Articles for Egypt

On 4 March 2014, Basem Mohsen Hassan Elkhoribi was abducted on Port Said Street of Mansoura by security forces along with his friend Eng Ayman Farag. The authorities keep on denying his detention despite several steps taken by his family to find him.

Alkarama has sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearance asking for his immediate release.

On 7 May 2014, five Muslim Brotherhood supporters have been sentenced, under fabricated charges, to one year of prison by the Military Supreme Court of Qena.

Within a month, the Al Minya Criminal Court handed down in two separate verdicts 1212 death sentences following blatantly unfair and speedy trials in relation to the demonstrations that happened on 14 August 2013. In the first case, 37 Muslim Brotherhood supporters had their death sentence, issued on 24 March 2014, upheld, while the 491 remaining accused had their sentence commuted into life imprisonment. In the second case, 683 alleged supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi, including the Muslim Brotherhood's leader Mohammed Badie, were also sentenced to death on 28 April 2014.

Ahmed Maher, Mohamed Adel and Ahmed Douma are amongst the first Egyptian activists to be convicted on the basis of the new restrictive assembly law n°107-2013. On 22 December 2013, they were sentenced by the Abdeen Misdemeanour Appeals Court to three years of imprisonment for having allegedly "demonstrated without permission" and "assaulting the police" and are currently being unlawfully detained in Tora Prison.

Yesterday on 26 March 2014, Alkarama launched its public report "Impunity is not an option; Ensure accountability for mass killings in Egypt" which demo

Today, Alkarama submitted its report in view of the second cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Egypt, which will take place during the UPR Working Group's 20th session in October-November 2014. This review aims to assess the human rights record of all United Nations Member States every four years.

The trial of Amro El-Qazaz and Islam El Homsy, two Egyptian journalists working for the online news outlet "Rassd" (the monitor), opened today before the Misdemeanour Military Court of North Cairo. This is the first referral of civilians to a military court since the new Egyptian constitution entered into force on 18 January 2014. "We are very concerned by the current persecution against journalists and the use of military courts to clamp down on individuals lawfully exercising their rights under international law", said Alkarama.

On 24 and 25 January, 106 demonstrators and bystanders were unlawfully killed in Egypt when the police and army used excessive force to quell protests against the Egyptian government. Most of the deaths occurred on 25 January 2014, which marked the third anniversary of the Egyptian revolution. Alkarama again urges the Egyptian authorities to respect the right to peaceful protest, as they are bound to do under international law, and prevent arrests and extrajudicial killings of peaceful protestors.