Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !

Africa North

Rights group calls on Morsi to help 'lift siege' on Cairo court

2012-12-03

[Al Ahram] The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) has expressed deep concern after hundreds of supporters of President Morsi forced the High Constitutional Court to halt its work on Sunday. Protesters starting congregating late Saturday outside the court in the Cairo suburb of Maadi. They demanded the court delay its verdicts on the constitutionality of the Shura Council (upper house of parliament) and the Constituent Assembly, which were expected on Sunday. This show of force took place after President Morsi on Saturday accepted the draft constitution and announced it would be put to a referendum on 15 December. In response to the protest, the court said it would indefinitely halt all of its activities and postpone its sessions until a later date. Hafez Abou Seada, the head of the EOHR, an independent non-governmental organization, called on President Morsi to immediately intervene to "lift the siege" on the court. On 22 November, President Mohamed Morsi issued a controversial constitutional declaration making the two bodies immune from dissolution and protecting his decisions from judicial appeal. He mentioned, however, that the declaration was a temporary measure to purge the judiciary of remnants of the Mubarak regime. The government should "maintain the separation of powers in order to protect the rule of law," Abou Seada said. In a statement released Sunday, the EOHR said one of the principles of judicial independence was non-interference in the judiciary's work. The "disabling of the court [by the president's declaration] in this way is a crime against the rule of law," it added. The constitutionality of the Shura Council and the Constituent Assembly are being investigated by the HCC after Egypt's parliamentary elections law was ruled unconstitutional. The HCC had earlier ruled against the constitutionality of the lower house of parliament, leading to its dissolution.

Link

Home Front: WoT

US rejects appeal by human rights group for release of Blind Sheikh

2011-12-28

[Al Ahram] The US ambassador to Egypt has refused a request by an Egyptian human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... group for help in the repatriation on health grounds of Omar Abdel Rahman, 'the Blind Sheikh', to Egypt. Abdel Rahman, the spiritual leader of Egypt's Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya, has been held in US-based facilities for involvement in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing. In November 2011, the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) asked the Egyptian authorities and the US Embassy in Cairo to work with the US administration for the release of Abdel Rahman who they claimed was suffering from a multitude of health problems including diabetes, high blood pressure, stomach ailments, chronic headaches and an inflammation of the pancreas. However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... US Ambassador to Egypt, Anne Patterson, responded by saying that Abdel Rahamn is getting all the medical attention he needs. "The US Federal Prison System has gone to great lengths to provide Mr. Omar Abdel Rahman with the best possible medical care, specifically: Mr. Abdel Rahman's medical conditions are being managed appropriately and he is medically stable," Patterson said. "He is regularly evaluated by a team of healthcare professionals, including a physician, a physician assistant and a registered nurse." According to EOHR, in addition to his ailing health, the Sheikh is not allowed visitors and the last time he received a guest was in 1999 when his wife was allowed to see him. He is also permitted only two 15-minute phone calls per month, and was subjected to solitary confinement for 18 years. Salafists ...Salafists espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam that seeks a return to practices that were common in the 7th century. Rather than doing that themselves and letting other people alone they insist everybody do as they say and they try to kill everybody who doesn't... and supporters of Abdel Rahman began putting pressure for his release since April 2011 and held several protests in front of the US embassy. In August, his family and supporters began a sit-in in front of the US mission in downtown Cairo.

Link

Africa North

'Rigging', low turnout mars Egypt election

2010-11-29

[Pak Daily Times] Opposition charges of ballot stuffing, bullying and dirty tricks clouded a parliamentary election in Egypt on Sunday in which the ruling party wants to prevent its Islamist rivals from repeating their 2005 success. Some voters were turned away by officials saying there was no election or that polling booths had shut. Others reported finding ballot boxes stuffed to the brim minutes after voting began, rights groups and opposition campaigners said. The outlawed Mohammedan Brotherhood, whose candidates must run as independents, is contesting 30 percent of seats in the lower house where it won an unprecedented 20 percent in 2005. But even senior Islamists expect a lower total this time, with the government determined to squeeze its most vocal critics out of parliament before a presidential vote in 2011. "There's no voting going on, just rigging. It's a disgrace. May those who rig votes be crippled," said Hassan Sallam as he emerged from a polling booth at Raml, in the northern city of Alexandria. "There was no privacy. The ballot boxes were full." Abdel-Salam Mahgoub, the candidate for the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) in that constituency, denied any abuses. Brotherhood supporters chanted 'Void, void' as NDP supporters walked in to vote. The Brotherhood candidate, Subhi Saleh, accused his NDP rival of distributing 'outrageous' fake pamphlets in his own name that said falsely that he was quitting the election. Four people were killed and 30 maimed in pre-election violence, according to the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights. Fourteen people were killed in the 2005 poll when voting was staggered over about a month. Several casualties were reported in the Nile Delta on Sunday, including the overnight stabbing of the son of an independent candidate in Matariya. Police denied the killing was election-related. One voter died of a heart attack outside a polling station in Minufiya, a security source said. The brother of an independent candidate was shot and maimed in Mansoura. In Gharbiya, in the Nile Delta, Brotherhood campaigners said hired thugs had blocked them from monitoring the elections. When some voters threw stones and tried to push their way into a polling station, police expelled them, witnesses said. The government has promised a free and fair election. The result of Sunday's poll is not in doubt, only the size of the majority for geriatric President Hosni Mubarak's NDP, which has never lost an election. Many Egyptians see no point voting. The official turnout in the 2005 election was 22 percent. Rights groups put it at 12 percent. In Cairo, voting appeared very thin at a dozen polling stations around the capital, where only a handful of people were waiting to cast ballots, with a few coppers on guard duty. The government has rejected calls to allow international monitors. The two-round election in which 508 seats are at stake, with 10 more appointed by the president, may offer a foretaste of how the government conducts next year's presidential vote. Mubarak, in power since 1981, has not said if he will run again. Voting began at 8am and ended at 7 pm. The run-off will take place on Dec 5 for districts where no candidate won more than 50 percent in the first leg.

Link

Africa North

Opposition accuses Egypt regime of rigging election

2010-11-23

[Dawn] The opposition Mohammedan Brotherhood accused the government on Monday of rigging Egypt's parliamentary election by stopping its candidates from campaigning and arresting nearly 250 of its supporters. Senior Brotherhood official Mohammed Mursi told a presser that the "violence against opposition candidates, particularly those of the Brotherhood"showed the government was bent on "falsifying the will of Egyptians." Since the Brotherhood announced in early October that it would contest the election being held over two rounds, starting on Sunday, more than 1,200 of its supporters have been rounded up, of whom around 500 remain in jug, he said. The group, which registers its candidates as independents to skirt an Egyptian ban on religious parties, is fielding 130 for the 508 seats in parliament. Saad al-Katatni, who headed the Brotherhood bloc in the outgoing parliament in which it held a fifth of the seats, said: "What is going on with these elections is beyond imagination. "What is underway is the effective rigging of the elections," he said, adding that he was surrounded by security agents everywhere he went in his campaign for re-election. Earlier on Monday, Egyptian civil society groups threatened to boycott the poll because of obstacles to their observation mission. Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights chief Hafez Abu Seada said poll observers were being required to seek authorisation from the heads of individual polling stations on top of clearance from the electoral commission. He urged geriatric President Hosni Mubarak to intervene immediately in keeping with his pledge of free elections to allow NGOs to do their work unhindered. Abu Seada said four people had already been killed in campaign-related violence, without giving details, and warned that the situation was likely to deteriorate.

Link

Africa North

Egyptians vote, opposition says supporters blocked

2010-06-02

CAIRO - Many Egyptians were blocked by security forces and ruling party backers from voting in an election on Tuesday, particularly where the opposition Muslim Brotherhood was running, rights groups and the opposition said. The vote for 88 of the 264 seats in the upper house, or Shura Council, is regarded as a litmus test for how much space the authorities will give opposition voices in a parliament vote this year and presidential election in 2011. The official election body said voting for the council, dominated by President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party, was smooth and complaints were being dealt with swiftly. “They are preventing voters from going in to cast their vote, and only those backing the National Democratic Party have access,' said Mohamed Ibrahim, a Brotherhood backer in Helwan near Cairo, where the Brotherhood's Ali Fath el Bab was running. A Reuters witness in Helwan saw about six uniformed police stopping voters, who said they backed the Brotherhood, from entering a polling station. An election official said the incident had been reported and voters were let in later. “They have forged it once again,' chanted a gathering of about Brotherhood supporters nearby. Plainclothes agents chased some Brotherhood and others away from the polling station. The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, citing its monitors, said voters were barred from entering polling stations in districts of Giza, Sohag, Daqhiliya and Helwan even though their names were listed on the election roll. Maat For Peace, Development and Human Rights said opposition supporters in Sixth of October, Minya and Cairo were barred. Some were stopped by police and others by ruling party backers. Similar complaints were raised in previous elections, including the 2005 vote for the lower house when the officially banned Brotherhood won an unprecedented fifth of the seats. The Brotherhood, which is fielding 13 candidates running as independents to skirt the ban, has no seats in the Shura Council. This was the first Shura vote overseen by the Supreme Electoral Committee, which is appointed by the president. Previously judges oversaw voting and some judges have said their absence from polling stations would allow more abuses.

Link

Africa North

Egyptian Rights Group Fears For Safety Of Female Preacher

2006-11-10

(AKI) - An Egyptian rights group has expressed concern about the safey of Soad Saleh, a leading female Islamic cleric who has received death threats after her comments on the use of the veil. The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights said it was "extremely worried at the violent campaign against professor Saleh, the woman who had declared the niqab (the eyes-only veil) not obligatory according to Islamic doctrine." In a statement it said it was unacceptable that Saleh's thoughts be labelled 'heretical'. The group went on to warn about the increase in Egypt "of extremist attitudes towards the so-called anti-Islam intellectuals, repeatedly targeted with death threats". The group went on to warn about the increase in Egypt "of extremist attitudes towards the so-called anti-Islam intellectuals, repeatedly targeted with death threats". Saleh, a teacher of Islamic Law and the former head of female religious studies at the eminent al-Azhar theological university in Cairo, said in a recent television programme that she was "disgusted" by women wearing the niqab. Her comments inflamed fundamentalists who swore to take revenge on her. Her comments inflamed fundamentalists who swore to take revenge on her. The niqab, the veil covering all of a women's face except her eyes, is according to some a fulfilment of 'Ihtisham' (invitation to female modesty) and according to others an expression of religious extremism. The general debate on the niqab, which started recently in western countries and in some Arab nations, has been emphasized in Egypt by the controversial decision to ban 'munaqabas' (women wearing the niqab) from entering female dormitories for security reasons. The general debate on the niqab, which started recently in western countries and in some Arab nations, has been emphasized in Egypt by the controversial decision to ban 'munaqabas' (women wearing the niqab) from entering female dormitories for security reasons, at Helwan University. The most authoritative al-Azhar theologian Shaiek Tantawi himself took a stance in defence of the Helwan decision, arguing that "as long as female students are prevented from wearing niqab and not hijab (the veil covering only the hair), there is no breach of Islamic teachings".

Link

Africa: North

Egypt: Release of detainees urged

2005-05-17

An Egyptian human rights group on Monday demanded the immediate release of about 500 people detained following demonstrations held by a banned, but tolerated Islamic group. The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) also called for an investigation into police violence that resulted in the death of one protester. EOHR's 35-page report listed the names of 498 Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters it said were detained after peacefully demonstrations in 10 Egyptian provinces in the first week of May. It said over 1800 demonstrators were detained. The report, "Muslim Brotherhood: Suspects Without a Crime," said the Interior Ministry should issue clear orders to security forces not to use violence to disperse protests. It cited the use of electric sticks, rubber-coated and live bullets, and said violators should stand trial.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

Rights report cites US, Egypt on torture

2005-05-11

The United States and other countries have secretly sent scores of Islamist detainees to Egypt since the mid-1990s, where they have likely been tortured, a human rights group has said. I feel so sad for them... Human Rights Watch issued a 53-page report criticising Egypt as the world's main recipient of detainees, including suspected Islamist militants believed to offer useful intelligence for the US war on terrorism. The report, titled Black Hole: The Fate of Islamists Rendered to Egypt, identifies 61 individuals who have been transferred into Egyptian custody since 1994. Nearly all are Egyptians suspected of Islamist militancy. That pretty well does away with any sympathy I might have felt... Two others were Yemenis transferred from Egypt, one to Yemen and another to US custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Because such transfers usually occur in secret and without legal safeguards such as extradition hearings, Human Rights Watch said the number of people sent to Egypt is likely to be much higher. Lawsy, I hope so! The report cites estimates by Egyptian analysts, lawyers and Islamist activists who believe 150 to 200 detainees have been transferred since the September 11, 2001, attacks. "Egypt ... has been the country to which the greatest numbers of rendered suspects have been sent," the report says. I guess we're getting something for our money, then... Most of the countries transferring detainees to Egypt are Arab or South Asian, but the list also includes Sweden and the United States. The report said Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen have shown a greater willingness to transfer suspects to other countries since September 11. "The person sent back to Egypt under these circumstances is almost surely going to be tortured," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director for Human Rights Watch. At least 292 torture cases occurred in Egypt between January 1993 and April 2004, said the report, citing statistics from the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights. In 120 cases, the suspect or prisoner died. Mr Stork said torture and other forms of mistreatment are so prevalent in Egypt that the United States and other countries violate the international convention against torture each time they sent a terrorism suspect to the country.

Link

Down Under

Watchdog backs Egypt torture claims

2005-04-10

The Egyptian Supreme Council for Human Rights (ESCHR), a state-backed organisation set up last year, gave credence in its first annual report to widespread allegations of torture by Egyptian police and security forces. Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib claims officials, including Australian representatives, watched him being tortured in Pakistan and Egypt. Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says no Australian officials reported seeing any abuse but he admits he cannot vouch for what happened when they were not looking. Mr Habib, who was born in Egypt, was arrested in Pakistan in October 2001 and then transferred to a jail in Egypt before being held in Afghanistan. It is not known if the ESCHR addressed Mr Habib's claims. The ESCHR called for an end to the state of emergency, which has been in force since 1981, saying it provided a loophole by which the authorities prevent some Egyptians enjoying their right to personal security. The report, obtained by Reuters on Sunday, was tougher than expected for a council set up and financed by the government. But the human rights activists on the council have argued that anything less would damage the council's credibility. The council was not able to carry out investigations of its own but by repeating allegations made by citizens in an official forum it implied it found many of them credible. Some parts of the report allege torture in general, without citing sources. The 358-page report describes in detail the deaths in detention of nine Egyptians during the year and calls them "regrettable violations of the right to life". It also corroborated reports the authorities detained large numbers of people in north Sinai, and tortured many of them, after bombings in Sinai resorts last October. Human rights groups say some 2,500 people were arrested and that more than 2,000 of them remain in detention without charge. The council is chaired by Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former United Nations secretary-general and a former Egyptian deputy prime minister. Hafez Abu Seada, secretary-general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) and a member of the council, said members close to the Government had objected to the language in the report but eventually yielded. "We tried to write a report that is a real reflection of the human rights situation in Egypt," he told Reuters. The report says that up to thousands of members of Islamist groups have been in jail since the 1990s, even after they complete their sentences. It added some detained without charge are not released after the maximum period of detention.

Link

Africa: North

Egyptians eye Palestinian poll system

2005-01-11

Egyptian reformers have demanded that, like Palestinians, they too should have a chance to choose their leader from a host of candidates. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has won four presidential terms in referendums where he is the only candidate, earlier congratulated new Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, who beat six other candidates. "The Palestinian people chose their president ... I think the Egyptian people are not naive, and are capable of choosing from among many candidates," said Hussain Abd al-Raziq, spokesman for the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR). He was speaking at a news conference called to announce that EOHR would work with six other human rights organisations and four opposition parties in a campaign to change the country's three-decade-old constitution.

Link

Africa: North

Scrap emergency law, rights body tells Mubarak

2004-12-15

CAIRO — The Egyptian government's human rights body has recommended to President Hosni Mubarak that he scrap emergency laws that have limited civil rights here for more than two decades, one of the council's members said yesterday. Hafez Abu Saada, council member and director of the independent Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, said in an interview that after lengthy study and discussion, members of the National Council for Human Rights were able to agree that the emergency laws be ended. "This was one of the main recommendations sent to the president" in early December, Abu Saada said. The council has not made its recommendations to Mubarak public, but was to issue a report on its activities in its first year in February. The government has long argued that it needs emergency laws to fight terrorism. The laws have been widely condemned by local and international human rights groups, including Abu Saada's organisation. In an indication of the sensitivities surrounding the issue, the council's spokesman and deputy head had said earlier yesterday that members agreed that the emergency laws should be ended, but had refused to say whether such a recommendation had been made to Mubarak. "The council believes that, taking dangers into account, we want to end the state of emergency," spokesman Ahmed Kamal Abou El-Magd told reporters. Abou El Magd was quick to add that his National Council for Human Rights was only an advisory body with no power to enforce its opinions.  "Please don't kill me!"

Link

Africa: North

Egypt detaining 3,000 over Red Sea resort bombings

2004-12-01

Either they're rooting out the entire Islamist infrastructure, or they've just rounded up a mob... The Egyptian authorities have detained as many as 3,000 people after the bomb attacks in October that targeted Israeli holidaymakers at Red Sea resorts, according to local and international human rights groups. Security operations have centred on the North Sinai town of El Arish, home to a Palestinian man claimed by the authorities to have plotted and carried out the bombings, along with eight Egyptians. Sounds like they've arrested the entire population, to include suckling babes... Egyptian human rights activists and lawyers say detainees are being held in jails across the Sinai without access to lawyers or family members. In some cases they have been tortured, according to a statement by Amnesty International released this week. Damn. They didn't round up the Amnesia International guyz. Too bad... The large number of arrests raises questions about the official Egyptian version of events, which pinned responsibility for the attacks on a small group of mostly criminal and Bedouin elements from the Sinai region. Egypt's interior ministry said at the end of October that the group was stirred up by Israeli incursions into the occupied Palestinian territories and suggested they had acted independently of any wider terrorist network. Which of course don't exist in Egypt. Security officials have not responded to reports about further mass detentions, although the governor of North Sinai said they were part of continuing investigations. The mainly Bedouin inhabitants of the Sinai have no previous record of association with Islamic extremism, according to Diaa Rashwan, an expert at the Al Ahram Centre for Strategic and Political studies. Detainees include women and children held in an attempt to force a relative to turn himself in and others picked up randomly from outside mosques and on the streets, said Hafez Abu Saadeh, director of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More