Political activist Abou Doma arrested

Egyptian authorities have detained political activist Ahmed Abou Doma on charges of inciting violence against the army and encouraging attacks on public property during clashes in central Cairo in mid-December. The defendant was arrested on the order of judges Wageeh El-Shaeer and Wagdy Abdel Azim, both commissioned by the Ministry of Justice to investigate the battle between protesters and security forces in front of Egypt's cabinet offices last month. Doma, a member of the Youth for Justice and Freedom Movement, was arrested on Thursday. Authorities said he is being held for a month pending investigation. They claimed that protesters captured during the clashes confessed that Doma encouraged them to destroy public property. For his side, Doma -- in a TV interview held while the clashes were taking place -- admitted throwing Molotov cocktails at army personnel, an act he justified as self-defence after the latter opened fire on protesters. Seventeen were killed when military and police forces cracked down on the sit-in outside the cabinet office staged to protest the army's appointment of Kamar El-Ganzouri as Egyptian Prime Minister. Videos and photographs from the scene documented the brutal tactics used by security forces. The images were widely circulated on the internet, prompting both local and international criticism of the army's treatment of civilians. Ahram Online