Egypt - Latest Press Releases

On 25 May 2016, Hany Mohamed Hassanin Sharaf, founder of the Civilized Alternative Party and former Egyptian Air Force pilot, was released from jail after spending more than six months in arbitrary detention. Prosecuted under trumped-up charges that were triggered by his political activism and in particular his work on the creation of a new opposition party, Hany was facing death penalty in case of a trial before a military court. Alkarama had solicited the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) in November 2015, to ask the Egyptian authorities to release him.

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In late April 2016, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), a group of independent experts, adopted WGAD Opinion n°7/2016. This legal document states that Messrs Abdullah Ahmed Mohammed Ismail Alfakharany, Samhy Mostafa Ahmed Abdulalim, Mohamed Mohamed Aladili, Ahmed Sabii, Youssouf Talat Mahmoud Mahmoud Abdulkarim, Hani Salheddin, Mosaad Albarbary, Abdo Dasouki and Waleed Abdulraoof Shalaby are arbitrarily detained. After reviewing the facts sent to them by Alkarama on 19 May 2015 and the answers provided by the Egyptian government, the UN experts ruled that the Egyptian state is violating the journalists' fundamental rights and consequently called upon the Egyptian authorities to immediately release them.

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Since the beginning of 2016, Alkarama has been documenting more and more cases of enforced disappearances in Egypt to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), including five new cases highlighted below. Omar Mohammed Ali Hamad and Mahmoud Ibrahim Mostafa Attia, have been missing since Rabaa Al Adawiya's massacre on 14 August 2013. The three other victims, Abderrahmane Elsayed Mahmoud Hassan, Basem Ahmed Shafik Ahmed and Islam Eid Zaky Karkoura disappeared respectively on 18 August 2015, 20 and 25 February 2016.

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Men are holding placards reading "Tiran and Sanafir are Egyptian"Credit photo: Daily News Egypt The transfer of two Red Sea islands, Tiran and Sanafir, to Saudi Arabia has been the subject of considerable criticism in Egypt. On 15 April 2015, few days after the announcement of this deal between the two countries, Egyptians peacefully gathered to protest against it. Although people initially took to the streets to express their discontent over the planned handover, many slogans were directed against the increasingly authoritarian drift of the regime and the state security apparatus. Similar peaceful protests were held on 25 April 2016 across the country.

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On 24 January 2016, the Ministry of Interior declared having executed 32-year-old Mohamed Hamdan Mohamed Ali during a police operation in Beni Suef – a city located on the Nile’s shores, South of Cairo. The victim had however been arrested at work on 10 January 2016 and was missing since. Additionally, when his relatives were authorised to see his corpse, it bore evident marks of torture which made them believe that the authorities tried to cover-up the real circumstances of his death. Their claim was asserted by the authorities’ refusal to share the autopsy records and that no effective investigation was launched into his death to date. Hence, Alkarama solicited the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (UNSRT) to ask the Egyptian authorities to take effective measure to shed light on his death.

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Men wearing white clothes are standing behind barsYasser Essawy (right) before Cairo Criminal Court In late March 2016, Yasser Essawy Ahmed Essawy, a sales representative detained since his arrest in October 2013, was urgently hospitalised to receive surgery in a Cairo hospital. Disregarding the doctor’s recommendation, the prison personnel refused the continuation of his hospitalisation after his surgery and sent him back to prison before he had time to properly recover. Even though he was put in the medical section of Tora prison, Yasser Essawy, 41 years old, has been continuously refused medical care since. Hence, his family reports that his state continues to decline, putting his life at risk. As a consequence, Alkarama solicited the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health (UNSRH) to ask the Egyptian authorities to guarantee that Yasser Essawy is granted appropriate medical care and hospitalised again, if need be.

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Prison's cells seen from the bottom, closed by barsCredit: Thomas Hawk/Flickr Egyptian Homeland Security raided Mohamed Mohamed Sadiq Ayyad’s house and arrested him on 13 January 2016. Secretly detained for weeks, he was repeatedly tortured before being charged under various accusations, without the assistance of a lawyer. Still detained to date, he was only allowed to see his relatives for few minutes and his health state continues to deteriorate because he is refused medical care. Fearing for his life, his family turned to Alkarama that sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (UNSRT) to ask the Egyptian authorities to guarantee his mental and physical state and to investigate his reports of torture.

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Profile of Mohammed Al Husseini wearing a coat A mosaic of different photos of Ahmed Al Naggar In March 2016, Alkarama sent two communications to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) regarding the disappearances in November 2015 and February 2016 of two Egyptian students, Ahmed Ihab Mohamed Al Naggar and Mohammed Mohammed Abdelmotaleb Al Husseini following their arrests by the authorities. While Ahmed was reportedly seen in detention in early February 2016, without official confirmation however, Mohammed’s whereabouts remain unknown to his relatives to date and both students are at high risk of being tortured while in secret detention, either in retaliation against their alleged political affiliations or to force them to confess to crimes.

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Alkarama has just solicited the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (UNSRT) regarding the continuous detention of 10 young women - most of whom are students -, since their arrest in Damietta streets on 5 May 2015. While they were peacefully demonstrating, Sara Mohamed Ramadan, Habiba Shata, Esraa Abdo Farhat, Aya Hossam Al Shehata, Fatima Ayad, Mariam Tork, Fatima Tork, Rawda Khater, Sara Hamdi Anwar and Kholod El Fallaghy, were arrested and detained incommunicado for several days during which they were tortured and then indicted. Now detained in Port-Said prison in harsh conditions, they are facing trial and could be sentenced on the basis of documents that they signed without the possibility of reading them.

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Smiling face of Islam ElTohamy Face of Abou Al Amoury Face of Mohamed El Safty On 5 February 2016, the Egyptian authorities arrested three men in El Beheira and Kafr El Sheikh Governorates. While their families were trying to locate them, Abou Obeida Said Ahmed Al Amoury, Islam Ibrahim El Tohamy Ibrahim and Mohammed Gommaa Mahmoud El Safty were in fact secretly detained by the Homeland Security and the police. Tortured for several days, they were forced to sign confessions that they could not read. Accused of being members of an active terrorist group, they now face trial and remain detained to date. Fearing that they could be sentenced on the basis of the confessions they signed under torture, Alkarama solicited on behalf of their families, the United Nations Special Rapporteur against Torture (UNSRT) to ask the Egyptian authorities to guarantee their mental and physical state and to investigate their reports of torture.

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Egypt - HR Instruments

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

ICCPR: Ratified on 14.01.1982
Optional Protocol: No

State report: Overdue since 01.11.2004 (4th)
Last concluding observations: 28.11.2002

Convention against Torture (CAT)

CAT: Accessed on 25.06.1986
Optional Protocol: No
Art. 20 (Confidential inquiry): Yes
Art. 22 (Individual communications): No

State report: Due on 25.06.2016 (initially due in 2004)
Last concluding observations: 23.12.2002

International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance (CED)

No

Universal Periodic Review (UPR)

Last review: 02.2010 (1st cycle)
Next review: 2014 (2nd cycle)

National Human Rights Institution (NHRI)

National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) – Status A

Last review: 10.2006
Next review: Deferred