Égypte-actualités

Egyptian prosecutors have charged 38 members of a die-hard soccer fan club with belonging to an illegal group and other offenses, one of the first signs of a crackdown on the powerful sports organizations that have been at the forefront of the country's protest movement, lawyers said Thursday.

Soccer fans, known as Ultras, became a major political force during the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and the subsequent tumultuous transition. They are known for their longstanding animosity with the police.

The charge of belonging to an illegal group appears to be an attempt to pressure the powerful Ultras network, one of the most organized movements in Egypt after the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. But a crackdown could also backfire, as Ultras are some of the country's most active protesters and regularly clash with police.

Ahmed Ezzat, a rights lawyer who is looking into the Ultras case, said the 38 Ultras Devils were arrested Wednesday during a protest in the Nile Delta city of Shebeen al-Kom. They were also charged with attempting to set fire to a provincial court house and insulting police officers.

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Thirty-eight members of theUltras Ahlawy were arrested in Menoufiya Wednesday for attempting to storm theShibin al-Kom courthouse to free a colleague remanded into custody for 15 days.

Around 1,500 fans surrounded the court, throwing stones and fireworks at security forces, which responded with tear gas.Meanwhile, the group claimed they had been attacked, beaten and dragged by security forces during a peaceful protest at the courthouse in a post on its Facebook page.

Organizers added that police often make false accusations against protesters and detainees.Unnamed security officials told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the clashes were limited. Those arrested are being questions by the Public Prosecution.

This text is from Al-Masry Al-Youm

Des supporteurs du club al-Ahly de la capitale égyptienne, surnommés les Ultras, ont envahi le complexe ce matin. Ces violences interviennent après un nouveau jugement dans les heurts de février 2012 qui ont fait 74 morts à Port-Saïd.

Le siège de la Fédération égyptienne de football et des bâtiments appartenant à un club de la police ont été incendiés, ce samedi au Caire, par des supporteurs mécontents après un jugement rendu dans une tragédie du football.

Des supporteurs du club de football al-Ahly de la capitale, surnommés les Ultras, ont envahi le complexe situé sur une île au milieu du Nil et y ont mis le feu, d'après un responsable des services de sécurité. Des centaines d'Ultras se dirigeaient également vers le ministère de l'Intérieur, proche de la place Tahrir, dans le centre-ville, rapporte la télévision d'Etat.

Ces violences sont intervenues après un nouvelle décision de justice dans une tragédie du football en février 2012 qui avait fait 74 morts à Port-Saïd (nord-est), dont une majorité de supporteurs d'al-Ahly. Ce drame, le plus meurtrier du football égyptien, s'était produit après la victoire du club local Al-Masry dont des centaines de supporteurs avaient envahi le terrain et lancé des projectiles vers ceux d'Al-Ahly.

Samedi, le tribunal a confirmé les condamnations à mort prononcées en janvier contre 21 personnes, en majorité des partisans du club de Port-Saïd. (....)

«Au début, on était contents quand on a entendu les 21 condamnations à mort. On fêtait ça et on n'a pas entendu le reste du verdict», concernant les condamnations plus clémentes et les acquittements, a raconté à l'AFP un supporter d'al-Ahly. «Ensuite, on est devenu très en colère», a-t-il ajouté. Les supporters d'al-Ahly avaient menacé de semer le «chaos» dans la capitale si les accusés, notamment les policiers, étaient acquittés. En milieu de journée, des responsables de la fédération tenaient des réunions d'urgence pour discuter des prochains matches de football à travers le pays, a rapporté la télévision d'Etat.

Plus: http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2013/03/09/peines-de-prison-et-condamnations-a-mort-pour-des-accuses-de-port-said_887399

Clashes erupted on Tuesday between dozens of hardcore football fans who belong to Ultras and security forces in the Dokki neighborhood of Giza, said an Aswat Masriya witness.

The Ultras youth engaged in clashes with the security forces near the house of the former interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim, destroying the entrance of his house.

Former interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim was in office during the bloody events of Port Said football stadium where more than 70 football fans were killed.

The protesters and the security forces hurled stones at each other. The security forces fired teargas bombs while the protesters used fireworks.

The Ultras Ahlawy youth raised chanted against the interior ministry before clashing with the security forces.

This text is from: Aswat Masreya

The second anniversary of the January 25 Revolution, and the first under Muslim Brotherhood rule, was never going to pass peacefully. Nationwide, pro-democracy demonstrations were planned in protest at undemocratic decrees and increased police brutality under the current government, and the general lack of progress made in meeting the demands of the revolution raised two years earlier.

In the Canal Zone cities of Suez, Ismailiyya and Port Said, it was marked by protests and battles between civilians and police, and a state of emergency was declared on 28 January. (...) The court announcement on 26 January, effectively sentencing twenty-one young men to death, shook Egypt, not only because of the severity of the sentence, but also because of the numerous question marks associated with the trial itself. (...) Yet despite worldwide news coverage of the announcement (often misstating the result as a verdict) and of the subsequent funerals, there has been almost no mention of the actual proceedings of the trial itself. (...)

The announcement made by presiding judge Sobhi Abd al-Magid led to rapturous celebrations outside Al-Ahly Club’s Cairo headquarters, by Ultras Ahlawy fans (...). However, the announcement is neither a verdict nor an ultimate conclusion to the case.

Fifty-four defendants remain, including nine security officials on trial for “assisting with murder.” The final verdict, including any potential convictions, will be issued on 9 March. In fact, Judge Abd al-Magid’s announcement simply states that the Port Said Criminal Court has petitioned the Grand Mufti for his ruling on a potential verdict sentencing to death the first twenty-one individuals tried.

Under Article 381 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the only law cited in the announcement, all capital convictions must be submitted to the Grand Mufti for approval, who has ten days to respond. Even if the Grand Mufti advises commutation, he does not possess any judicial power, and the convictions may still ultimately be carried out, although serious questions of legitimacy may then arise. It is important to note that more than three weeks later, no response has yet been issued. Adding to the atmosphere of confusion, a new Grand Mufti was recently elected, and is due to take up his position in March, roughly around the time the final verdict is due. Whatever the Mufti’s response, there is no doubt that the Court’s final verdict shall be appealed.

More on: http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/10249/the-show-trial-of-port-said

La révolution égyptienne a pris des accents de tragédie grecque. La société se divise, les femmes se font violer, les jeunes s’affrontent, s’organisent en milice, la déliquescence de l’Etat permet tout, autorise le pire.

Dans ce maelström tragique, tous se plaignent, défilent, protestent et conspuent. Les uns appellent au départ de Mohamed Morsi, le président islamiste, les autres, au contraire, le défendent.  La porte est ouverte à toutes les manœuvres obscures et fatales pour la nouvelle Egypte. Tous tentent désespérément de sauver la Révolution, leur Révolution. Tous affirment qu’elle leur a été volée, confisquée, que l’autre ment ou n’a rien compris. Ni la police, ni l’armée ne sont épargnées. La Révolution égyptienne sent le soufre. Et chacun attend son heure. (Le JDD)

Plus : http://www.lejdd.fr/International/Afrique/Actualite/Egypte-le-face-a-face-des-salafistes-et-des-ultras-590646

Thousands of Ahly team hardcore football fans (Ultras Ahlawy) have rallied in Tahrir Square in central Cairo, gearing up for next week's anticipated court verdict over last year's Port Said disaster.

 

Egypt's worst-ever football tragedy left more than 70 Ahly fans dead after they were attacked by the Port Said "Masry" fans following the end of an ill-tempered Egyptian Premier League game on 1 February, 2012.

The Ultras Ahlawy members marched from the club's headquarters in El-Gezira district, Cairo, to Tahrir to step up pressure on the judge presiding over the notorious case.

The ardent group of supporters vowed to take the matter into their own hands if the verdict, expected to be delivered on 26 January, did not satisfy them.

They did not specify what actions they might take but distributed many flyers and stickers bearing the words "justice or chaos" in Cairo's underground and public buses. (...)

Ahram Online's Mai Shaheen said Ultras Ahlawy members are accompanied by mothers of the slain victims, who chanted angry slogans against the Muslim Brotherhood, from which President Mohamed Morsi hails.

 Hundreds of hardcore soccer fans on Saturday took to the streets in central Cairo, demanding the release of comrades being in custody after recent clashes with security forces.

As they chanted slogans against the police, the protesters, known as the Ultras, briefly blocked Cairo’s major 6th October Bridge before gathering outside the office of the country’s public prosecutor where they set off fireworks and flares in a sign of anger.

The Ultras are one of Egypt’s most vociferous anti-government protest groups, and played a major role in a 2011 revolt that toppled Husni Mubarak. They have long-standing strained relations with the police.

“North or south, our brothers will be freed,” chanted the protesters. They were referring to 38 soccer fans and activists who were arrested and charged last week with belonging to an illegal group and disrupting public order after clashing with security forces outside a court in the Nile Delta city of Shebeen al-Koum

http://gulfnews.com/news/region/egypt/football-fans-hold-mass-rally-in-cairo-1.1159104

Des policiers ont procédé jeudi à l’arrestation de 38 membres d’un fervent groupe de supporters d’un club de soccer, selon des avocats égyptiens. Les prévenus feront face à des accusations d’avoir fait partie d’une organisation illégale, d’avoir tenté d’incendier un palais de justice et d’avoir injurié des policiers.

Les accusations déposées jeudi sont les premières qui visent les membres des Ultras. Ceux-ci sont devenus des joueurs importants dans la tumultueuse transition politique en Égypte, et les tensions les opposant aux forces policières sont notoires.

L’avocat Ahmed Ezzat a précisé que les suspects, parmi lesquels se trouvent 15 mineurs, ont été épinglés dans la province de Menoufia.

The displays of masculine assertiveness by the football ultras in Egypt and their strongly gendered form of youth activism points to the need to look beyond clichés about unspecified notions of revolutionary youth. Initially opposed to state authorities, are the ultras refashioning themselves as new political players?

The seemingly perpetual push-and-pull between different groups of protestors on Cairo’s increasingly violent streets was given a new twist with the re-appearance in early March, after a month’s absence, of the unmistakeable presence of the Red Devil altraz (“ultras” ie extreme fans) of the El Ahly football club.

The altraz are intimidatingly well-organised in their vocal militancy -  marching under huge, professionally prepared banners; shouting slogans to the thudding beat of a deep bass drum; pausing in well-drilled unison to clap over their heads, or aggressively pogo up and down; and most recently obstructing traffic, blocking roads and even setting cars ablaze. Their renewed public disruption has had two effects – one intended, the other perhaps less so.

The intended effect is to seek to influence the forthcoming decision on 9th March of the Cairo Court which has been hearing the charges against 52 defendants accused of complicity in a football riot and massacre of 72 visiting El Ahly supporters in February last year (21 of whom were sentenced to death in an initial verdict handed down by the court – after curiously secret proceedings – in January this year).

The unintended effect, however, is to also draw attention to the noticeably low-key profile of the self-same altraz on the streets of the city in whose original Arab Spring revolution (the overthrow of President Mubarak in 2011) they played a leading role. Why in January this year had they abruptly withdrawn from their distinctive street performances? And what was the significance of their sudden re-emergence, more violent than ever before? In order to explore these questions we need to look into the origins and emergence of the altraz as a force in Egyptian football and revolutionary politics.   
  

The El Ahly altraz articulate their founding myth as the coming together, in or around 2007, of a core of genuine fans, determined to redeem the proud reputation and heritage of their club (founded in 1907 as the National Sporting Club and active in the drive for Egypt’s independence and modernisation) from its comprehensive entanglement within the politics, commercialisation and corruption of late-Mubarak Egypt. As one long-standing Ahly stalwart put it to me:

“If you joined the terraces in the late 1990s or early 2000s, you could easily see that many of the ‘fans’ who turned up were not real supporters. They arrived with ta’miyya (deep-fried chickpea patty) sandwiches, as if on a picnic to the countryside. Some were hired claques for certain players, paid to shout their names whenever they touched the ball, regardless of how the match was played, or seeking to make money from the terraces in other ways. The altraz came to stamp out this climate, and revive the loyalty true fans have towards their club, their sense of belonging to its heritage, ideals, and principles – its long history, legendary figures, and all the silverware it has won, giving it a status which surpasses that of all other clubs in the league.” 

More on: http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/leila-zaki-chakravarti/performing-masculinity-football-ultras-in-post-revolutionary-egypt

نطالب بكل قوة بحقوق هؤلاء الشهداء الذين ماتوا غدرا دون اي ذنب فلن نهدء حتي يأتي حق الشهداء وان بقيتم علي سكوتكم بعد ما تشاهدون سيتم التصعيد لجميع المنظمات ال...

As the two cities of Cairo and Port Said remain engulfed in the worst violence seen since the Revolution, the entwining in Egypt of ‘football and the game of politics’ could hardly be more complete. And the game, it would appear, has not even reached half-time, says Leila Zaki Chakravarti.

In the circus of confrontational politics that summons a succession of demonstrations to the streets of Cairo, the second anniversary of the fall of President Mubarak (on 25 January 2013) had always loomed large as the potential focus for some sort of defining theatrical spectacular. Yet there was something different about the marches which, in the days running up to the anniversary, convened on Tahrir Square from a number of Cairo neighbourhoods.

The groups, numbering in their thousands, were remarkable for their homogeneity, organisation and purpose. All were young males, some bare-chested but most kitted out in red football shirts or street-smart tops and hoodies. They marched with almost paramilitary precision, shouting well-drilled slogans in exaggeratedly gruff voices to the menacing beat of a loud bass drum, clapping their hands above their heads, every so often pausing in unison to pogo aggressively up and down. Well-produced banners proclaimed their demand for “Al-qissas aw Al-damm” (translated in many Western media reports as “Justice or Blood”) for the shuhuda (martyrs) whose portraits they carried aloft as vast icons. (...)

The choice of language for the demands of El Ahly altraz is revealing, rapidly cohering around a focus on two words in particular, namely shuhuda and al-qissas. The former is the plural form of shahid (martyr), a term deeply engrained in Islamic history and theology, and with a ready secular resonance deriving from its more recent use to venerate Egyptians who have died in struggles against colonialism, Israel and, more recently, anti-Mubarak (and now anti-Morsi) protests.

More on:http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/leila-zaki-chakravarti/tale-of-two-cities-blood-football-and-politics-in-egypt