Alkarama for Human Rights, 3 July 2007

 Alkarama for Human Rights has written to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to inform it of 14 cases of arbitrary detention and ask it to intervene with the Egyptian government, which ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on 14 January 1982 and the Convention against Torture on 25 June 1986.

The following people have so far been detained without trial for periods of 11 to 14 years:

Alkarama for Human Rights has received the following urgent report of a probable violation of freedom of speech:

New York, July 5, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by vague terrorism charges brought on Wednesday against the editor of an opposition news Web site. A state security court charged Abdel Karim al-Khaiwani, former editor of the online newspaper Al-Shoura, which is affiliated with the Popular Forces Union Party, with conspiring with antigovernment rebels.

Alkarama for Human Rights, 3 July 2007

Alkarama for Human Rights has sent a letter to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Louise Arbour, asking her to intervene urgently in the case of Dr. bin Zair. (See also the communiqué of 9 June 2007.)

Arbitrary detention in Egypt has become a routine and very widespread affair, to the point that any person may be detained by administrative decision at ant time under the State of Emergency Law that governs the land.  Alkarama for Human Rights has observed hundreds of cases of arbitrary detention over the past years, and has brought new cases of these violations to the attention of specialised UN bodies such as the Working Group for Arbitrary Detention.

Alkarama for Human Rights, 25 June 2007

Alkarama for Human Rights has just learned that the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion on 8 May 2007 about the detention of Mr. Faiz bin Abdelmohsen Al Qaid.  It judges it to constitute arbitrary detention and demands that the Saudi government remedy this situation.

Alkarama for Human Rights, 27 June 2007

On 13/06/2007 Alkarama for Human Rights appealed to Ms. Louise Arbour, High Commissioner for Human Rights, regarding the arrest and maltreatment of Mr. Khalid Gharamallah Awdah al-Zahrani, a Saudi national born on 11 April 1972 living in King Fahd Neighbourhood in Riyadh.

Alkarama for Human Rights, 27 June 2007 

Marking the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (26/06/2007), Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, roundly condemned the practice and called on all countries to ratify the International Convention against Torture.

Alkarama for Human Rights, 28 June 2007

Alkarama for Human Rights, 26 June 2007

Alkarama for Human Rights has just learned that Mr. Issam Al Kohali was freed on 23 July 2007 after 68 days of secret detention, 10 days after starting a hunger strike.

Let us react to the report the government submitted to the UN Human Rights Committee 

Alkarama and Algeria-Watch, 25 June 2007