(HRinfo/IFEX) – HRinfo has welcomed the release of accused activists in state security case no. 415/2006. However, HRinfo was disappointed because the detention of both Mohamed Al-Sharkawi and Karim Al-Shaer was renewed for 15 more days. The court session to consider the extension of Al-Sharkawi’s and Al-Shaer’s detentions was marked by a quarrel between the […]
(HRinfo/IFEX) – HRinfo has welcomed the release of accused activists in state security case no. 415/2006. However, HRinfo was disappointed because the detention of both Mohamed Al-Sharkawi and Karim Al-Shaer was renewed for 15 more days.
The court session to consider the extension of Al-Sharkawi’s and Al-Shaer’s detentions was marked by a quarrel between the defence lawyers and the prosecutor, who expressed his intention to treat the reported torture of Al-Sharqawy as a misdemeanour rather than a crime, overlooking the International Convention against Torture which became an internal law when Egypt became a signatory to it 20 years ago, and not to question the Qasr El-Nil police station commissioner.
“Al-Sharkawi’s case will likely become a key example in discussions about the independence and impartiality of public prosecutors in Egypt. It is full of excessively gross violations and blatant bias. We’ve demanded, more than once, that the Qasr El-Nil police station commissioner be questioned, that Al-Sharkawi be provided with the necessary urgent medical care, that a magistrate be appointed to investigate his case, and that the Egyptian Penal Code and the Convention against Torture be adhered to. After a month, the public prosecutor is still turning a deaf ear to our demands. Legally, we are not allowed to claim that the prosecution is corrupt, yet we wonder about the body that is entitled hold the prosecution accountable,” HRinfo Executive Director Gamal Eid said.
Al-Sharkawi’s defence asked the Public Prosecutor to conduct an investigation into Al-Sharkawi’s allegations that the Ministry of the Interior has falsified the prosecution’s decision, by changing the name of the hospital to which Al-Sharqawy was supposed to be admitted from Al-Manial University Hospital to the prison hospital. As well, there is doubt that the Public Prosecutor issued the decision in the first place.
“From the beginning, it was clear that there is an enmity between the defence lawyers and the prosecution. Releasing prisoners of opinion was an attempt to calm national and the international public opinion; it came as a result of efforts to put the spotlight on violations against freedom of expression in Egypt, although the violations are still being committed,” Eid said. “Al-Sharkawi was detained upon false allegations by the Ministry of the Interior; torturing him is a crime that has not been investigated up till now,” Eid added.
HRinfo believes that the violations committed against Al-Sharkawi are in response to his persistence in questioning the judges’ demands, as well as his keenness to blow the whistle about his detention conditions in his messages to his lawyers and friends.
Although the prison administration banned some of Al-Sharkawi’s letters to his lawyers and his mother, he managed to send a letter that was published on HRinfo website.
