(EOHR/IFEX) – The following is a 3 November 2004 EOHR press release: EOHR condemns attack on Abdel Halim Qandeel, editor of al Araby newspaper The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) is deeply concerned by reports of the kidnapping of journalist Abdel Halim Qandeel, editor of the Nasserite weekly al Araby, from in front of […]
(EOHR/IFEX) – The following is a 3 November 2004 EOHR press release:
EOHR condemns attack on Abdel Halim Qandeel, editor of al Araby newspaper
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) is deeply concerned by reports of the kidnapping of journalist Abdel Halim Qandeel, editor of the Nasserite weekly al Araby, from in front of his house in the Pyramids area. It calls for an immediate enquiry into these events.
On his way home at dawn yesterday (2/11/2004) a speeding car stopped in front of him and its passengers, four men wearing civilian clothes, forced him to get into the car. They blindfolded, punched and kicked him and threatened him with knives. They threatened to kill him “so that [he will] stop talking” and left him naked in a remote area in Muqattem, Cairo. Qandeel is a well known critic of the ruling regime.
This forms part of a series of attacks and death threats directed against journalists. In August 1995, the writer and journalist Gamal Badawy, the then editor of al Wafd, was subject to a frenzied assault by ten men of an unknown identity, while in June of the same year journalist Mohamed Abdel Qadouss was similarly assaulted after the two men announced their opposition to Law 93 [1995]. Attempts to intimate opposition journalists date back to 1988; the late Moustafa Shordy, al Wafd journalist Ayman Nour and Abdel Azeem Manaf, the then editor of Sowt al Arab, all falling victim to such attacks.
EOHR strongly condemns the assault on Qandeel and other journalists as constituting a violation of the right to life, liberty, security of persons and physical well-being, as protected by international instruments and the Egyptian constitution. Article 280 of the Egyptian Penal Code explicitly forbids arrest and detention without a warrant from the competent authority, while Article 40 of the Criminal Procedures Code provides:
No one may be arrested or detained except with a warrant from the authorities legally empowered in this matter. He must be treated in a manner which respects his human dignity and must not be harmed physically or psychologically.
EOHR calls on the Interior Minister to launch an immediate investigation into the circumstances surrounding this assault and into the identity of its perpetrators before bringing them to justice. The results of this investigation must be made public and measures taken to protect the life and well-being of Abdel Halim Qandeel, who must be given a medical examination in order to ascertain the extent of his injuries. Real movement on the part of the authorities is enough to put an end to these practices used to contain opposition journalists.
