Amnesty International, Amnesty International Report 1996 - Egypt, 1 January 1996, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a9fe1c.html [accessed 17 September 2023]
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Dozens of members of professional associations, including doctors, were sentenced by the Supreme Military Court to up to five years' imprisonment; they were prisoners of conscience. Thousands of suspected members or sympathizers of banned Islamist groups, including possible prisoners of conscience, were held under state of emergency legislation. Some were held without charge or trial; others were serving sentences imposed after grossly unfair trials before military courts. Torture and ill-treatment of political detainees was systematic; at least 26 detainees died in custody during the year. At least 14 people were sentenced to death and at least six people were executed. Armed opposition groups committed grave human rights abuses, including deliberate and arbitrary killings of civilians. A state of emergency introduced in 1981 (see previous Amnesty International Reports) remained in force. In May the People's Assembly (parliament) issued a draft law to amend the penal code, reducing freedom of expression by greatly increasing the penalties for libel and slander, and allowing journalists to be prosecuted for vaguely defined offences such as "publishing rumours". The law had not been passed by the end of the year. Parliamentary elections were held in November and December. At least 50 people were killed and over 800 injured during and immediately after the elections. The ruling National Democratic Party won an overwhelming majority. Opposition parties and local human rights groups claimed that the elections had not been free and fair and called for new elections under the supervision of international observers. Violent clashes continued between armed opposition groups and the security forces, especially in Upper Egypt. Bomb and firearm attacks were carried out by banned Islamist groups, particularly al-Gamaa al-Islamiya (Islamic Group) and al-Gihad (Holy Struggle). The majority of victims were police and state security officers, but over 30 unarmed civilians were also killed. In June gunmen opened fire on President Hosni Mubarak's motorcade in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He was not injured. The Egyptian Government reportedly blamed the Sudanese Government for the assassination attempt, worsening relations between the two countries and resulting in border skirmishes between the two armies in the disputed area of Halaib. Ethiopian investigators subsequently said the assailants were all Egyptians and al-Gamaa al-Islamiya claimed responsibility for the attack. Scores of prominent members of the Muslim Brothers, a formally banned but until recently tolerated Islamist organization, were arrested during the year. They included at least 11 doctors arrested in a clamp-down on professional associations in which the Muslim Brothers held leading positions. Many were prisoners of conscience. They were charged with plotting against the government with a view to setting up an Islamic state. However, the real reason for their arrest appeared to be that they had begun to campaign for the November parliamentary elections. They were tried before the Supreme Military Court in Cairo, following a special decree issued by President Mubarak. Defence lawyers withdrew from the trial because they felt the defendants had not committed any criminal offence, and because the court refused to allow them to cross-examine the only prosecution witness. The military court appointed new defence lawyers, all of whom were former military judges or personnel and with whom the defendants refused to cooperate. The original lawyers then petitioned the Sup-reme Constitutional Court over President Mubarak's decision to refer civilian cases to military courts under Article 6(2) of the Code of Military Justice. In November, 54 were sentenced to up to five years' imprisonment with hard labour. Among them were Dr Issam al-Iryan, Deputy Secretary General of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate, Egypt's national medical association; Dr Anwar Shahhata, Treasurer of the Syndicate; Dr Ibrahim al-Zafarani; and Dr Abd al-Munim Abu al-Futuh, Deputy Secretary General of the Arab Medical Association. During March at least 45 people were arrested at Ain Shams University and at the International Trade Fair in Cairo, reportedly after a peaceful protest against Israel's participation in the Fair. Those arrested included Ahmad Abd al-Hadi, a journalist with the newspaper al-Ahrar; Sayyid al-Toukhy, a lawyer and leading member of the Arab Democratic Nasserite Party; Mohsin Hashim, a leading member of the Labour Party; and at least nine students. All were released without charge within weeks. At least 1,000 people were arrested during the parliamentary elections. Most were members or supporters of the Muslim Brothers, but members of other opposition parties were also arrested by police apparently to prevent them monitoring the counting of the votes. Also in November, at least 62 students at Cairo and Alexandria universities were arrested and briefly detained during demonstrations against a ban preventing student members of the Muslim Brothers from participating in university elections. Adel Hussein, a journalist and Secretary General of the Labour Party (see Amnesty International Report 1995), was released in January without charge. Thousands of suspected members or sympathizers of banned Islamist groups, including possible prisoners of conscience, were held in administrative detention without charge or trial during the year under emergency regulations. At least 25 lawyers arrested in previous years remained in detention. Some had been acquitted by military and state security courts but continued to be detained despite repeated release orders issued by the courts. Others were held without charge or trial. They included Shaban Ali Ibrahim, who had been administratively detained without charge or trial since his arrest in 1991, despite around 20 release orders from the courts. He was reportedly tortured at the headquarters of the State Security Investigations Department (SSI) in Lazoghly Square, Cairo. He was transferred in the course of 1995 to al-Wadi al-Gadid Prison. Scores of people tried and acquitted by military courts in 1993 and 1994 were still held under repeated detention orders. Most were held incommunicado in the High Security Prison in Tora and then transferred to al-Wadi al-Gadid Prison. Among them was Abd al-Munim Gamal al-Din Abd al-Munim, a freelance journalist arrested in February 1993, who had been acquitted of charges of membership of a banned Islamist group by a military court in October 1993 (see Amnesty International Reports 1994 and 1995). He remained held in al-Wadi al-Gadid Prison at the end of the year. Dozens of civilians charged with membership of other banned Islamist groups, including al-Gamaa al-Islamiya and al-Gihad, had their cases referred to military courts by order of President Mubarak. The procedures of these courts fell far short of international fair trial standards. Defendants were denied adequate time to prepare their defence and had no right of appeal to a higher court. Before trial, defendants were routinely held in prolonged incommunicado detention and many were reportedly tortured to extract confessions. Torture of political prisoners continued to be systematic, particularly in police stations, the SSI headquarters in Cairo and SSI branches elsewhere in the country. Commonly cited torture methods included beatings, electric shocks, suspension by the wrists or ankles, burning with cigarettes and psychological torture including death threats. Hundreds of complaints of torture were lodged with the Public Prosecutor's Office by lawyers, the Bar Association and human rights groups, but received little or no response. No information was made available regarding any investigations into the allegations. At least 26 detainees, most of whom were suspected members or supporters of banned Islamist groups, died in detention centres. The majority of the victims died in al-Wadi al-Gadid Prison, which was opened in February in the desert south of Cairo. According to reports, torture and ill-treatment, combined with poor hygiene, overcrowded cells and poor diet, contributed to or caused most of the deaths. Almost all those who died had been held in prolonged administrative detention. For example, Mostafa Mohammad Mohammad al-Iraqi, a lawyer who was arrested in late 1992, had been acquitted by a military court in 1993. Instead of being released he was issued with a new detention order and held in the High Security Prison in Tora until his transfer to al-Wadi al-Gadid Prison in February. He died in June. His family reportedly received no medical or autopsy report. The frequent use of the death penalty continued. At least 14 people were sentenced to death, including one in absentia; four of them were civilians sentenced by military courts after unfair trials and six others were sentenced by state security courts. At least four people were sentenced to death for murder and drug smuggling. At least six people were executed. In March, two men Mohammad Nagi Mohammad Mostafa and Mohammad Khadhir Abu al-Farag al-Mahallawi were executed. They had been sentenced to death in January by a military court. They were among 16 alleged members of al-Gamaa al-Islamiya accused of attempting to kill the prominent writer Naguib Mahfouz. In August, two men sentenced to death in May by the Supreme Military Court in Cairo were executed. They were among 42 alleged members of Talai al-Fatah (Vanguards of the Conquest), a splinter group of al-Gihad, accused of murder and sabotage. All death sentences passed by military courts are subject only to review by the Military Appeals' Bureau, a body composed of judges which is not a court, and ratification by the President. All death sentences were confirmed by the Bureau and the President. Armed opposition groups committed gross human rights abuses, including deliberate and arbitrary killings of civilians. Between January and early September at least 31 unarmed civilians were killed in Upper Egypt by gunmen believed to be members of al-Gamaa al-Islamiya. For example, on 17 August, two farmers Ala' Hassan Abdallah and Baha' Mohammad Abbas were shot dead in the village of Beni Obeid near Abu Qerqas in Minya Governorate. On the same day another farmer was murdered in his farm in Mallawy, also in Minya Governorate. On 29 August Abd al-Nour Qatis Abu Saada, a Christian pharmacist, and Issam Georgy Shahata, a doctor, were shot dead in Minya Governorate. The armed group al-Gihad issued a death threat against a prominent writer, Dr Nasr Abu-Zeid, in June, after a Cairo court of appeal ruled that he had insulted the Islamic faith through his writings and that he and his wife should divorce because, as a Muslim, she should not remain married to an apostate. Dr Nasr Abu-Zeid's appeal against the ruling was still pending at the end of the year. Amnesty International appealed repeatedly to the authorities to release all prisoners of conscience and criticized the long-term detention without charge or trial of political detainees. The organization called for an end to trials of civilians before military courts and for all political prisoners to be given fair trials. It called for the immediate implementation of safeguards to stop torture and ill-treatment of detainees, and for urgent, thorough and impartial investigations into all allegations of torture and deaths in custody. Amnesty International called for all death sentences to be commuted and for the abolition of the death penalty. In May and July Amnesty International delegates visited Egypt and met representatives of human rights groups and other non-governmental organizations and professional associations. In November Amnesty International observers attended sessions of the trial of alleged members of the Muslim Brothers before the Supreme Military Court. In October Amnesty International published a report, Egypt: Deaths in custody, which highlighted the increased number of political detainees who died in custody in 1995. In response to the report, the authorities questioned the veracity of Amnesty International's information, specifically the names of detainees cited in the report who had died in al-Wadi al-Gadid Prison. The response gave some information about 14 detainees who died in detention centres but failed to supply detailed information about the circumstances of death. There were no details of the medical care available, although the response stated that all Egyptian prisons, including al-Wadi al-Gadid Prison, had adequate medical facilities, and that the Prisons Law guaranteed the rights of prisoners and detainees. In December Amnesty International called on the Egyptian Government to make public the findings of its investigation into the "disappearance" of Mansur Kikhiya, a prominent Libyan human rights activist who was abducted in Cairo in December 1993 (see Amnesty International Report 1994, Libya entry). Amnesty International strongly condemned the deliberate and arbitrary killings of civilians by armed opposition groups and called on them to abide by minimum standards of international humanitarian law and to put an end to such killings. It also called on armed opposi-tion groups to desist from making death threats.
