A surge in arbitrary arrests, detentions and harrowing
incidents of torture and deaths in police custody recorded by Amnesty
International provide strong evidence of the sharp deterioration in
human rights in Egypt in the year since President Mohamed Morsi was
ousted.
Thousands of people have been detained, with figures
varying. According to official estimates published by the Associated
Press in March, at least 16,000 people have been detained over the past
year as part of a sweeping crackdown against Mohamed Morsi’s supporters
and other groups and activists that have expressed dissent.
According
to WikiThawra, an initiative run by the Egyptian Center for Economic
and Social rights, at least 80 people died in custody over the past year
and more than 40,000 people were detained or indicted between July 2013
and mid-May 2014.
Reports of torture and enforced disappearances in police and military detention facilities are also widespread.
“Egypt’s
notorious state security forces –currently known as National Security-
are back and operating at full capacity, employing the same methods of
torture and other ill-treatment used during the darkest hours of the
Mubarak era,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of the Middle
East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.
“Despite
repeated promises by current and former presidents to respect the rule
of law, over the past year flagrant violations have continued at an
astonishing rate, with security forces effectively granted a free rein
to commit human rights violations with impunity.”
Torture and other ill-treatment
Amnesty
International has gathered damning evidence indicating that torture is
routine in police stations and unofficial places of detention, with
members of the Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters particularly
targeted. It is carried out by both the Egyptian military and police
including in premises belonging to the National Security Agency, in many
cases with the objective of obtaining confessions or to force detainees
to implicate others.
Among the methods of torture employed are
techniques previously used by state security during Mubarak’s rule.
These include the use of electric shocks, rape, handcuffing detainees
and suspending them from open doors. Another hanging method, known as
“the grill”, involves handcuffing the detainee’s hands and legs to an
iron rod and suspending the rod between two opposite chairs until the
detainee’s legs go numb. Security forces then start using electric
shocks on the person’s legs.
One of the most shocking cases
documented by Amnesty International was that of M.R.S , 23, a student
arrested in February 2014 near Nasr City in Cairo. He said he was held
for 47 days and was tortured and raped during his interrogation. He is
currently out of prison but the case is still pending.
“They cut
my shirt, blindfolded me with it and handcuffed me from behind…they beat
me with batons all over my body, particularly on the chest, back and
face…Then they put two wires in my left and right little fingers and
gave me electric shocks four or five times,” he said.
He also gave a horrifying account of how he was sexually assaulted and raped.
“The
national security officer caught my testicle and started to squeeze it…
I was screaming from the pain and bent my legs to protect my testicles
then he inserted his fingers in my anus… he was wearing something
plastic on his fingers… he repeated this five times,” he said.
He
also reported being beaten on the penis with a stick. He was then raped
repeatedly by one or more security guards before being forced to sing a
song in support of the Egyptian army “Teslam Al Ayadi”.
In another
case, Mahmoud Mohamed Ahmed Hussein, an 18-year-old student, was
arrested on his way home on the third anniversary of the 2011 uprising
in El Mareg, Cairo at noon. He believes he was singled out for wearing a
shirt bearing a logo of the “25 January Revolution” and a scarf with a
slogan of the “Nation without Torture” campaign. He was blindfolded and
forced into “confessing” to possessing explosives and belonging to the
Muslim Brotherhood after hours of being beaten, subjected to electric
shocks, including on the testicles, and being interrogated by national
security officers. Mahmoud Mohamed Ahmed Hussein remains in prison.
“Day
after day harrowing accounts of torture are emerging while the
authorities flat out deny any abuse and go as far as labelling Egyptian
prisons as hotels,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.
“If the Egyptian authorities wish to salvage any credibility, such horrendous practices must be stopped immediately.”
Deaths in police custody
At least 80 detainees have died in custody since 3 July 2013, according to WikiThawra.
“The
death at the hands of the police of Khaled Said in 2010, a young man
from Alexandria, was one of the driving forces behind Egypt’s uprising.
It is tragic that four years after his killing, deaths in police custody
in Egypt continue to occur on an alarming scale,” said Hassiba Hadj
Sahraoui.
Ahmed Ibrahim was among four people who have died in
Mattereya Police station since April 2014. He had been due for early
release after serving most of a three-year prison term. After Ahmed
Ibrahim’s transfer to Mattereya Police Station in preparation for his
release, he repeatedly complained about his poor detention conditions
and said he was having difficulty breathing due to poor ventilation in
his overcrowded police cell. He was denied medical care.
In a
phone call to his father at 1am on 15 June he pleaded for help saying:
“I am dying, father”. His father tried to call an ambulance but later
realised the request had to come from the police station in order for
them to gain access to the cell. By the time he made it to the police
station to ask about his son later on that morning, he was told he had
died. Upon examining his son’s body he found blue bruises on the upper
parts of his body and cuts on the neck suggesting he may have been
tortured. The report of an initial post-mortem medical examination seen
by Amnesty International stated there were blue bruises and cuts found
on the body. Forensic doctors told Amnesty International that the reason
for his death is still not clear.
Arbitrary arrest and detention
Amnesty
International has spoken to dozens of former detainees and the families
of detainees who were arbitrarily arrested and unlawfully held in
complete deprivation of their rights. In many cases people were rounded
up from the street or arrested after security forces entered their homes
by force. Many were beaten upon arrest, unlawfully held for extended
periods without charge, without being given the chance to challenge the
lawfulness of their detention before a court or a prosecutor or being
informed of the reason for their detention. Some have been held without
charge or trial for nearly a year.
One detainee interviewed by
Amnesty International said he had been detained for 96 days at Al Galaaa
military camp in Al-Azouly Prison after security forces burst into his
home to arrest him. He was not allowed to contact lawyers or families to
inform them about his whereabouts. He was arbitrarily held in
administrative detention for 11 years during Hosni Mubarak’s rule. He
told Amnesty International: “Mubarak’s security forces at least knew who
they were targeting but now they arrest people randomly.”
Hatem
Mohie Eldin, a 17-year-old student in Alexandria, was arrested by the
police randomly on 27 May in Alexandria as he returned home after
school. Security forces beat him and held him for five days in an
unknown location. He was not allowed to contact his family or lawyers
and was not referred to the prosecution or a court during his detention.
Hatem was released on 1 June after the security forces found he was not
involved in violence or riots, he told Amnesty International.
In
some cases, security forces seized family members or friends at random
if the wanted person was not present. The friends and families would
face trumped-up charges or accusations. The family of Salah and Adel,
two brothers told Amnesty International they were beaten and arrested in
August 2013 by security forces who were looking for the third brother
of the men.
Unfair trials
Egypt’s
criminal justice system has suffered huge setbacks over the past year
with several politically motivated verdicts being issued. A series of
mass death sentences after grossly unfair trials against detainees
accused of violence last August have exposed deep flaws in the criminal
justice system. In many cases defendants were not brought to their
trials and lawyers have repeatedly been barred from presenting their
defence, or questioning witnesses.
Courts sentenced boys under the
age of 18 to death in violation of Egypt’s obligations under domestic
and international law, most notably the Convention on the Rights of the
Child.
In other instances, defendants were sentenced to death
after only one hearing and without giving lawyers an opportunity to
present their defence or to examine witnesses.
According to
information gathered by Amnesty International, since January 2014
Egypt’s criminal justice system has recommended the death penalty for
1,247 men, pending the Grand Mufti’s religious opinion, and upheld death
sentences against 247 individuals. The decisions to sentence
individuals to death came after grossly unfair trials.
Defence
lawyers also told Amnesty International of instances where they were not
allowed to attend investigations by prosecutors and stated that
“confessions” extracted under torture had been used in judicial
proceedings.
“Egypt’s criminal justice system has demonstrated
that it is unable or unwilling to deliver justice with disastrous
consequences,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.
“On every level Egypt
is failing in terms of human rights, it is up to the new government led
by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to turn the tide by launching
independent, impartial investigations into all allegations of human
rights violations and send a strong message that flouting human rights
will not be tolerated and will no longer go unpunished.”
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November 20, 2012 
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At least 16,000 people have been detained and at least 80 died in custody in Egypt in the past year.
