‘They try to break us’: Pro-Palestine activists in Czech custody

As a group is accused of an attack on a weapons factory, activists allege a growing crackdown on the solidarity movement. Save Share Prague, Czech Republic –Youssef Moursi, a 25-year-old Egyptian university student and activist in Prague, has spent the last six months in pre-trial detention, accused of an arson attack in March against a Czech weapons factory with alleged ties to Israel. Moursi is one of 11 people being charged with “terrorism” for the attack and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. The case has echoes of legal battles in theUnited Kingdom, where Palestine Action activists have been sentenced under terrorism laws, andGermany, where five people accused of targeting a site linked to Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons maker, are on trial. Moursi, a humanities student at Charles University, said in a statement to Al Jazeera that “a group of armed and masked policemen smashed down [my] front door”, two days after the alleged attack, in which he denies any involvement. He spent the first three months of his detention in solitary confinement, according to his lawyer. Today, he is allowed one hour outside his cell and 20 minutes on the phone a day, with visits from friends and family every two weeks. “[There] is the psychological front being waged against us, where [the police] deliberately try to break us by putting some of us in solitary confinement for months, denying us visits, blocking correspondence, or spreading fear,” Moursi said. “Putting people in custody and prolonging it time and time again without direct evidence, mainly based on a mix of inclinations, activism, racism, and an attempted blurring of freedom of speech, is unacceptable.” Moursi and his lawyer, Pavel Cizinsky, believe he has been targeted because of his involvement in pro-Palestine activism in Prague. Cizinsky said part of the evidence police have against Moursi is that on the day after the fire, he posted advice for pro-Palestinian activists on social media, should they be approached by officers. Cizinsky called this “ridiculous.” “If you put into Google what to do when interviewed by the police, the first advice is wait for your lawyer. But if you say it as a pro-Palestinian activist, if you write it to your friends, then it’s reason against you that you are guilty,” Cizinsky said. At the beginning of the investigation, Cizinsky said he faced pressure from the authorities not to take the case....