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Striking Somid Company Port workers arrested and tortured by the Egyptian Police and will stand before the Military Court

Saturday 10 March 2012

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Five workers at Somid Company Port in Ain Sukhna, Suez - east Cairo have been beaten and tortured by security forces personnel at the police station in Attaqa after they have been arrested by the military forces during the workers’ strike, which started last Wednesday.

The five workers - Mohamed Essam Syam, Mohamed Farouk Al Gindy, Abu Alyazeed Abdel A’aty, Ahmed Mohamed Tal’at, Hassan Mohamed Al Qarmooty - have been arrested at Somid Company Port two days ago during the Company’s workers strike, demanding the transfer of their legal subordination directly to Somid Company Port, with no contractor or middleman, which is currently Subsea for Petroleum Services.

The oppression and abuse of the workers didn’t exclude suspicion of corruption, whereas the workers have been arrested and sent to military trial for no reason except that several Directors of the Company are family members and relatives of the members of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces in Egypt, where Ahmed Tantawy, brother of Field Marshal Hissein Tantawy, used to be director of the Naval Department at the port before he retired. Thereafter he worked as a consultant to Somid Company Port. Also, Mohamed Islam Khattab has been appointed in the company as a reward to his father, Khattab Hindawy, for financing the attack on the revolutionaries in Tahrir Sqaure on 2 February 2011 in the what has been known as the "Battle of the Camal". Furthermore, Omar Seif Eldin Galal, the son of the former governor of Suez, works in the Company, as well as a relative of General Sami Anan. Having that said, the striking workers stand directly against the alliance of capitalism and the members of the former and current regime.

Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions hereby demands from the Egyptian Parlaiment to assume its responsibility for the sake of those who elected them, and to expedite the process of releasing the five arrested workers, and to put on trial those who have given orders to torture and terrorize the striking workers, and any personnel at the Police station who participated in these acts of torture, as well as to immediately fulfill the workers’ demands. We further demand from all political parties and worker syndicates worldwide to stand in solidarity with the striking workers of Somid Company Port and to enable their voices to reach all honorable struggling comrades by all means they deem applicable.

Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions

9\3\2012