Walking through Cairo’s metro, Yussif is quiet. He sees the a few soldiers standing nearby and puts his head down. He doesn’t want to draw unnecessary attention to himself, he says. For him, the military has become a thorn in his side after he wrote a number of criticisms on his personal blog in early May.
“They came, they got me and they threatened me with trial and imprisonment if I didn’t stop. This was early on and after a few of the people I know ended up in prison for whatever reason, I knew they were serious,” he told Bikya Masr, asking that his full name and blog site not be mentioned. He was one of the lucky ones who didn’t see the inside of a prison cell, but for thousands of others, they weren’t so lucky.
“The new Egypt isn’t looking so great at the moment,” he admitted.
On Monday, the military admitted to human rights workers that they had sentenced over 7,000 civilians to prison using military courts since former President Hosni Mubarak was forced out of office by street demonstrations in January and February. That number has left many human rights organization, activists and advocates of free speech and assembly angered over what they are now saying are excesses that are close to, if not on par with, the former regime.
Hafez Abu Saeda, the head of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) told Bikya Masr that it was “unacceptable” to continue the same practices of the Mubarak government. He said that although he understands the military is attempting to maintain order, “there must be transparency and they must follow the rule of law if we are to get Egypt back on the right track.”
He’s not alone, Yussif and other activists are beginning to be more forceful, despite worries that their actions could put them behind bars. Salma, a young university student, said that on campus people are looking at the past month with anger. She fears that it could lead to more street demonstrations if the military does not act swiftly to rectify the current sentiments on the street.
“We are done with this way of life. For all my friends, we knew one system. It was about silence and jail. We want change and it has to start now or else we will start making it happen,” she said.
The use of military courts to silence opposition was a similar tactic employed by the Mubarak government, and a major catalyst in fomenting anger among the population. Now, less than 6 months since the elder dictator’s ouster, the military is falling into a similar trap. Yussif admits that many activists believed it would be a quick and easy road toward freedom and democracy, but he does believe people are beginning to wake up to the current situation.
“We were too eager for Mubarak to leave and when he did we celebrated for too long and now the military has been able to do a lot of things we wanted Mubarak to go for, so we have to take responsibility and make things better and we have to start by speaking up and not being intimidated by the military,” he added.