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Egypt Counter-Terrorism Against the Background of an Endless State of Emergency of Person

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Egypt Counter-Terrorism Against the Background of an Endless State of Emergency of Person EGYPT Counter-terrorism against the background of an endless state of emergency of person. Article 4: No one shall be held in slavery Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Article 5: No one shall be subjected to in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Article 6: Everyone has the right to recognition spirit of brotherhood. Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, everywhere as a person before the law. Article 7: All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimi- without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, nation to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination. Article 8: Everyone has the right to an effective rem- basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person edy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. by law. Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security January 2010 N°534a © http://arherring.wordpress.com 2 / Titre du rapport – FIDH I- Introduction ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4 II- Social and political context --------------------------------------------------------------------------5 III- Legal framework -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7 1- Human rights framework -----------------------------------------------------------------------------7 1-1- International standards -----------------------------------------------------------------------7 1-2- Respect by Egypt of its international human rights obligations ------------------------9 2- Anti-terrorism legal framework -------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 2-1- The Egyptian Constitution ---------------------------------------------------------------- 11 2-2- The Emergency Law ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 2-3- Law n° 97 of 18 July 1992 on Terrorism ------------------------------------------------ 12 2-4- The Draft Anti-terrorism Law ------------------------------------------------------------- 14 IV- Main human rights violations -------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 1- Torture allegations ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 2- Conditions and length of pre-trial detention ----------------------------------------------------- 18 2-1- Administrative detention------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 2-2- Illegal detention in the premises of the SSI --------------------------------------------- 19 3- Attacks on the independence of the judiciary ---------------------------------------------------- 19 4- Selected cases of human rights violations -------------------------------------------------------- 20 V- Conclusion and recommendations ---------------------------------------------------------------- 28 Annexes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31 Acknowledgements The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) wishes to thank all the persons met by the mission, in particular those working in adverse circumstances or who have themselves been victims of torture or other persecution for sharing their stories with the mission members. It also extends a special thanks to El Nadim Center for its continuous support, which made the mission and subsequent report possible. FIDH – Egypt. Counter-terrorism against the background of an endless state of emergency / 3 I- Introduction Within the framework of a project developed in partnership with the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) on Preventing Torture within the Fight against Terrorism, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) mandated a fact-finding mission to Egypt with the objective of: 1. Documenting the use of torture and the violations of fair trials guarantees in the framework of the fight against terrorism and the state of emergency in Egypt 2. Examining the extent to which the recommendations issued by the UN Committee against Torture of December 2002 have been implemented by the Egyptian authorities and 3. Making constructive recommendations to the Egyptian government regarding the conditions of detention, the trial of those arrested for alleged terrorist activities, and regarding a comprehensive strategy respectful of human rights, and in particular the absolute prohibition of torture, to respond to the threat of terrorism. The mission took place between the 26 April and 3 May, 2009. It was conducted by a delegation composed of Prof. Ahmed Ziauddin, Advisor to ODHIKAR (FIDH member organization in Bangladesh), Ms. Aideen Gilmore, Deputy Director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ - FIDH member organization in Northern Ireland) and Dr. Federico Allodi, professor in psychiatry and founding member of the Canadian Center for Torture Victim in Toronto (Canada), in coordination with Al Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture, and with the collaboration of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and the Human Rights Association for the Assistance to Prisoners, both members of FIDH in Egypt. In the course of its mission, the delegation met with Prof. Ahmed Fathy Sorour, President of the People’s Assembly (Speaker of the Egyptian Parliament); Prof. Ahmed Kamal Aboelmaged, vice-President of the National Council for Human Rights; Mr. Ahmed Seif El Islam, Director of the Hesham Mubarak Law Center; Directors and members of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI); the Association for Human Rights and Legal Aid (AHRLA); Mr. Hafez Abu Seada, Secretary General of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR); Mr. Sameh Ashour, Head of the Lawyers Association,; and Judge Ashraf A. El Baroudi, President of the Supreme Court of Appeal of Egypt, Judge Ahmed Mekki, Court of Appeal in Alexandria, and Hossam El Gheryani , Vice-President of the Supreme Court of Appeal of Egypt, and Mr. Nicola Bellomo, representative of the EU Commission to Egypt. The mission also had opportunities to have lengthy interviews with eight individuals who gave evidence of having been subjected to torture while in detention in prisons in Egypt and abroad and, in some cases, with their families. FIDH deplores the fact that Dr. Mofid Shehab, Minister of State for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, did not accept to meet with the members of the mission, as initially scheduled. The members of the mission were not allowed to access interrogation and detention places, and could not meet with persons accused of being members of the Hezbollah party, arrested in April 2009 and detained in El Arish prison or to visit the detention facilities of Wahid El Gedid and Tora. The families of the so-called “Hezbollah cell” eventually declined to meet the mission, fearing that such meeting could have some repercussion on their relatives in detention. FIDH hopes that on the occasion of a future follow-up visit, an open and frank dialogue will be possible with the authorities to discuss the missions’ findings. 4 / Egypt. Counter-terrorism against the background of an endless state of emergency – FIDH II- Social and political context The Arab Republic of Egypt with about 76 million people (2008) is one of the most populous countries in Africa. Half of the population lives in cities on the banks of the Nile or by the Nile Delta. Cairo alone has some 20 millions people and supposedly a density of 52,000 people per square km. The language is Arabic and Islam (Sunny tradition) is the religion of 80-90 % of the population. Egypt counts a Christian minority, the Coptic Church, which represents about 9% of the total population. There is also a small Jewish minority. The present social and political situation has been strongly determined by the coup d’état of 22 July 1952 and the subsequent revolution. Gamel Abdel Nasser, a colonel in the Egyptian army, and other members of the group of Free Officers deposed King Farouk I, took over the government and initiated what has been considered to this day a military dictatorship. After Nasser’s death in 1970, another army officer, Mohammed Anwar El-Sadat, became president. In 1981 Sadat was assassinated by a member of the Islamic Jihad. He was succeeded to the presidency by his deputy Mohammed Hosni Mubarak, an Air Force Commander and Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Air Force, who also became chairman of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP, Al watany). President Mubarak and his party have been in power for 28 years. Since 1952, according to Article 1 of the Constitution, the State has been defined as a democratic socialist state. It has a President, a parliament or national legislative
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