19 February, 2009

Disappeared Ghad-activist Hossam Shahata went to Rafah?

While searching for news about the kidnapped Ghad-party member Hossam Shahata, i found a piece of interesting but yet unconfirmed information on the web: According to this blog, Shahata drove some activists to Rafah in his personal car during the war on Gaza, some of whom were later detained - like Ahmed Duma (who was subsequently sentenced to a year in prison by a military court for illegaly entering Gaza) and Diaa Gad. If this is true it sheds some important light on the reasons behind the detention not only of Shatata, but of Diaa Gad as well...

Update: A lawyer from the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and a member of al-Ghad both confirm that Hossam Shahata did visit Rafah - but without crossing the border to Gaza. Hossam Shahata and Diaa Gad also held a protest outside the public prosecutors office demanding the release of Magdy Hussein, almost three weeks ago - according to a jaiku sent by Gad at that time. So the disappearance of Gad and Shahata is very likely to be connected.

According to information floating around in cyberspace members of Al-Ghad and the 6 April movement were supposed to gather outside the Public Prosecutors office today at noon. The only ones who showed up, however, was the usual assorted security men, with or without uniform. An officer told me, with a gleeful smile and obvious satisfaction: "Yeah, we came because there was supposed to be a demonstration for Hossam Shahata, but no one came."

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