|
World Organization Against TortureGlobal network fighting against torture and other humans rights violations |
Print version. Published on 202.ip-51-77-231.eu Original: /urgent-campaigns/statements/egypt/2019/07/d25452/ |
Paris-Geneva, July 23, 2019 - At least 83
persons, including political opposition activists, journalists and human rights
defenders, have been arrested in Egypt over terrorist charges since June 25 for
their alleged implication in a plot against the State. FIDH, the World
Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights
Studies (CIHRS) denounce this new crackdown and call on the Egyptian
authorities to immediately end any act of harassment, including at the judicial
level, against all peaceful activists, in particular political opponents and
human rights defenders in Egypt.
Former member of Parliament and human rights lawyer Zyad al-Elaimy was arrested on June 25, 2019 by a
dozen of plainclothes national security agents after leaving a friend’s house
in Cairo’s Maadi district, around 2 a.m. Seven other political opposition
figures were arrested on the same night. In a statement, the Ministry of
Interior abusively accused Mr. Zyad al-Elaimy and the other detainees of
involvement in a plan financed through leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood -
which was banned and declared a terrorist organisation in Egypt in 2013 -
abroad “to carry out violent and disorderly acts against State institutions
simultaneously with creating a state of revolutionary momentum”.
“Mr. Zyad al-Elaimy was
involved in the creation of a movement bringing together political parties and
social movements on a pro human rights agenda”, said Neil Hicks, Senior
Director for Advocacy at CIHRS. The Egyptian authorities, relayed by the
official media, have renamed it the “Hope Plan”, and wrongly accused its
alleged supporters of terrorism and undermining State security.
The pre-trial detention of Mr. Zyad
al-Elaimy and the other detainees has been renewed by the State Security
Prosecution since then, pending investigation into State Security case No.
930/2019, in which the defendants face charges of “engaging with a terrorist
group to achieve its goals” and “spreading false news and statements”.
Mr. Zyad al-Elaimy was detained incommunicado for 14 days
following his arrest, and is now detained in Tora prison, where his conditions
of detention negatively impact on his health: while being asthmatic and suffering
from high blood pressure and a rare immunity disease, he is currently held in a
4.8m2 room with two other inmates, with only a small window in the cell,
attached to the ceiling.
“We strongly condemn the arbitrary arrest and judicial harassment of Mr.
Zyad al-Elaimy and other wrongfully detained activists, which seems to be only
aimed at sanctioning them for the legitimate exercise of their political
rights. We call on the Egyptian authorities to immediately release all the
detainees”, said Gerald
Staberock, OMCT Secretary General.
Moreover, our organisations were also informed about the arbitrary
arrest at the end of June/beginning of July of several human rights defenders
under State
Security case No. 930/2019: Mr. Hassan
Barbary, Executive Director of the Egyptian Labour Relations Forum, Mr. Ahmad
Taman, an ILO consultant and researcher at the Egyptian Labour Relations
Forum, and Mr. Alaa Essam, accountant of the same organisation. The
three are currently detained and under asset freeze. Ms. Fatma Ramadan,
a researcher in labour affairs and independent trade unionist, is also under
asset freeze.
“This new wave of arrest is
symptomatic of the wider trend of harassment and arbitrary detentions targeting
political activists and human rights defenders in Egypt, which materialized
over the past months with the re-arrest of Mr. Haytham Mohamadein, the arrest
and subsequent release of Ms. Malak al-Kashif, the ongoing enforced
disappearance of Mr. Ibrahim Ezz El-Din and the ongoing arbitrary detention of,
among others, Messrs. Mohamed Ramadan and Shadi al-Ghazali”,
concluded Alexandra Poméon, Head of the Observatory for the Protection of Human
Rights Defenders at FIDH.
Contacts: