Should Not Ignore Worst Situation in Decades
(Beirut) – President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi takes office in Egypt in the
midst of a human rights crisis as dire as in any period in the country’s
modern history, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said
today. The new president should make addressing Egypt’s dismal human
rights record a top priority.
In the period since the July 3, 2013 ousting of President Mohamed Morsy,
Egyptian security forces have used excessive force on numerous
occasions, leading to the worst incident of mass unlawful killings in
Egypt’s recent history. Judicial authorities have handed down
unprecedented large-scale death sentences and security forces have
carried out mass arrests and torture that harken back to the darkest
days of former President Hosni Mubarak’s rule.
“Instead of addressing the urgent need for reform, Egyptian
authorities have spent the last year engaging in repression on a scale
unprecedented in Egypt’s modern history,” said Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui,
deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty
International. “Now that President al-Sisi has formally taken the reins
of power, he should put an end to these rampant abuses.”
In addition to the violence and mass arrests, the authorities have
imposed extensive restrictions on freedom of association, expression,
and assembly, which dramatically reverse gains made following the
January 25, 2011 uprising. In addition, there have been violations of
refugee rights and discrimination against women, with rampant impunity
across the board for serious human rights abuses.
The new president should order the release of anyone held solely for
exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association, and
peaceful assembly; amend or drop the restrictive 2013 public assembly
law; and order security forces to halt use of firearms against
demonstrators, unless strictly necessary to protect against imminent
threat of death or serious injury. In addition, his administration
should ensure that credible criminal investigations are carried out into
the police and army killings of more than 1,400 demonstrators over the
past 12 months and the mounting allegations of torture and other
ill-treatment of detainees.
“Egypt’s allies should impress upon Egypt that the world will not accept foot-dragging or purely cosmetic changes,” said
Joe Stork,
deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “If
Egypt doesn’t carry out credible investigations into the illegal
killings and torture, the mechanisms of the UN Human Rights Council
should be used to pursue an international investigation
.”
Egypt’s Human Rights Crisis (July 2013 – June 2014)
Mass Protester Killings
Since July 3, 2013, security forces have repeatedly used excessive and
arbitrary force to disperse protests. At least 1,400 protesters have
been killed in protests and political violence as a result, and most
likely scores more. The most serious incident took place on August 14,
when security forces violently dispersed sit-ins organized by Morsy
supporters in Raba’a al-Adawiya and Nahda Squares in Cairo. Those
assaults on that one day killed up to 1,000 protesters, according to
then-Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawy. It was the
worst incident of
mass unlawful killing in Egypt’s modern history.
The August 14 killings were preceded and followed by other incidents
that Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have found to involve
excessive use of force and firearms, which resulted in the mass killings
of protesters, including:
- On July 8, 2013, Egyptian army forces killed at least 61 protesters outside the Republican Guards Headquarters in eastern Cairo;
- On July 27, 2013, police dispersal of a march near the Manassa Memorial in eastern Cairo resulted in at least 82 deaths;
- On August 16, 2013, police killed at least 121 demonstrators when dispersing protests around Ramses Square;
- On October 6, 2013, police killed more than 57 demonstrators when dispersing pro-Morsy marches across Egypt; and
- On January, 25, 2014,
the third anniversary of the January 2011 uprising, police killed at
least 64 demonstrators when dispersing protests throughout the country.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch acknowledge that the
security situation in Egypt has deteriorated, including attacks by armed
groups targeting security forces personnel, buildings, checkpoints, and
vehicles, which authorities say have led to the killing of hundreds
from the security forces. Some of these
attacks targeted tourists or indiscriminately harmed ordinary citizens.
Egyptian authorities have the responsibility to protect the right to
life of all in Egypt, and to prosecute those responsible for crimes, but
should do so within the framework of international human rights law.
In particular, the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms
require law enforcement officials to strictly limit the use of any force
to situations in which it is absolutely necessary and proportional to
the legitimate aim pursued. Firearms may only be used as a last resort –
when strictly necessary to protect themselves or others against the
imminent threat of death or serious injury. The intentional lethal use
of firearms is only permissible if unavoidable in order to protect life.
Mass Arrests
The campaign of arrests and detentions since July 3, 2013, has been as
intense as during any period in recent Egyptian history. Many of those
detained have faced months of detention without charge or trial. Others
have faced a litany of cut-and-paste charges and have been denied their
due process rights. Unnamed government officials told the Associated
Press in March 2014 that security forces had detained at least
16,000 people since July 2013. WikiThawra, an initiative run by the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, has said that over
41,000 people have faced arrest or criminal charges since Morsy was ousted.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s main opposition group, and other Morsy
supporters, have been the primary target of the dragnet. Police have
arrested most of the Brotherhood’s high- and mid-level leadership, as
well as thousands of rank-and-file members and perceived sympathizers.
The
crackdown has expanded to include secular activists, journalists, and other
dissidents.
Those detained face charges that include protesting without
authorization, incitement or engaging in violence, “thuggery,”
vandalism, blocking roads, and belonging to a banned or terrorist group.
Under Mubarak, Egyptian rights organizations determined that some 18,000 dissidents and opponents of the government were
held in 2006 in administrative detention – prolonged detention without charge under the terms of the emergency law.
Due Process Violations and Mass Death Sentences
The judicial process since July 3, 2013, has been rife with serious
procedural deficiencies that routinely deprive detainees of basic due
process rights. Although the state of emergency decreed in July was
lifted in November, prosecutors in dozens of instances reviewed by
Amnesty International and Human Rights have renewed pretrial detention
orders on the basis of little or no evidence that would warrant
prosecution, effectively keeping many of those rounded up in arbitrary
detention for months without formal charge.
Many of the trials documented by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty
International have been grossly unfair, violating both Egyptian law and
international standards.
These trials,
including mass trials involving hundreds of people in a single case,
failed to assess the individual criminal responsibility of each
defendant, yet resulted in lengthy sentences or even the death penalty –
which Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch oppose in all
circumstances.
In many of these cases, the public prosecution relied almost entirely on
police witnesses without presenting any other material evidence or
independent witnesses. Defense lawyers say they have had difficulties in
obtaining details of the prosecution evidence against their clients and
were unable to check or photocopy case files from the courts,
jeopardizing their ability to prepare an effective defense.
A
criminal court in Minya, for example, recommended the
death penalty for over 1,200 people in preliminary verdicts in two separate cases in
March and
April
2014. The court did not allow defendants the right to mount a
meaningful defense, or even assess whether they had counsel. The court
tried most defendants in their absence in proceedings that fell far
short of ascertaining their individual guilt or innocence. These were
the largest mass death sentences that Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch have ever documented in Egypt. In the first mass case,
after receiving an opinion from the Grand Mufti, the court issued 37
death sentences and sentenced the others to life in prison in a final
verdict which continues to raise concern given that the court did not
consider individual responsibility for the alleged offenses. The final
verdict in the second case is scheduled to be delivered after receipt of
the Grand Mufti’s opinion on June 21.
Since July 3, 2013, military prosecutors have continued to try civilians
before military courts. Provisions in Egypt’s new constitution permit
military trials for civilians in a number of circumstances, in breach of
international law.
Outside of the formal judicial process, Egyptian authorities have
forcibly disappeared dozens of people since July 2013. Security forces
held Morsy, along with nine senior aides, in
secret detention
for months. Egyptian lawyers and activists have a list of 30 people
subjected to enforced disappearance for as long as 76 days. They are now
known to be at
al-Azouly Prison,
inside al-Galaa Military Camp in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia.
Former detainees said that hundreds may be detained at the prison.
Torture and Other Ill-Treatment
Mounting reports of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees harken
back to the most abusive periods under Hosni Mubarak. Detainees have
described to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch severe
beatings by security forces during their arrest, their arrival at police
stations, and their transfer between prisons, as part of their “welcome
party.” Scores of protesters detained during the third anniversary of
the uprising on January 25, 2014, complained of
torture,
including being subjected to electric shocks to extract confessions.
Those forcibly disappeared at al-Azouly military prison said they were
tortured, including with electric shocks and being hung from doors.
Sharply Diminished Freedom of Association, Expression, and Assembly
While the new constitution has language that appears to protect human
rights, authorities over the last year have routinely violated those
rights, particularly the rights to free expression, peaceful assembly,
and association. Thousands of detainees were rounded up solely as a
result of their peaceful exercise of these rights.
Free Expression
On July 3, 2013, the military-backed government raided and took off air
at least six TV stations affiliated with or sympathetic to the Muslim
Brotherhood. Egypt is currently detaining
16 journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, placing Egypt among the worst jailers of journalists.
Egypt has particularly targeted the Qatar-based TV station Al Jazeera,
closing its Egypt offices and arresting many of its reporters. Egyptian
authorities have
held the correspondent of Al Jazeera’s Arabic program,
Abdullah al-Shamy, without charge since August 14, 2013. Authorities also
arrested three staff of Al Jazeera’s English program, Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste, and Baher Mohamed, in December and are
trying them,
along with 17 other journalists, media students, and opposition
activists, on charges of “broadcasting false news” and assisting Muslim
Brotherhood members.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have separately documented
dozens of cases of people detained merely for peaceful expression of
dissent, such as possessing flyers or balloons with anti-military
slogans and displaying signs commemorating victims of the August
dispersal of the pro-Muslim Brotherhood encampment at Raba’a al-Adawiya
Square in Cairo.
In January 2014, the government put a travel ban on the academic and former Member of Parliament
Amr Hamzawy.
Prosecutors charged Hamzawy with “insulting the judiciary” based on a
tweet in which he said that a particular court ruling was politicized.
The same month authorities charged another prominent academic,
Emad Shahin,
with conspiring with foreign organizations to harm national security.
Both men had been critical of some of President Morsy’s policies, but
also criticized the heavy repression that followed his ouster.
Also in January, authorities arrested some of the few activists who openly challenged the draft constitution and called for a
“no” vote in the referendum.
Free Assembly
In November 2013, the government issued a
new law that
severely restricts peaceful demonstrations
by granting the Interior Ministry free rein to ban any protest,
forcefully disperse demonstrations, and arrest participants on vague
grounds such as “imped[ing] citizen’s interests.”
Prominent activists
like Alaa Abdel Fattah, the co-founder of the April 6 Youth Movement
Ahmed Maher, the blogger Ahmed Douma, the April 6 leader Mohamed Adel,
and the human rights lawyer Mahienoor al-Masry have been
imprisoned for allegedly violating the new protest law, along with scores of other activists and government critics.
Maher, Douma, and Adel
were each sentenced to three years in prison in December, while
al-Masry was sentenced to two years in May 2014 and Abdel Fattah is
currently on trial, though free on bail. Security forces have used the
law to
forcibly disperse
protests by Muslim Brotherhood supporters as well as other political
and human rights activists, and to arrest scores of protesters.
Free Association
In September 2013, a Cairo court banned the activities of the Muslim
Brotherhood and ordered a confiscation of its assets. In December, the
government
designated
the Brotherhood a terrorist organization. Subsequently, the government
has taken over control of 1,075 associations linked to the Brotherhood
and dozens of Brotherhood-affiliated schools. The government has yet to
put forward
any evidence to support the terrorist designation, or to link the group to specific terrorist attacks.
On April 28, 2014, the Court of Urgent Matters
banned the activities of the
April 6 Youth Movement,
which led many of the mass protests during the 2011 uprising, and
ordered the authorities to shut down its headquarters. The court ruled
that the group was “co-operating with foreign states, including the US,
to cut US aid, possessing weapons, protesting and spreading chaos in the
country,” and had “distorted Egypt’s image.”
Authorities raided the offices of the Egyptian Center for Economic and
Social Rights, a prominent rights group, twice in six months. On
December 19,
2013, security forces raided its Cairo office just after midnight and
detained two staff members and four volunteers, subjecting them to
ill-treatment before releasing five of the group the next morning. The
sixth, the above-mentioned Mohamed Adel, was sentenced to three years in
prison for allegedly violating the assembly law. On
May 22,
2014, police raided the group’s Alexandria office, briefly arresting at
least 15 activists and lawyers and subjecting them to ill-treatment.
Violence, Discrimination Against Women
Women protesters participating in demonstrations around Tahrir Square faced a
wave of
sexual violence,
with over 100 attacks around Tahrir Square reported in the week of June
30, 2013 alone. As demonstrators gathered in Tahrir Square to mark
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's inauguration on June 8, 2014, reports emerged of
mob sexual harassment and assaults in the area, with the Interior
Ministry stating it had arrested seven people in connection with the
attacks. Outgoing interim President Adly Mansour issued a new law on
June 5, 2014, to address sexual harassment, but over the last year the
authorities have taken little action to stop or investigate violence
against women, or to bring those responsible to justice.
Women continue to be under-represented in public life, including
top-level government positions and the judiciary. According to the last
official surveys, women also face endemic levels of sexual and
gender-based violence, including widespread sexual harassment in the
public sphere and high levels of domestic violence, with the authorities
failing to take substantive action to acknowledge the problem or combat
it. Official statistics show that women also face discrimination in the
workplace in terms of pay and position and face disproportionate levels
of unemployment and illiteracy.
Intensified Crackdown on Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and Migrants
Egyptian authorities have violated the rights of refugees, asylum
seekers, and migrants from Syria, including both Syrian nationals and
Palestinians who were living in Syria. Security officials implemented a
visa requirement and security clearance for Syrians following the
ousting of Morsy. Since then, airport officials have
denied entry to at least 476 Syrians and
returned them to Syria
in violation of the international legal prohibition against
refoulement, the return of anyone to a place where their life or freedom
would be threatened or to a real risk of torture or other inhuman or
degrading treatment.
In July 2013, police and military police arrested at least 72 Syrian men
and nine boys at checkpoints on main Cairo roads in a sweep following a
media campaign accusing the Syrians of supporting the Muslim
Brotherhood. From August through December, Egypt arbitrarily detained –
often in defiance of prosecutorial release orders –
over 1,500 refugees from Syria,
including 250 children, many of whom had sought to migrate irregularly
to Europe. The authorities coerced over 1,200 to leave Egypt, some to go
to Syria under threat of indefinite detention. In December, authorities
released the majority of around 200 refugees who remained in custody.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported that as of June 3, 2014, Egypt
had detained 519 additional refugees from Syria and was holding 102 at
police stations on the Mediterranean coast.
Pervasive Impunity for Rights Abuses
Not a single police or army officer has been held accountable for the
repeated use of excessive force and other serious abuses
since July 2013. Authorities continue to deny wrongdoing, yet refuse to
publicly disclose almost any information about potential violations.
Outgoing president Adly Mansour established a presidential fact-finding
committee in December 2013 “to gather information and evidence for the
events that accompanied the June 30, 2013 revolution and its
repercussions.” The commission has operated without transparency and,
according to its mandate, lacks the authority to subpoena witnesses or
evidence, establish individual criminal responsibility, or make its
findings public. President Mansour recently extended the deadline for
its final report from June to September 2014.
In March, President Mansour requested the Justice Ministry to open a
judicial investigation into the Raba’a and Nahda dispersals. The
Ministry of Justice, however, announced that it would not assign a judge
to investigate these events, since investigations fall under the
prerogative of the public prosecution, which in turn says that it is
already investigating these events. The public prosecution has yet to
bring charges against any members of the security forces in those
incidents. Almost one year on, not one officer has been referred to
trial on charges related to the unlawful use of firearms against
protesters.
A March 18, 2014 court ruling sentenced a police captain to 10 years,
and three lower-ranking officers to one-year suspended sentences, for
their role in the tear gas suffocation of 37 protesters in a police van
outside Abu Zaabel Prison. An appeals court overturned the convictions
on June 7, 2014.
Recommendations
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch encourage President al-Sisi
to address these serious human rights concerns by taking the following
steps:
- Ensure thorough, independent, and impartial investigations into the
unlawful use of force by security forces, including those responsible
in the chain of command, in incidents of mass killings since June 30,
2013, such as the August 2013 Raba’a and Nahda Square dispersals in
which up to 1,000 protesters were killed;
- Order security forces to end unlawful, excessive use of force and
to act at all times, including in policing future demonstrations, in
accordance with the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and
Firearms, only using firearms as a last resort when strictly necessary
to protect themselves or others against the imminent threat of death or
serious injury;
- Immediately and unconditionally release all those detained solely
for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association, and
peaceful assembly, including national and international media personnel
arrested in the context of performing their duties as journalists and
those detained solely for membership in the Muslim Brotherhood;
- Order the Justice Ministry to conduct a review to ensure detainees
are afforded their full due process rights, including establishing clear
individual criminal responsibility, regular access to counsel and
family visits, and the opportunity to review evidence and mount a
meaningful defense;
- Initiate thorough, independent, and impartial investigations into
security officials alleged to be responsible for torture or other
ill-treatment of detainees;
- Make public a registry of all those arrested since July 3, 2013, their place of detention, and the charges against them;
- Repeal or amend law 107 of 2013 restricting freedom of assembly to
bring it in line with international human rights law and standards on
freedom of assembly, in particular abolishing provisions that give the
Interior Ministry wide latitude to ban protests and forcibly disperse or
arrest those participating in them; and
- Ensure that the Muslim Brotherhood and other banned organizations
can appeal their closure and designation as terrorist groups in a fair
and transparent process using criteria that conform to international
standards on the right to freedom of association.
*Photo by Khaled Desouki courtesy of AFP
