Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)

The decision followed an appeal submitted by five human rights NGOs on 14 June against the head of the SCAF, the minister of justice, the minister of defense, the public prosecutor, the chief of military justice, and the military prosecutor, in their respective capacities.

IFEX-TMG alarmed by the recent attacks on freedom of expression, in particular against artistic expression, in the name of religion, including seizure of paintings.

Over 80 groups around the world call on the authorities to free human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers and writers, some of whom have been detained incommunicado; and request help from UN Special Envoy to Syria Kofi Annan.

The Ministry of Justice grants both commissioned and non-commissioned officers from military intelligence and the military police judicial powers of arrest in cases of crimes committed by civilians – over whom the military should have no legal jurisdiction.

Human rights defenders, activists, journalists, doctors and lawyers who attended Bahrain UPR events in Geneva in May with IFEX members and partners have been threatened for speaking out about violations.

Ahead of a court of appeal hearing on 28 May, IFEX-TMG urges judiciary to quash the seven-year prison terms handed down to Ghazi Ben Mohamed Beji and Jaber Ben Abdallah Majri for online publishing.

UPDATE: The president of IFEX member Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Nabeel Rajab, was re-arrested and sentenced to three years in prison on 16 August. Many other human rights defenders remain in prison, including BCHR’s founder Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, and his daughter, Zainab Al-Khawaja.

Nineteen rights organisations condemn the ongoing secret detention of Mazen Darwish and four of his colleagues from the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, after seven of their colleagues and one visitor began trial under the military penal code.