant professor at Long Island University and a member of the Egyptian Rule of Law Association, told Al Jazeera that any media “that defies the national narrative, will be fined”.

“The law here is a system that is not protecting the citizenry, but rather protecting the state … it is becoming indicative of the consolidation of power in the hands of the executive,” Fahmy said from New York.

Sisi had promised a tougher legal system in July, after a car bomb attack that killed the top public prosecutor, the highest level state official to be killed in years.

Forming or leading a group deemed a “terrorist entity” by the government will be punishable by death or life in prison.

Membership in such a group will carry up to 10 years in jail.

Financing “terrorist groups” will also carry a penalty of life in prison, which in Egypt is 25 years. Inciting violence, which includes “promoting ideas that call for violence” will lead to between five and seven years in jail, as will creating or using websites that spread such ideas

Journalists will be fined for contradicting the authorities’ version of any “terrorist” attack.

Three journalists had already been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for “defaming” the country and supporting the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood movement.

The retrial of three Al Jazeera journalists – Baher Mohamed, Mohamed Fahmy and Peter Greste – was adjourned for a tenth time in Egypt on August 2.

Egypt is facing an increasing violence in North Sinai, where one armed group has pledged allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group. Cairo and other cities have also witnessed attacks.

Hundreds of members of the Muslim Brotherhood have been sentenced to death in mass trials since Sisi, a former army chief, overthrew President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Many of them have won retrials, and Morsi himself, sentenced to death last June, has appealed his verdict.
At least 1,400 people, many of them supporters of Morsi, were killed in a crackdown on protests after his overthrow.

Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement, once the most influential grassroots organisation in the country, has been blacklisted as a “terrorist” organisation.

Though criticised by rights activists, the law has met support from Sisi’s many supporters who demand a firm hand to restore stability in the country of 87 million people.

Egypt’s Brotherhood says member tortured to death

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Muslim Brotherhood says authorities asked family of leading member to collect bruised body weeks after disappearance.

Suez Muslim Brotherhood leader Tarek Khalil was tortured before he was killed, according to his family [@Ikhwanweb]

Suez Muslim Brotherhood leader Tarek Khalil was tortured before he was killed, according to his family [@Ikhwanweb]

by Al Jazeera

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood says another of its members has been killed by security forces two weeks after the man went missing, the movement has told Al Jazeera.

The group on Friday said Egyptian soldiers kidnapped two men, a businessman Tarek Khalil, who was in charge of the Brotherhood’s Development Committee, and another man, Mohamed Saad Alioua, on June 17.

Muslim Brotherhood members said Egyptian authorities asked Khalil’s family to collect his body from a mortuary on Friday. Family members said Khalil’s body showed marks of torture.

The group did not have information on what has happened to Alioua.

Calls for ‘revolt’

On Thursday the Brotherhood warned of “serious repercussions” and called on its supporters to “rise in revolt” after Egyptian police killed 13 leading members of the group.

Egyptian police raided an apartment in the Cairo suburb of 6th of October on Wednesday and killed the men, including a former member of parliament, Nasser al-Hafy, security sources and a member of the outlawed group said. 

The Brotherhood members were reportedly meeting to discuss sponsoring the families of detainees when the police stormed the building. The victims’ families said the men were unarmed and had been taken into custody earlier in the day but were released after giving fingerprints.

Egypt’s interior ministry, however, said the men were fugitive leaders who were plotting attacks – something the group denies – and said the group included two men who had previously been sentenced to death.

In a statement, the ministry said that investigators found weapons, 43,000 Egyptian pounds ($5,300), documents and memory cards and that the group was plotting attacks on the army, police, judiciary, and media.

Pro-Muslim Brotherhood Mekameleen TV said the leaders were detained inside a home and “killed in cold blood without any investigation or charges”.

In a statement following the deaths, the group described the killings as “a significant development with serious repercussions” and said it held “the criminal [Egyptian President] Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his gang fully responsible for these crimes and their consequences”.

“Rise in revolt to defend your homeland, your lives and your children,” the statement said, adding: “This murderer is now executing the largest and most horrid massacre against this homeland. Oust the heinous murderer. Destroy the castles of injustice and tyranny. Reclaim Egypt once again.”

The group said the incident “pushes the situation onto a very dangerous curve and makes the entire scene highly volatile”.

Egypt court upholds Morsi death sentence

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Court confirms death sentence for deposed president Mohamed Morsi on charges related to a 2011 jailbreak case.

Former president Mohamed Morsi appeared inside a cage in the courtroom where he stood trial in Cairo [EPA]

Former president Mohamed Morsi appeared inside a cage in the courtroom where he stood trial in Cairo [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

An Egyptian court upheld a death sentence against deposed president Mohamed Morsi for plotting jailbreaks and attacks on police during the 2011 uprising.

The court had initially sentenced Morsi and more than 100 other defendants to death last month.

Tuesday’s ruling comes after the court consulted Egypt’s grand mufti, the government interpreter of Islamic law who plays an advisory role.

Earlier on Tuesday, the same court sentenced Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president, to life in prison on charges of spying for the Palestinian Hamas movement, Lebanon’s Shia Hezbollah, and Iran.

Tuesday’s verdicts can be appealed.

Then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ousted Morsi on July 3, 2013, and since then has overseen a sweeping crackdown against his supporters.

The crackdown has left hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters dead and thousands jailed.

Hundreds have been sentenced to death after speedy mass trials described by the United Nations as “unprecedented in recent history”.

In the jailbreak trial, exiled Egyptian-born cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi was also condemned to death in absentia from his base in Qatar.

Muslim Brotherhood leader dies in Egyptian prison

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Defendants stand trial in Egypt for allegedly supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. (AFP/Khaled Desouki)

Defendants stand trial in Egypt for allegedly supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. (AFP/Khaled Desouki)

A leading Muslim Brotherhood member died on Monday morning inside a prison hospital in northern Egypt, a pro-Brotherhood website has reported.

Mohamed al-Falahgi, a former lawmaker and member of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, died in Gamasa prison in Egypt’s Damietta province, according to the Nafezat Masr website.

A lawyer for detained Brotherhood members in Damietta told the website that, prior to his death, al-Falahgi had been taken to a prison hospital with a gallbladder inflammation and kidney stones.

Al-Falahgi was arrested on violence-related charges in August of 2013. He was referred to Gamasa prison in October of the same year, according to the lawyer.

Al-Falahgi had been serving out a three-year jail term for involvement in the torching of a government building in Damietta. However, the verdict had been subsequently annulled and a retrial had been scheduled to begin on Tuesday.

Al-Falahgi was the second Brotherhood member to die in prison this month. On May 14, senior Brotherhood member Farid Ismail died in prison of health complications.

Ahmed Mafrah, who heads the Egypt desk at the Al-Karama foundation, a Geneva-based rights watchdog, told Anadolu Agency that al-Falahgi’s death brought the total number of deaths inside Egyptian prisons and detention facilities to 265 since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi – Egypt’s first elected president – by the army in mid-2013.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, of which Morsi had been a leading member, holds the Egyptian authorities responsible for the deaths of its detained members, citing “negligence” by prison officials.

The Egyptian authorities, for their part, insist that all its prison facilities are operated “in line with international human rights treaties” on the rights of prisoners.

(Andolu Ajansi)

Egypt sentences ex-leader Mohammed Morsi to death

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Verdict against former president referred to the Grand Mufti for confirmation.

(AFP/File)

(AFP/File)

by Al Jazeera

An Egypt court sentences former President Mohammed Morsi to death for passing state secrets for mass prison break, the Associated Press agency said.

The court ruled on Saturday that the sentencing of Morsi and 105 others will be referred to the Grand Mufti for confirmation.

Hosni Mubarak sentenced to three years in jail for corruption

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The former president of Egypt and two sons are also handed fines over embezzlement during his rule.

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was accused of ordering the killings of hundreds of people during the 2011 Arab Spring that resulted in his ouster.

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was accused of ordering the killings of hundreds of people during the 2011 Arab Spring that resulted in his ouster.

by Al Jazeera

An Egyptian court has sentenced ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his two sons to three years in prison for embezzlement.

Mubarak and his sons Alaa and Gamal were present in the caged dock on Saturday, wearing suits and sunglasses.

They had already been sentenced to three years on the same charges but an appeal court overturned the verdict and ordered a retrial.

The trio were also fined $16m.

Mubarak’s lawyers may try to appeal the verdict, the AFP news agency reported.

Supporters shouted in anger as Judge Hassan Hassanin announced his verdict and it was not immediately clear whether it will include time he has already served since his country’s 2011 revolt.

Some of those backing Mubarak wore T-shirts emblazoned with the former leader’s face. They waved and blew kisses as the 87-year-old entered the courtroom, according to the Associated Press.

Omar Ashour, a lecturer in Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, told Al Jazeera the sentencing would be seen as “nothing” by Egyptians who protested to end Mubarak’s rule.

“When we see the series of brutal abuses that happened under Mubarak in his 30-year reign, it will be seen as nothing, especially when we look at the trial happening now of former-President Mohamed Morsi,” he said.

“It tells you that there is very high politicisation of the judiciary.”

The corruption case, dubbed by the Egyptian media as the “presidential palaces” affair, concerns charges that Mubarak and his two sons embezzled millions of dollars worth of state funds over the course of a decade.

The funds were meant to pay for renovating and maintaining presidential palaces but were instead allegedly spent on upgrading the family’s private residences.

Mubarak was sentenced to three years, his sons to four in the case, prior to having the verdicts overturned.

The heaing, at a police academy on the outskirts of Cairo, took place in the same courtroom where Egypt’s first freely-elected president, Mohammed Morsi, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last month.

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