TeeJayUK: March 2011

Thursday, 31 March 2011

30th March 2011 #FreeRadwan protest outside Syrian Embassy, London.

London: On Wednesday 30th March 2011 a protest was held to demand the release of Mohamed Radwan, an Egyptian-American engineer who was arrested and 'disappeared' by the Syrian government last Friday (25th March). A small group of friends, family and ordinary Londoners who had heard about it on Facebook gathered between 12 noon and 1pm in front of the Syrian Embassy, 8 Belgrave Square, London, SW1X 8PH. They are united with many others in Egypt, America, Syria and elsewhere around the world in demanding that the Syrian government release him immediately.

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UPDATE: Breaking news ... Friday 01/04/11 13.45 hrs GMT+1

@norashalabyNora Shalaby

Just talked to @battutta on the phone for Syria!!!!! he's out!!! #FreeRadwan

19 minutes ago via web Favorite Retweet Reply

@norashalabyNora Shalaby

He says he will b getting on a plane back to Cairo asap. Either tonight or tomorrow morning! He is now at the Egyptian embassy in syria

19 minutes ago via web Favorite Retweet Reply

NORA SHALABY is Muhammed Radwan's cousin. Her blog is here: http://www.almahrusa.blogspot.com/

Thank you to Muhammed's friends and family for telling the world about this. It is many small victories like this that keeps us going, gives us hope, brings us together, keeps us fighting for freedom, for ourselves and for others.

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Outside the Syrian Embassy, 8 Belgrave Square, London, SW1X 8PH, 30th March 2011

I spoke to Mohamed Radwan's cousin Amr who told me the following:

Mohamed was arrested on last Friday (25th March 2011) at the Ummayid Mosque in Damascus, Syria. He is an Egyptian who also has American citizenship (dual nationality). A graduate from university in Texas, he works for a small family-owned business 'Petro-Graphics' which provides digitising services. He is currently based at their small 2-man office in Damascus and had gone to the mosque to witness the protests (as of Wednesday, humanitarian reports estimate Syrian security forces have killed 73 people and detained hundreds more since protests started on March 15 2011).

A member of his family in Egypt had previously been interviewed by a Colombian journalist in Tahrir Square, Cairo in February. This journalist asked if this family member knew anyone in Syria and was given Radwan's mobile phone number.

Based on this the Syrian secret police decided to arrest him, accused him of being a spy and forced him to 'confess' on Syrian state TV before 'disappearing' him. Noone has seen or heard from him since then.

His last posting on Twitter was "The situation is tense".

Translation: "Engineer not Vandal"

Please come to the next protest or use whatever channels you can (eg. contacting the Syrian government, your own elected representatives, other groups and networks you belong to and spreading the word to your friends, family and colleagues) to demand freedom for Mohammed Radwan who is completely innocent of any wrong-doing.

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/free.radwan

Twitter:
Search for #FreeRadwan
Radwan's twitter account: http://twitter.com/#!/battutta @battutta

Egypt: #FreeRadwan Protest outside the Syrian Embassy in Egypt, 30th March 2011:
photos 1
photos 2

Media:
New York Times "Syria Detains Egyptian-American Blogger" (26/03/11)
AlJazeera "Syria arrests US citizen for filming" (26/03/11)
LA Times "In Syria, a test for Bashar Assad" (28/03/11)
Texas A&M student newspaper "Fighting to survive" (30/03/11)

London: #FreeRadwan Protest outside the Syrian Embassy in London, 30th March 2011:
(click photos for full size versions - please feel free to copy, download, reuse & share).