Articles for Egypt

Egypt: Exceptions to Ending Emergency Law Invite Abuse

Immediately Free Emergency Law Detainees, Transfer Cases to Regular Courts

January 24, 2012

(New York) – The Egyptian military's announcement on January 24, 2012, that it will lift the state of emergency except in cases of "thuggery" is an invitation to continued abuse, Alkarama and Human Rights Watch said today. The two rights groups said that the government should use the regular penal code and civilian criminal courts to address alleged criminal activity. It should also repeal Law 34, which criminalizes participation in strikes during a state of emergency.

24 Jan 2012

Egypt: Security forces raid offices of 6 civil society organizations in Cairo

Cairo, Geneva - 29 December 2011 - Today, the offices of 6 local and international NGOs in Egypt were raided by teams of investigators and prosecutors accompanied by uniformed military and security forces. Warrants have been issued to search and investigate a total of 17 organizations under the accusations of “receiving funding from foreign countries” and other crimes according to the heavily criticised 2002 “NGO law”.

The organizations visited today are:

29 Dec 2011

Egypt: Impunity for members of security forces since February revolution encouraged extrajudicial killing of protesters in recent events

Following the "million-man march" held last Friday, 18 November 2011, Egyptian Central Security Forces used massive amounts of tear gas and live ammunition against peaceful protesters in an attempt to suppress the demonstrations.

23 Nov 2011

Egypt: UN body declares the trial of Mr Maikel Nabil Sanad illegal, and asks for his release and compensation

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) adopted Opinion 50/2011 on 2 September 2011, following the complaint lodged by Alkarama against the Egyptian authorities regarding the arrest and trial of Mr Sanad, who was tried before a military court which sentenced him to three years jail on 10 May 2011.

Alkarama, based in Geneva, and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) in Cairo, had previously lodged a complaint with the WGAD regarding the case of Mr Sanad, asking for their immediate intervention to bring an end to his military trial.

18 Nov 2011

Egypt: Gross negligence and inhumane treatment leads to the death of Essam Ali Atta Shalaby in Tora prison

Alkarama is very concerned about the continuation of torture and inhumane treatment in Egyptian prisons.

03 Nov 2011

Egypt: Where are the results of '9/9 demonstrators' investigation?

Giza-police-headquarter On 23 October 2011, the Supreme State Security Prosecution referred 76 defendants, who were arrested in the events outside the Saudi Embassy, to the Supreme State Security Emergency Court.

‏The prosecution did not disclose any information about the killing of peaceful demonstrators by the Central Security Forces and Military Police so far.

03 Nov 2011

Egypt : Arrest and torture of Mr Al Sayed

On 30 June 2011, Mr Al Sayed was arrested at his home by agents of the Criminal Investigation Branch of the Police, who were dressed as civilians. He was not presented with an arrest warrant nor was he given a reason for his arrest at the time.

Mr Abou Al Maaty AL SAYED was directly taken to the Farag Police Station, where he was subjected to various acts of torture at the hands of two agents of the Criminal Investigation branch, Ali Maher and Saïd Chaarwy, who forced him to undress and shaved his hair, eyebrows and moustache.

20 Jul 2011

Egypt: Al Aswani's life is in danger in the prison of Lyman Tura.

Alkarama has requested the Egyptian authorities immediately release political prisoner Mohammad Al Aswani. Mr Al Aswani has spent more than thirty years in prison, arbitrary detained due to series of unfair trails which were made possible due to the unconstitutional emergency law in force at the time.

Mr. Mohammad Mahmud Salih Al Aswani (aged 60) is one of the oldest political prisoners in Egypt. He has been detained for close to 31 years and he remains behind bars in the high security prison of Lyman Tura.

11 Jul 2011

Egypt: Conviction and detention of Maikel Nabil Sanad for criticizing the military

Maikel Nabil Sanad was arrested 28 March 2011 at his home for having criticized the army on his blog. He was the object of an expedited trial and was convicted 11 April 2011. Mr. Sanad was sentenced to three years imprisonment and a fine.