(EOHR/IFEX) – The following is a 23 May 2001 EOHR press release: Cairo, 23 May 2001 Press statement The prison sentence against Saad Eddin Ibrahim and his colleagues is a threat to civil society institutions of Egypt. The undersigned rights organizations have received with grave alarm news of the sudden ruling of the state security […]
(EOHR/IFEX) – The following is a 23 May 2001 EOHR press release:
Cairo, 23 May 2001
Press statement
The prison sentence against Saad Eddin Ibrahim and his colleagues is a threat to civil society institutions of Egypt.
The undersigned rights organizations have received with grave alarm news of the sudden ruling of the state security court in the case of Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim and his colleagues. Professor Ibrahim has been sentenced to 7 years hard labor while his 27 colleagues have received rulings ranging between 1 to 5 year prison terms, nine of which were suspended sentences. They were transferred immediately from court to Istiqbal Tura prison and Al Qanater women’s prison to implement the ruling.
The undersigned organizations express their shock and deep disturbance towards this ruling as they believe that the charges upon which Dr. Ibrahim and his colleagues were penalized are based on faulty and exceptional legal articles and the fact that the charges are based on the military decree No. 4, 1992, which was issued based on the powers granted to the military governor under Emergency Law No. 162, 1958. In addition, the prosecution bureau that has conducted the investigation in the case, the State Security Prosecutor, is an exceptional prosecution body that derives its mandate from the state of emergency and has wide jurisdiction, represented in combining between the power of prosecution and investigation, which is part of the competence of the state security court. This is an exception to the code of criminal procedure that safeguards the rights and civil liberties of citizens.
The trial of Dr. Ibrahim was paralleled with an unprecedented smear campaign that has targeted a character assassination of the prominent civil libertarian, a matter that may have had negative effects on the process of his trial. At the same time, the prosecutors have interrogated the author of a book defending Dr. Ibrahim but did not take any measures against the accusations of treason and espionage that were made against Dr. Ibrahim on Egyptian television.
The undersigned organizations believe that the arrest and trial of Dr. Ibrahim and his colleagues is a continuation of the state’s hostile policies against civil society institutions in Egypt, aiming at the silencing of all institutions that try to participate effectively in public issues. From our experience we have strong suspicions that the state is practicing the intimidation of civil society institutes to wear their energy in side issues in order to stop their work in the defense of human rights, the development of democracy and participation in economic, social and political development.
The undersigned organizations see the ruling against Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim and his colleagues as coming within a general regression in civil liberties represented in the refusal to revoke incarcerating penalties in crimes of expression, which has led to a number of prison terms against journalists. It also has led to the freezing of the Labor party and its newspaper, Al Shaab; to the government’s disrespect for court rulings ordering the return of the newspaper to the party; to the government’s disrespect for court rulings regarding the recent parliamentary elections, whose implementation would invalidate the parliamentary membership of a large number of the ruling party’s parliamentarians; and finally, to the government’s insistence on refusing the registration of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights.
The undersigned organizations express their deep concern and demand of the Egyptian authorities the following:
1. To stop the implementation of the ruling against Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim until an appeal is filed to the cassation court, as was done in the case of Mostafa Bakri, the editor in chief of the Al Osboa newspaper, and his brother Mahmoud, especially as Dr. Ibrahim has been suffering from a clear deterioration in his health condition recently;
2. To revoke the military decree No. 4, 1992, bearing in mind that the Prime Minister had declared in parliament during the previous parliamentary session the cancellation of the military decrees and that the speaker of parliament had declared at the time the unconstitutionality of those military decrees as is registered in the minutes of parliament;
3. The Egyptian government has to reiterate its adherence to international instruments, foremost of which is the international covenant on civil and political rights, by amending the legislation that contradicts these instruments and covenants;
4. The cancellation of all forms of exceptional courts (military – state security emergency – state security), as these courts are a violation of article 5 of the Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary, issued in November 1985;
5. The immediate cancellation of the Emergency Law.
The undersigned organizations strongly state that these undemocratic practices on the part of the authorities will only lead to the frustration of the activist groups of society and the deprivation of civil society from its institutions and that these trials against civil society activists do grave harm to the standing of the country internationally. They therefore demand that the Egyptian authorities stop this unjustified campaign against rights activists and show respect to democracy and human rights in order to avoid a schism between the state’s discourse in international forums and its practices inside the country.
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
The Hisham Mubarak Law Center
The Human Rights Center for the Assistance of Prisoners
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary
AlNadim Center for the Management and Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence
For further information, contact EOHR, 8/10 Mathafe Elmanial, Manial Elroda, 10th floor, Cairo, Egypt, tel: +20 2 363 6811/362 0467, fax: +20 2 362 1613, e-mail: eohr@l
