Skip to main content

In September 2008, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), a group of independent experts mandated by the Human Rights Council to investigate situations of people detained illegally, adopted Opinion 27/2008 regarding the case of Khirat Al-Shatar and 26 other individuals detained in Egypt. The Working Group found their detention to be arbitrary and called on the Egyptian Government to release all those still in detention.

On 28 March 2010, Egypt's Interior Ministry ordered the administrative detention of following three Imams of mosques belonging to the Egyptian Ministry of Awqaf:

1. Sheikh Abdul Fattah Farag - Bila Center
2. Sheikh Abdul Muqtadir Abdul Karim Abdul Muqtadir - Al-Nitaq village
3. Sheikh Abdullah Hammad - Al-Kafr Al-Jadid

Repressive measures against journalists and human rights activist have now become common currency in Egypt, where neither domestic nor international laws are respected. The latest victim of this quandary is Hamdi Taha, a 50 year-old journalist from Aswan who was arrested on 27 March 2010 after his home was raided at dawn by plain clothed State Security forces and the Central Security services. During the raid they terrorized his family members and locked them in their bedrooms.

This is not the first time Hamdi Taha has been arrested.

On Monday 15 March 2010, District Prosecutors ordered the release of 21 Muslim Brotherhood leaders, who were arrested last Friday 12 March 2010 following announcements of their candidatures in Egypt's upcoming November 2010 parliamentary elections.
42 Muslim Brotherhood leaders were arrested from their homes earlier this morning.
On 2 March 2010, Egyptian State Security Intelligence (SSI) in Fayoum City summoned Taha Abdel Tawab Mohammed, a physician from Fayoum governorate in Egypt who had been organising support for Dr. Mohammad Al Baradei, a potential presidential candidate in Egypt's 2011 presidential elections. Mr Tawab Mohammed was warned that if he did not respond to the call on the same day, he and his family would be immediately arrested.

Faced with these threats and allegations, Taha Mohamed had no other choice than to comply and deliver himself to the SSI building in Fayoum.

Alkarama has just received news of the release of Ahmed Douma on Monday 22 February 2010. Despite having recently completed a one year prison sentence on 5 February 2010, Ahmed Douma remained arbitrarily detained until his recent release.
The Egyptian authorities continue to arbitrarily detain Ahmad Douma despite having completed his prison sentence. Following his return to Egypt from the Gaza Strip at the end of Israel's offensive against Gaza, Egypt's Military Court sentenced Ahmed Douma, an Egyptian citizen, to one year's imprisonment on 10 February 2009 on charges of illegally entering of Gaza.
Alkarama has been informed that 15 leaders of the Egyptian opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, were arrested in the early hours of Monday 8 February 2010. Coordinated efforts by the State Security forces swept through Cairo, Giza, Al-Sharqiya, Al-Daqhliya and Al-Gharbiya. In the two weeks prior to this most recent incident, arrests also took place separately in Al-Bahira, Fayoum and northern Sinai.

Key figures of Muslim Brotherhood arrested

Alkarama is shocked by the Egyptian authorities disregard for the reoccurrence of deaths within their detention centers as a result of ill-treatment and torture. The most recent victim is Mohamed Atef Ibrahim, who died on 6 January 2010 after long periods of physical abuse. This case confirms the systematic nature of torture inside Egyptian prisons, where the vast majority of the detainees are exposed to ill-treatment.

Arrest and detention