A GROUP of armed civilians, acting in cooperation with military police, attacked a group of Revolutionary Socialists a short while ago.

Sameh Naguib, labor lawyer Haitham Mohammedein and human rights lawyer Ahmed Mamdouh were attacked while participating in a march in Alexandria, after which Naguib was turned over to the headquarters of the military governor on the military base at Ras el-Tin.

After learning this, Kamal Khalil, a Revolutionary Socialist and a founder of the Democratic Workers and Farmers Party, raised the chant in a Cairo march headed to the Ministry of Defense: “Release him, open up, release him, Sameh is one of us and we will not leave him.”

The attack on the Revolutionary Socialists comes after an intense defamation campaign undertaken by the military council in conjunction with the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The most recent offensive came via the official page of the military council on social networking site Facebook, accusing Sameh Naguib by name of mobilizing students at the American University, where he works as a professor of sociology, to carry out a plan to destroy Egypt. The students of the American University responded by stating that they are an integral part of the Egyptian Revolution.

The panic that the military council is showing toward peaceful calls for the rights of the martyrs and surrender of power makes clear that our revolution is on the correct path. This is demonstrated by the military council’s use of techniques from the previous regime. The use of groups of armed thugs proves to us and to all that the military council was, and still remains, an illegitimate continuation of the deposed regime. They are at the head of the counter-revolution, which seeks to overturn revolutionary and parliamentary legitimacy.

Freedom for Sameh Naguib.... Freedom and victory to the revolutionaries.

The revolution continues.... Victory to the revolution.... Glory to the martyrs.

What you can do
International activists have come together to express support for the Egyptian revolution. Their first step is a statement of solidarity that can be the basis for an activist network to respond to further acts of violence by the military—and stand with the demands of the Egyptian people. To add your name and/or your organization’s support, go to the Egypt Solidarity Campaign website (see the accompanying petition in this issue of ISR) and sign on.