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Alkarama has been informed that 15 leaders of the Egyptian opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, were arrested in the early hours of Monday 8 February 2010. Coordinated efforts by the State Security forces swept through Cairo, Giza, Al-Sharqiya, Al-Daqhliya and Al-Gharbiya. In the two weeks prior to this most recent incident, arrests also took place separately in Al-Bahira, Fayoum and northern Sinai.

Key figures of Muslim Brotherhood arrested

Alkarama is shocked by the Egyptian authorities disregard for the reoccurrence of deaths within their detention centers as a result of ill-treatment and torture. The most recent victim is Mohamed Atef Ibrahim, who died on 6 January 2010 after long periods of physical abuse. This case confirms the systematic nature of torture inside Egyptian prisons, where the vast majority of the detainees are exposed to ill-treatment.

Arrest and detention

Alkarama launched an urgent appeal today, to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights, in the case of Maamar Al-Abdelli, who was arrested for the second time on 13 July 2009 at a hotel in Aden by agents of Yemeni Intelligence Services.

This is not the first time that this active campaigner for human rights of 36 years was arrested, abducted and arbitrarily detained by the Yemeni Intelligence Service.

Today, 4 February 2010, the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture begins its visit to Lebanon. Alkarama will be participating in the workshops and meetings organized by the OHCHR in Lebanon in the framework of this visit. Alkarama has already submitted to the Subcommittee specific information about the conditions in prisons and in particular the grave issue of torture in Lebanon.

Lebanon ratified the Convention against Torture (CAT) in 2000 and the Optional Protocol to the Convention (OPCAT) in December 2008.

The Egyptian Security forces continue to suppress any opposition towards the government - often affiliating the detainees to banned organizations or terrorists groups as a pretext for arrest.

Since the new year, Alkarama has continued to closely follow the arbitrary arrests and detentions carried out by the Egyptian Security forces. The most recent violation from Egypt is the arbitrary arrest of 10 individuals from Kafr Al-Sheikh. The General Investigative services with the help of the Central Security services arrested them in Kafr Al-Sheikh governorate on 2 February 2010.

On the morning of 25 January 2010, local newspapers in Lebanon reported news of the death of an UNHCR-recognized Egyptian refugee by the name of Mahmoud Salama (56) in Rashaya prison on 23 January 2010. He died after suffering a heart attack according to security reports.

Several human rights organizations were heavily shocked by this tragic news.

"Secret detention should be explicitly prohibited" recommends a major new study on secret detentions jointly published by several independent United Nations human rights experts; Special Rapporteurs, Manfred Nowak and Martin Scheinin and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, on 27 January 2010.
On 26 January 2009, Sana'a's Specialised State Security Court ruled against Mohamed Qasim Ali Al-Gholi and Amin Al-Naggar - two cases which Alkarama had previously submitted to the UN
While visiting the home of an Emirati friend in Ras Al-Khayma, Mohamed Mostafa, 21 and of Palestinian origin, was arrested by UAE State Security forces on 22 July 2009. His brother and friends were also arrested at the same time; however they were released after three months of detention. At the time of the arrests, no judicial arrest warrants were presented nor were the victims told the reasons for their arrests.
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