Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2002 - Egypt

Sentencing and detention of Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim²⁶

On 6th February 2002, the Cairo Court of Appeal examined the appeal of Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Director of the Ibn Khaldun Centre for Development Studies. Dr. Ibrahim had filed an appeal against the seven year prison term meted out by the Supreme State Security Criminal Court. He had been sentenced in application of Military Decree No. 4 of 1992, adopted as part of the 1981 Emergency Law which makes it illegal to receive funds from abroad without prior authorisation. He was also charged with forging voters' cards, spreading false information abroad to harm Egyptian interests, and appropriating money by fraudulent means.

The Court of Appeal quashed the decision on procedural grounds, and sent the case to another State Security Criminal Court. Dr. Ibrahim, who was jailed after his indictment, was freed on 7th February 2002. Nine of the Centre's 27 employees who had received 1-5 year suspended prison terms, also benefited from this decision.

But when the State Security Criminal Court re-examined the case on 29th July 2002, Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim was again sentenced to seven years in prison. Immediately after the hearing, he, together with three other defendants, were sent back to prison where Dr. Ibrahim's health deteriorated.

On 3rd December 2002, at another hearing before the Cairo Court of Appeal, to which the Observatory sent an observer, the Court ordered Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim and his three co-defendants to be released, again on procedural grounds. Furthermore it decided to hold another hearing, on 4th February 2003, at which it will render its final decision on both substance and procedure.

Arrest and detention of two defenders²⁷

On 16th December, Mr. Hany Riyadh Shaker, a member of the Egyptian Centre for Housing Rights (ECHR), was arrested for distributing pamphlets calling for participation in a peaceful demonstration against war in Iraq. He apparently was beaten and tortured during detention and, because he was a Copt, was insulted by the State Security Police. He was kept under arrest for three days and accused of distributing provocative propaganda that could disturb public order, government stability and public interest.

On 21st December, he was arrested again, with Mr. Tamer Sulaiman, who is also a member of ECHR, while they were in the Sohag governorate 500 km south of Cairo to investigate violations of housing rights in the village of Nagaa Al Shaikh Hamad where 900 people are said to have lost their homes when a water purification station collapsed. They were arrested by the police, who took them to the governorate's security police department ostensibly to check their identity. They were released, but just when they were supposed to meet with the Secretary General of the Governorate to obtain permission to meet and interview the victims, they were arrested again. The public prosecutor ordered them to be held for four days pending the outcome of the enquiry. They were interrogated with their lawyers and held in the Akhmin police station. They were accused of posing as journalists, (although they showed their mandate from ECHR) and stirring up social unrest and violence. They were freed 17 days later.

These arrests may have been in retaliation to a report presented by the ECHR to the Committee on Torture in November 2002. Members of the security forces told the members of the Center they should not have gone to Geneva without prior authorisation.

Continued pressure on EOHR²⁸

The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) has still not been allowed to register with the Ministry of Social Affairs although the Administrative Court, in June 2001, overturned the June 2000 decision of the Ministry not to register EOHR as an NGO and to postpone further consideration of the request sine die.

Furthermore, the EOHR has not been allowed to publish Hokouk El Insan (Human Rights) since the decree issued by the Prefect of Cairo on 20th September 1999 suspending this publication and 13 newspapers.

Finally, judicial proceedings against Mr. Hafez Abu Sa'eda, EOHR Secretary General, are still pending. He has been charged on the basis of Decree No. 4 of 1992 (see above) for having accepted, in 1988, a subsidy from the British Embassy to support EOHR activities in favour of women.

Obstacles to freedom of association²⁹

A new, particularly restrictive law on associations was adopted in June 2002.

This law goes farther than the law on civil associations and institutions adopted in 1999, and declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional High Court in June 2000.

The new law provides especially that: a civil association can only be registered if authorised by the Ministry of Social Affairs, NGOs can only exercise political and trade union activities that are precisely defined, the public administration can intervene in the composition of an association's executive committee, and official authorisation is needed in order to receive funds from abroad and to belong to any international organisations or associations.

Last, Article 42 empowers the Ministry to dissolve an association by administrative decree, without a judicial order and without recourse. The Ministry is also empowered to appoint a judicial administrator to confiscate documents and funds. This amendment exceeds the provisions of the 1999 Law whose Article 42 obliged the Ministry to file a complaint with a qualified court, i.e. use judicial channels, to dissolve an association.

[Refworld note: This report as posted on the FIDH website (www.fidh.org) was in pdf format with country chapters run together by region. Footnote numbers have been retained here, so do not necessarily begin at 1.]

26. See Urgent Appeals EGY 001/0202/OBS 010 and 010.01, and press release of 3 December 2002.

27. See Press release of 31/12/2002.

28. See Annual Report 2001.

29. See Annual Report of 2000 and 2001, Urgent Appeal EGY 032/9905/OBS 032.03 and Open letter to the Egyptian authorities, dated 4 June 2002.