Tag: Human rights

Three activists released; another three get 15 more days of detention

The State Security prosecutor has ordered the release of three pro-democracy detainees, and renewed the detention of three others.

Activists Asmaa Ali, Ahmad Abdel Gawad and Ahmad Abdel Ghaffar, are to be released, ruled the prosecutor in Heliopolis this afternoon. Meanwhile Alaa Seif al-Islam, Nada al-Qassas, and Rasha 3azab, were given another 15 more days in prison.

The six pro-democracy detainees initially refused to leave the prisoners’ trucks, charging the State Security prosecutor of complicity with State Security police, and requested to be investigated by a magistrate. The detainees later reversed their position, up on the request of their lawyers, who attended the interrogations with them.

In another development, Mohamed el-Sharqawi’s lawyers and seven rights organizations have issued a new statement, with more details on the Youth for Change activist’s recent interrogation, the release of the two detainees, and the crackdown on the hunger-strikers in Mazra3et Tora prison. Sharqawi, himself, also sent another letter from Tora, explaining what happened on Saturday at the prosecutor’s office.

Two detainees released; three receive 15 more days; fate of five Tora hungerstrikers unknown

The State Security Prosecutor ordered today the release of two democracy activists, and renewed the detention of three others for 15 more days.

Nael Abdel Hamid and Ihab Mahmoud, who were picked up on April 24, were told by the State Security prosecutor they were free to go, though it’s expected their actual release won’t happen before tomorrow. Ahmad Maher, Yasser Isma3il and 3adel Fawzi, were ordered by the State Security prosecutor to remain in Tora prison for another 15 days.

Mohamed el-Sharqawi was also referred to the State Security prosecutor in Heliopolis today. Twelve rights lawyers were waiting for Sharqawi, but only two attended the interrogation session with him: Ahmad Seif al-Islam, director of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, (and father of detained blogger Alaa) and activist lawyer Amir Salem. The lawyers said they, as well as their client, were expecting an investigation into his torture would take place today, but they were surprised to find out the prosecutor wanted to interrogate Sharqawi only about his refusal to be referred to the forensic medical authorities on Thursday.

“Sharqawi was solid,� said Ahmad Seif. “He refused to be interrogated by the chief State Security prosecutor, who is the same person who interrogated him on his first night of arrest, and who refused to provide him with medical help. Sharqawi protested, and asked to be investigated by a magistrate. We stayed in the room for only ten minutes, after which Sharqawi was returned to Tora once more.�

On another front, news is trickling from Tora prison that the detainees in Mahkoum Tora have ended their hunger-strike on Thursday. There is no news about the fate of the five detainees who were moved to solitary confinement in Mazra3et Tora. Lawyers Seif al-Islam and Gamal 3eid expressed their concern about the five, after they heard they were badly beaten by the Interior Ministry’s Special Operations officers who supervised their transfer. Gamal Abdel Fattah, according to the two lawyers, was seen by other detainees being brutally assaulted.

It is clear the government is confused about how to handle the current situation. The abuse scandal snowballed its way to the regime’s backers in the West, who regard it as too much of a bad PR, and sure the Egyptian government wants to control the damage, but what can it do? Releasing the detainees, means dissent is back on the streets. Keeping them in prison, means continued bad publicity for Mubarak abroad. So, the brilliant security impresarios are coming up with a compromise: release some, renew the detention of others, and re-detain those who were released but haven’t learned their lesson, like Sharqawi and Sha3er.

Updates from Tora…

Gamal 3abdel 3aziz 3eid, Mohamed el-Sharqawi’s lawyer, said his client resisted an attempt, Thursday 9am, by the prison authorities to transfer him to the forensic medical department, for a second visit. Sharqawi, according to 3eid, told the security officials he was already referred to the forensic medical authorities once, last Sunday, and did not comprehend why he would be referred again.

3eid said his client, whose body is healing from the torture marks, suspected the security wanted to destroy the original report made on Sunday by the forensics, (the report hasn’t been disclosed yet to 3eid) and replace it with a new one that does not bear witness to his clients’ treatment in police custody.

In another development, the US ambassador in Cairo asked the Egyptian government to “explain its side of the story,â€� in remarks made at an American Chamber of Commerce meeting on Wednesday. The government explained “its side of the story,” in an interior ministry statement on Thursday, saying no torture happened, and that Sharqawi and Karim el-Sha3er were arrested for blocking the traffic. The ambassador has yet to say which “side of the story” he buys…

British journalists to demonstrate in solidarity with Cairo colleagues

Another event is planned in London for international solidarity with democracy activists in Egypt. I received a press release from the British National Union of Journalists, calling for a demo, outside the BBC World Service building, Bush House, Aldwych, London, from 12 noon to 1pm on Monday 5 June. The press release denounced the attacks on reporters in Cairo, and mentioned specifically Dina Samak and Dina Gameel of the BBC Arabic Service, who were assaulted on Thursday May 25.

Police crackdown on anti-torture demo

I got out of the cab in front of the ultra-posh Four Seasons Hotel, on the Nile Cornish, by 5pm. The southeast side of the Four Seasons faces a narrow street, where Qasr el-Nil Police Station lies. Operating from an old shabby villa in Garden City built in the pre-republican age, next to the Indonesian embassy, is the police force in charge of security in downtown Cairo, Garden City and Zamalek. And it was in this affluent neighborhood that security agents took rounds in torturing Karim el-Sha3er and Mohamed el-Sharqawi, and sexually abusing the latter on the evening of May 25, 2006. Rights activists had called for a stand by representatives of human rights organizations in front of the police station today.

I arrived, not knowing what to expect. Deep down, I had been hoping the government would be a bit embarrassed about the growing torture scandal, that they might allow a small group of lawyers and professors to protest in front of the police station, and allow reporters like myself to do their job.

My hopes were dashed right away. I saw a group of around three dozen rights activists and lawyers carrying banners, shouting against torture, while at least 200 plainclothes thugs, uniformed and plainclothes security officers including two generals—add to that a phalanx of black-clad riot police conscripts, worked hardly to prevent them from marching on the Qasr el-Nil Police Station. The protestors were violently pushed by the thugs and the officers away. Women doctors from the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence were shoved away. Continue reading Police crackdown on anti-torture demo

New arrests of protesters

I have just heard via SMS that Hossam el-Hamalawy, a locally hired journalist for the LA Times who has recently been posting on this blog, has been arrested at a protest today at the Lawyers’ Syndicate. Others who were arrested include activists Adel Mashad, Emad Mubarak and Ayman Ayad.

Hossam, who has a history of activism in left-wing groups and at the American University in Cairo, has been arrested before. One time was in front of my very eyes as we were coming out of the Hardees on Midan Tahrir in Spring 2003. He was not doing anything and was not involved in the protests taking place that day, but a State Security officer had decided to arrest him nonetheless.

Hopefully there will be more information about this later on from people on the scene. Let’s hope those who were arrested today don’t get the same brutal treatment others recently received.

Update: Just heard from Hossam, he said he was “attacked by five plainclothes thugs who smashed his camera and detained him for 15mins.” The others are still under arrest.

Another letter from Sharqawi

Youth for Change activist Mohamed el-Sharqawi sent another letter from Tora prison, recounting the night of his arrest. I’m posting an English translation of his letter (followed by a testimony from a activist reporter in response to today’s interior ministry statement on Sharqawi’s arrest).

A letter from Tora

I couldn’t believe myself, as I sat in the prisoners’ truck, blindfolded, and I was in utter disbelief when I heard one of our accompanying officers say “Karim.. Mohammed, we’ll stop here at the prosecutor’s office.�
The whole time as I was being beaten up and up to the point, at the police station, I had imagined one of two scenarios; either being taken to Lazoughli (State Security police HQ), or getting beaten up and then dumped in a street.

Continue reading Another letter from Sharqawi

Updates on the Tora Prison hunger strike

The government has partially met one of the hunger-strikers’ demands, while prison authorities continued cracking down, as other detainees joined the strike in a revolving door fashion.
Hours after the detainees started their strike on Sunday, Mohamed el-Sharqawi was referred to the forensic medical department, where he was examined and x-rayed. On Monday, he was provided with basic medical treatment at the prison hospital. Continue reading Updates on the Tora Prison hunger strike

HRW calls for investigating assaults on pro-democracy detainees

The US-based rights watchdog has slammed the Egyptian government, in a statement today, over the torture of Mohamed el-Sharqawi and Karim el-Sha3er, calling for an independent judicial investigation into the incident, and asked Hosni Mubarak to “put a stop to repeated outrages by agents of the state.�

Egypt: Police Severely Beat Pro-Democracy Activists  One Activist Also Sexually Assaulted   

  (Cairo, May 31, 2006) – President Hosni Mubarak should immediately order an independent judicial investigation into last Thursday’s severe beatings by security agents of political activists Karim al-Sha`ir and Mohamed al-Sharqawi, Human Rights Watch said today. Police also sexually assaulted al-Sharqawi, according to a written statement he smuggled out of prison.

On May 25, agents of the State Security Investigations (SSI) bureau of the Interior Ministry arrested al-Sha`ir and al-Sharqawi as they were leaving a peaceful demonstration in downtown Cairo. Both men said they were beaten in custody.

“The Egyptian government must investigate these attacks and punish the perpetrators,� said Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch. “President Mubarak should put a stop to repeated outrages by agents of the state.�

In his statement, al-Sharqawi wrote that his captors at the Qasr al-Nil police station beat him for hours and then raped him with a cardboard tube. Then they sent him to the State Security prosecutor’s office in Heliopolis. His lawyer told Human Rights Watch that he saw al-Sharqawi at the prosecutor’s office around midnight that night. “There wasn’t a single part of his body not covered in bruises and gashes,� the lawyer said.

Eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch that security agents beat al-Sha`ir in the street. According to his lawyer, al-Sha`ir said that the beatings continued once he was in police custody.

The State Security prosecutor ordered both men to be held for 15 days pending investigations. The authorities had released al-Sharqawi and al-Sha`ir from Tora prison on May 22 after detaining them in earlier protests on April 24 and May 7 respectively. The demonstration on May 25 commemorated the one-year anniversary of widespread violence by police and ruling party thugs against journalists and demonstrators urging a boycott of a constitutional referendum.

Al-Sharqawi wrote in his statement that around 20 State Security officers surrounded him as he attempted to leave last week’s protest by car and began beating him furiously: “Their punches and kicks came one after the other… There were moments of so much pain, so many insults, so many blows… targeting all my body.â€� Al-Sharqawi wrote that he was stuffed into a police van, after which “they ordered me to put my head between my knees. Of course I obeyed. As soon as I did, they started hitting me on my back with all their strength.â€�

Al-Sharqawi, though blindfolded, believes he was taken to the Qasr al-Nil police station because of communications he heard over the police radios. “Inside the police station,� he wrote, “the beatings targeted particular places.� One of the officers ordered al-Sharqawi’s pants to be removed and began squeezing his left testicle, causing excruciating pain.

“The pain was terrible. He kept doing it for three minutes, during which I was screaming and asking him to stop so I could catch my breath. He pulled my underwear down, tore it to pieces, and kept hitting me on different parts of my body. They ordered me to bend over. I refused, but they forced me.� Al-Sharqawi said the officers then sodomized him with a roll of cardboard.

Gamal Eid, a lawyer for al-Sharqawi and al-Sha`ir, told Human Rights Watch that when he saw al-Sharqawi that night,

His lips were swollen and bloody, his eyes were nearly swollen shut, and you could see the imprints of shoes on his skin. He told me the beatings had continued for nearly three hours and that he had been unable to reply to police questioning because his mouth was full of blood and his lips were too swollen. It was pure sadism. I hadn’t seen anyone that badly tortured in 12 years.

Eid said that he asked the prosecutor, Muhammad Faisal, to allow a doctor he had brought with him to examine and treat al-Sharqawi, but that the prosecutor refused. The authorities only allowed al-Sharqawi access to medical treatment four days later, on May 29.

Al-Sha`ir was leaving the protest by car at around 4:45 p.m. in the company of three journalists and another activist. Dina Samak, a BBC journalist, was driving. “As we were leaving the Journalists’ Syndicate, Jihan [Sha`ban, a journalist for Sawt al-Umma and Al-Karama] asked if we could drop her and Karim [al-Sha`ir] off downtown,� she told Human Rights Watch.

As we left the garage of the syndicate, a State Security officer pointed at our car and a taxi started chasing us. About 20 meters later, the taxi pulled in front of us, blocking the street so we couldn’t continue. We were afraid. Everyone in the car locked their doors and closed their windows. Karim was shouting not to let them get him. Around 20 men in civilian clothes surrounded the car and started shouting “stop the car, you bitch,� and all kinds of horrible insults. They threw Karim on the ground and started beating him violently.

Dina Gamil, another BBC journalist, was also in the car. “Around 20 men surrounded the car and smashed the windows with rocks and bottles,� she told Human Rights Watch.

They unlocked the doors through the smashed window and opened them. They pulled Jihan halfway out of the car so her head was on the ground. They tried to pull me out, too, but I had my seatbelt on…. They got Karim out of the car and threw him on the ground. When a crowd formed and judges started coming out of the Judges’ Club to see what was happening, the security agents threw Karim in a car.

Sha`ban confirmed this account to Human Rights Watch and said she is suffering from back pain from the officers’ assault. 

Eid told Human Rights Watch that when he saw al-Sha`ir at the Heliopolis office of the State Security prosecutor later that night, he also bore marks of beatings.

On May 27, a group of prisoners detained over the past month for participating in peaceful demonstrations in solidarity with reformist judges announced they were beginning a hunger strike to protest the treatment of al-Sharqawi and al-Sha`ir, and to demand the release of all those held for participating in the recent demonstrations. On May 30, visitors to the prison reported that 13 hunger strikers had been transferred to solitary confinement.