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.
The Working Group also observed that their detentions took place without notification and without telling them why they were detained, and they were all initially held in secret locations for periods ranging from a year to three years, where they were tortured by members of the Egyptian general directorate of investigation.
Alkarama for Human Rights expresses its great concern over the continued detentions by administrative order of a number of Egyptian citizens for many years (11 to 14 years) solely under the provisions of the Emergency Law, continuing their imprisonment without trial and without any legal procedures against them, in contradiction to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which Egypt ratified on 14 January 1982.
Alkarama calls upon the Egyptian authorities immediately to release these detainees and to honour the obligations that follow from the promissory declarations it made in order to run for the Human Rights Council.
Alkarama
Geneva 03/07/2007