Articles for

Ahmed Rajab Abdelradi, a 23 year old chemist from Aswan, was arrested on 12 November 2009, and was later severely tortured while in the custody of the Investigative Branch of the Aswan Police Department. He was taken from his home by State Security Intelligence (SSI) officers supported by officers of the Investigative Branch of the Aswan Police Department. He was accused of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The State of Emergency law is often used by the Egyptian security services as a pretext for arbitrary arrests of dissident groups or those believed to be members of such groups. In such cases, the victims are detained without legal justification and held for long periods of time without trials based on the assumption that they are a threat to national security. Within the prison themselves, many of these political prisoners are exposed to ill-treatment, humiliation and torture, especially those who require medical care are often denied this basic privilege and in some cases die.

On 25 November 2009, Libyan authorities released Saleh Salem Ahmeed after having served nearly 25 years behind bars. Mr Ahmeed was arrested on 3 November 1986 on fabricated murder charges. During the arrest, his house was ransacked and burned.

Since the publication on 16 October 2005 of the "Damascus Declaration for Democratic National Change", calling for peaceful change in Syria, the Syrian regime has arbitrarily detained hundreds of political and human rights activists, in an attempt to silence the growing support for the declaration. The Syrian government continues to arbitrarily detain those who oppose or criticize government policies, including community leaders, human rights activists, and pro-democracy reformers.

Abdullah Al-Nuaimy

On Thursday 26 November 2009, Dr Mohamed Gamal Heshmat (الدكتور محمد جمال حشمت), Muslim Brotherhood leader and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood Shura Council, was released after two months of arbitrary detention in Burg al-Arab prison.

On 19 November 2009, the Committee against Torture (CAT) mad its provisional concluding observations (CAT/C/YEM/CO/2) following its consideration of the second periodic report (CAT/C/YEM/2) which took place on 3 November 2009 in Geneva.

Following yesterday's publication of photographs depicting the injuries of a torture victim inside al-Hayr prison - one of the prison's detainees, Khaled Suleyman Al-Omeir, is suspected by prison authorities of having leaked the snapshots from the prison and is now being detained in solitary confinement.

At 1am on 20 November 2009, Security services released Dr Ashraf Abdel Ghaffar along with Khaled al-Sayed al-Beltagy and Ahmad Ali Abbas. Their release brings to a close the case of the "International Organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood" following the release of all 25 members of this group.