October 1981 — President Anwar Sadat is assassinated by members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Hosni Mubarak is chosen in a national referendum to succeed him.
June 1995 — Mubarak survives an assassination attempt in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, while attending a summit of the Organization of African Unity. Three of the assailants escape to Sudan, which is believed to be behind the attack.
November 1997 — Six people disguised as police officers ambush the Temple of Hatshepsut near Luxor and fire randomly at tourists, killing 70. A group calling itself the Vanguards of Conquest, a revival of the organization that killed President Sadat, publicly warns tourists against visiting Egypt. The group stops short of directly claiming responsibility.
June 2000 — A court sentences three members of Parliament from the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) to 10 years in jail for their role in a major corruption scandal, in which dozens of bankers and businessmen were accused of fraudulently obtaining or granting loans from Egyptian banks during the 1990s.
January 2001 — Mohammed Foda, the former press secretary to Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, is sentenced to five years in jail for taking money in exchange for providing access to government officials. Foda is also ordered to pay back what he is alleged to have taken in bribes and assessed a fine in the same amount.
August 2002 — Police arrest Youssef Abdul Rahman, chairman of the Agriculture Development Bank and secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, on charges of accepting bribes from French companies seeking contracts to import pesticides.
February 2003 — Growing demonstrations against the impending U.S./British invasion of Iraq leads the government to extend by three years the state of emergency that has existed since 1981. When the invasion begins the following month, the government orders the media to avoid coverage that might harm relations with the United States or inflame the Egyptian public. Throughout the rest of the year, journalists and media outlets expressing anti-war or anti-American opinions become frequent targets of government harassment and interference.
October 2004 — A series of bomb blasts targeting Israeli tourists in the Red Sea resort town of Taba kill 34 people. The authorities arrest and detain thousands of people after the attacks and, despite finding only nine suspects, continue holding more than 2,400 incommunicado and without charge more than four months later. The following July, bomb blasts at another Sinai peninsula resort town kill 83 people and injure more than 200 others.
October 2004 — Ayman Nour, a member of Parliament, founds the reformist Ghad (Tomorrow) Party to contest the 2005 presidential elections. Three months later, he is charged with forging signatures to register the party and is quickly stripped of his parliamentary immunity and brought to trial, which is delayed, supposedly at the behest of the United States, so that Nour can participate in the elections. Nour, who goes on to lose both the presidential and parliamentary elections, is convicted in December 2005 and sentenced to five years in jail.
February 2005 — About 100 people stage a rare anti-government rally in Cairo to demand multi-candidate elections and the end of Mubarak's rule. Under pressure from the United States, President Mubarak asks Parliament to amend the constitution to allow presidential elections by universal suffrage with candidates from other parties. In May, voters approve the amendment in a national referendum.
September 2005 — Mubarak is re-elected to his fifth consecutive presidential term in a poll that for the first time allows multiple candidates. Less than a quarter of the electorate casts a vote. Mubarak's victory immediately sparks a protest through the streets of Cairo.
December 2005 — Supporters of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, running as independents, win 20 percent of the seats in parliamentary elections.
July 2006 — Parliament amends the press law, lifting some restrictions on the media but leaving in place jail terms or stiff fines for insulting or defaming public officials or foreign heads of state.
January 2007 — Egyptian authorities charge Al-Jazeera producer, Howayda Taha Matwali, with criminal charges in connection with her work on a documentary about torture. The charges come after authorities find unedited footage showing re-enactment of reported incidents of torture in Egyptian police stations. The authorities label the footage a fabrication and charge Matwali with engaging in "activities that would harm the country's national interests" and "possessing and transferring pictures contradicting the truth and giving an incorrect depiction of the situation in Egypt". Prosecutors tell Matwali that she faces up to five years in jail under Egypt's Penal Code. Matwali, who resides in Qatar, is convicted on these charges and sentenced to six months in jail, in absentia, later on in May.
March 2007 — Egypt's largest opposition group, The Muslim Brotherhood group, strongly condemns government moves to hold a controversial referendum for constitutional changes, after it is approved by the Parliament. The 34 amendments include a ban on the creation of political parties based on religion — a blow to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is an Islamic party. The proposed amendments also give the president, Hosni Mubarak, power to dissolve Parliament and end judicial monitoring of elections. The opposition criticizes this move as paving the way for a police state. Human rights group Amnesty International calls the changes the greatest erosion of human rights in 26 years. According to BBC "reformists are convinced the constitutional changes are the final death blow to what remains of Egyptian democracy". Although the Information minister claims the turnout is between 23 percent to 27 percent, independent groups monitoring the poll report only 5 percent of Egyptians vote in the referendum.
April 2007 — Days before World Press Freedom day, Abdel Moneim Mahmoud, a correspondent for the London-based Arabic language TV channel Al-Hiwar (Dialogue), is believed by Amnesty International to have been arrested for denouncing and publicizing torture and other human rights violations in Egypt.
June 2007 — After being convicted of terrorist offences in what Amnesty International called a "grossly unfair trial," Muhammed Gayiz Sabbah, Usama 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nakhlawi and Yunis Muhammed Abu Gareer are facing imminent execution in Egypt. Organizations such as the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and Amnesty International are urging the authorities to halt the executions and order a fair retrial before a civilian ordinary court.
National Democratic Party (NDP) wins the majority of votes in the parliamentary elections.
October 2007 — The BBC reports, "Independent, opposition newspapers protest against "government harassment" after seven journalists are imprisoned and an editor is put on trial."
November 2007 — NDP retains President Mubarak as party leader.
February 2008 — Egyptian security forces kill an Eritrean woman trying to cross into Israel, making her the second woman to be killed this month and the sixth African migrant to be killed this year while trying to cross the border. No investigations into these killings are known to have been opened by the Egyptian authorities.
March 2008 — After being charged under Articles 171 and 188 of the Penal Code for publishing information that authorities considered to be "damaging to the public interest and Egypt's national stability," Al-Dustur newspaper editor Ibrahim Eissa is sentenced to six months in jail. According to Amnesty International, Eissa's report suggested that the health of 79-year-old President Mubarak was deteriorating, which authorities said led to the withdrawal of some US$350 million in foreign investment.
April 2008 — Military courts sentence 25 leading Muslim Brotherhood members to jail terms of up to 10 years a piece in an attempt to target the organization's funding. Amnesty International says "This trial appeared to be politically motivated from the start," and condemns the sentences as a "perversion of justice."
July 2008 — Amnesty International reports, "Ahmed Afifi and Mohamed Taher are arrested while participating in a peaceful protest in the city of Alexandria on 23 July 2008. It is not known where they are held and Amnesty International fears they are at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. Ahmed Maher and 13 other protesters are also in custody but are not believed to be at risk of torture nor other ill-treatment. Amnesty International believes all 16 to be prisoners of conscience, detained for their participation in the protest
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