Articles for Egypt

Alkarama submitted to the UN special procedures the cases of the extrajudicial killings of Farouk Mohamed Mahmoud Al-Sayed (فاروق محمد محمود السيد) and Hassan Abdel Razak Shandi (حمسن عبد الرزاق شندي ). The Egyptian authorities are held responsible.

Alkarama has received news from inside Egypt of the release of several members of Muslim Brotherhood, some of whose cases Alkarama had previously submitted to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD).

The Egyptian Military Court of Appeals today rejected the appeal lodged by Mr. Khairat Al Shatter and 17 other leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood against sentences ranging from 3 to 10 years issued against them by Egypt's Supreme Military Court on 15 April 2008.

In a message released on 23 October 2009, the 22 detainees accused of belonging to the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah asserted that "state security intelligence has detained and tortured us in different ways ranging from the use of electricity on all parts of our bodies, to forcing us to stand all night, to threatening to bring our mothers, children and brothers and subject them to torture while forcing us to listen." Arrested between December 2008 and April 2009, the detainees were taken to Egyptian State Security Intelligence (SSI) headquarters in Nasr Cit

On Wednesday 4 November 2009, two university students were summoned by the police on fabricated charges. They were known at the university for their political activism in favor of the Egyptian opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood. The two students were taken to al-Mansoura police station on 5 November 2009, but a court ordered their release on 7 November 2009.

Dr. Gamal Abdel Salam was released following his detention for 5 months without charges. This comes in the context of continued waves of arrests in Egypt of members and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egyptian State Security Investigation (SSI) forces arrested eight students on 28 October 2009 on accusations of membership to the Muslim Brotherhood - they were held for three days incommunicado at Zagaziq Police Station and then transferred on 30 October 2009 to Damanhour prison. During the students three days incommunicado detention at Zagaziq Police, they were exposed to ill-treatment and subjected to insults and beatings at the hands of the SSI.

In the past 3 months, the Egyptian government has carried out successive mass arrests of leading members of the country's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, including Dr Ashraff Abdel Ghaffar and Dr Ahmed Heshmat.

Alkarama has received news of two separate new waves of arrests in Daqahliyah governorate. These arrests occur in the context of hundreds of arrests over the past few months which mainly target members and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Alkarama has submitted the case of Mr Youssef Hamdane Awad (Abu Zahri) to the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions and the Special Rapporteur on Torture. Mr Youssef Abu Zahri, the brother of Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri, was arrested by Egyptian State Security Intelligence (SSI) on 28 April 2008, detained for 7 months in various Egyptian jails and regularly tortured by the SSI. He died on 10 October 2009.