Egypt buries Mubarak, the ‘Pharaoh’ toppled by Arab Spring

Egypt held a military funeral for its former President Hosni Mubarak, bestowing the state’s final rehabilitation on the man who ruled for 30 years until he was ousted in disgrace in a 2011 popular uprising. Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak (4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian military and political leader who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in the Egyptian Air Force. He served as its commander from 1972 to 1975 and rose to the rank of air chief marshal in 1973. He assumed the presidency after the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981. Mubarak’s presidency lasted almost thirty years, making him Egypt’s longest-serving ruler since Muhammad Ali Pasha, who ruled the country from 1805 to 1848, a reign of 43 years.  Mubarak stepped down after 18 days of demonstrations during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. On 11 February 2011, former Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak and he had resigned as president and vice president respectively and transferred authority to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
On 13 April 2011, a prosecutor ordered Mubarak and both of his sons (Alaa and Gamal) to be detained for 15 days of questioning about allegations of corruption and abuse of power. Mubarak was then ordered to stand trial on charges of negligence for failing to halt the killing of peaceful protesters during the revolution. These trials began on 3 August 2011. On 2 June 2012, an Egyptian court sentenced Mubarak to life imprisonment. After sentencing, he was reported to have suffered a series of health crises. On 13 January 2013, Egypt’s Court of Cassation (the nation’s high court of appeal) overturned Mubarak’s sentence and ordered a retrial. On retrial, Mubarak and his sons were convicted on 9 May 2015 of corruption and given prison sentences. Mubarak was detained in a military hospital and his sons were freed 12 October 2015 by a Cairo court. He was acquitted on 2 March 2017 by the Court of Cassation and released on 24 March 2017. He died on 25 February 2020. He received a military burial at a family plot outside Cairo.

The Life and Times of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy

Here’s a look at the life of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy, Egypt’s first democratically elected leader.

Personal:

Birth date: August 20, 1951 (some sources say August 8)
Death date: June 17, 2019
Birth place: Sharqiya, Egypt
Marriage: Naglaa Ali Mahmoud
Children: Ahmed; Osama; Omar; Shaimaa; Abdullah
Education: Cairo University, B.S., Engineering, 1975; Cairo University, M.S., Metallurgical Engineering, 1978; University of Southern California, Ph.D., Materials Engineering, 1982
Religion: Sunni Muslim
Other Facts:
His two oldest children have US citizenship; they were born in Los Angeles.
Timeline:
1980s – After receiving a doctorate in engineering from the University of Southern California, Morsy works as an assistant professor at California State University, Northridge.
1985 – Returns to Egypt and works as a professor at Zagazig University in Sharkeya.
2000-2005 – Is a member of the Egyptian parliament as part of the Muslim Brotherhood bloc. Loses bid for re-election in 2005.
2006 – Spends seven months in jail as a political prisoner.
2011 – The Muslim Brotherhood establishes the Freedom and Justice Party with Morsy as the leader.
April 7, 2012 – Is tapped to run as the Freedom and Justice Party’s presidential candidate after first choice Khairat al-Shater is disqualified.
May 23-24, 2012 – Egypt holds the first round of voting in presidential elections. Morsy, as well as former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik, are the top vote-getters.
June 14, 2012 – The military regime dissolves the Islamist-dominated parliament.
June 16-17, 2012 – Egypt holds the second round of presidential elections.
June 24, 2012 – Egypt’s national elections commission announces that Morsy has defeated Shafiq in presidential run-off elections with 51.7% of the vote.
June 24, 2012 – Morsy resigns from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Freedom and Justice Party to show that he will represent all Egyptians as president.
June 30, 2012 – Morsy is sworn in as Egypt’s first democratically elected president.
July 8, 2012 – Announces that he is overriding a military edict that dissolved the country’s elected parliament and calling lawmakers back into session.
July 10, 2012 – Parliament meets for the first time since April, at which time they vote to appeal the June 14 parliamentary elections invalidation. The Higher Constitutional Court denies the appeal and considers the current parliament invalid.
July 11, 2012 – Morsy says that he “will respect” the High Constitutional Court’s ruling that halted his decision to call the nation’s parliament back into session.
August 12, 2012 – Morsy forces Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, chief of staff of the armed forces Lt. Gen. Sami Anan and other senior military commanders into retirement.
August 14, 2012 – Names new military commanders.
August 30, 2012 – In a speech at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran, denounces Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government as “an oppressive regime that has lost its legitimacy.” Morsy’s visit to Iran is the first by an Egyptian leader since Iran’s revolution in 1979.
November 21, 2012 – Plays a key role in negotiating the cease-fire between Hamas and Israel that takes effect at 9 p.m. (2 p.m. ET). Six Israelis and 163 Palestinians die during the eight days of violence.
November 22, 2012 – Issues an order preventing any court from overturning his decisions. He also orders retrials and re-investigations in the deaths of protesters during the 2011 uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak.
December 9, 2012 – Reinstates judicial oversight of presidential decisions.
December 15, 2012 – Drafts new constitution and submits it to the people for a vote.
December 25, 2012 – After several days of voting, the people approve the new Islamist-backed constitution, and Morsy signs it into law.
June 30, 2013 – On the first anniversary of President Morsy’s election win there are protests in Tahrir Square, and around Egypt, demanding his ouster. The US Embassy in Cairo is closed, and the Obama administration urges Morsy to hold early elections.
July 1, 2013 – The Egyptian military tells the country’s civilian government it has 48 hours, until the evening of July 3, 2013, to “meet the demands of the people” or it will step in to restore order. The ultimatum is not considered the declaration of a coup.
July 3, 2013 – President Morsy is ousted in a military coup.
July 12, 2013 – State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki calls for the release of Morsy from detention, marking the first time the United States has made such a call.
July 14, 2013 – CNN reports that prosecutors are investigating complaints against Morsy over accusations of spying and killing protesters and have frozen the assets of more than a dozen people in a probe of violence in Cairo.
September 1, 2013 – Morsy and 14 members of the Muslim Brotherhood are ordered to stand trial for incidents that happened in December near the presidential palace. The charges are incitement to conduct murder and “thuggery.”
November 4, 2013 – Morsy’s trial begins, recesses and later adjourns until January 8, 2014.
December 21, 2013 – Egyptian media reports that Morsy is to face additional charges. He and 132 others are to be tried for a 2011 prison escape, while Morsy and 35 members of the Muslim Brotherhood are to be tried for allegedly collaborating with foreign organizations to commit terrorist acts and revealing defense secrets.
January 8, 2014 – Morsy’s trial is postponed until February 1 after he fails to appear in court due to poor weather conditions for prisoner transport.
February 16, 2014 – Morsy is placed in a soundproof glass box during his trial. Defense lawyers refuse to participate, and proceedings are adjourned until February 23.
April 21, 2015 – Morsy is sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted on charges related to violence outside the presidential palace in December 2012. Morsy is acquitted of murder in the deaths of protesters.
May 16, 2015 – A Cairo court sentences Morsy to death for his role in a 2011 prison escape.
June 16, 2015 – Morsy’s death sentence is upheld by an Egyptian court. Additionally, he is sentenced to life in prison on espionage charges.
June 18, 2016 – Morsy is sentenced to 25 years in prison for leaking state secrets to Qatar, and receives an additional 15-year sentence for other, lesser, charges. Six people, including two Al Jazeera journalists, are also sentenced to death for their role in the Qatar espionage case.
November 15, 2016 – The Court of Cassation overturns Morsy’s May 2015 death sentence and orders a new trial.
November 22, 2016 – An Egyptian court overturns the life sentence handed to Morsy and 18 others in June 2015, ordering a retrial in the case. Morsy and his co-accused had been found guilty of conspiring with Palestinian group Hamas, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and other foreign organizations.
March 28, 2018 – A panel commissioned by Morsy’s family and made up of British Parliamentarians reports its findings that the conditions of his detention “would constitute cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” and “could meet the threshold for torture in accordance (with) Egyptian and International law.” The panel writes that Morsy is receiving inadequate medical care “which is likely to lead to premature death.”
June 17, 2019 – Passes away at the age of 67 after losing consciousness in an Egyptian courtroom.
Courtesy : CNN

Child jockeys race camels in Egypt

Young jockeys, local children mostly aged 6 to 13, race camels in the traditional Bedouin sport, even as rights groups said child riders were often injured and some had been abducted or sold by their families. Camel racing is a popular sport in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Australia, and Mongolia. Professional camel racing, like horse racing, is an event for betting and tourist attraction. Camels can run at speeds up to 65 km/h (18 m/s; 40 mph) in short sprints and they can maintain a speed of 40 km/h (11 m/s; 25 mph) for an hour. Camels are often controlled by child jockeys, but allegations of human rights abuses have led to nationwide bans on underage labor in the UAE and Qatar. In modern camel racing, camels are often controlled by remote controlled robotic whips. A major camel race is the Camel Cup held at Alice Springs which is the second biggest prize purse camel race in Australia. It is held annually and includes not only the camel races themselves, but also a collection of market stalls and other entertainment. The biggest prize money camel race in Australia is “The Boulia desert Sands” with a A$25,000 prize purse in Queensland.
Children are often favored as jockeys because of their light weight. It has been reported that thousands of children (some reported as young as 2 years old) are trafficked from countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Pakistan, and Sudan for use as jockeys for camel racing industry in Arab States of the Persian Gulf. Estimates range of 5,000 – 40,000 child camel jockeys in the Persian Gulf region. Many child camel jockeys are seriously injured by falling off the camels. The child jockeys live in camps (called “ousbah”) near the racetracks and many are victims of abuse. Hundreds of children have been rescued from camel farms in Oman, Qatar, and UAE and taken back to their original homes or kept in shelter homes. 
Many however, are unable to identify their parents or home communities in South Asia or Sudan. Some countries have issued penalties for those who trafficked child camel jockeys and ordered the owners responsibilities for returning the children back to their home countries. However, they report that in many instances the children rescued were those who had been sold away by their own parents in exchange for money or a job abroad. If they were returned, the children would again be sold for the same purposes. Other children did not speak their native languages, or did not know how to live outside the camel farms. A prominent activist for rehabilitation and recovery of the jockeys is Pakistani lawyer Ansar Burney. He has focused a portion of his work on eliminating the use of child jockeys.
The United Arab Emirates was the first to ban the use of children under 15 as jockeys in camel racing when Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan announced the ban on 29 July 2002. In 2009 the UAE paid compensation to 879 former jockeys. The UAE now issues penalties such as jail and banning for those found using children as jockeys. In 2010, volunteers from Anti-Slavery International photographed violations of this ban. In Qatar, the Emir of Qatar, Hamad Al Thani, banned child jockeys in 2005 and directed that, by 2007, all camel races would be directed by robotic jockeys.