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The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights Annual report 1999-2000 |
eohr@eohr.org info@eohr.org
eohr@link.com.eg
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Introduction
Section One Section Two : Section Three Section Four |
The Human Rights Situation in Egypt Violations of Human Rights 2000-2001 First-The Right to Life Grave violations of the right to life continued during 1999 and 2000 in a breach to local laws and international human rights agreements ratified by the Egyptian government. The EOHR did not witness any improvement with regard to deaths resulting from torture inside prisons and detention centers. In this regard, the EOHR documented the death of 37 persons. Moreover, Excessive use of firearms by the police to desperse demonstrations and peaceful gatherings led to the death of nine persons. The year 2000 also witnessed the death of 21 persons during the bloody events of Al Kosheh village in the governerate of Sohag. Thus, the total death numbers due to the aforementioned phenomena in 1999 and 2000 reached 67 human lives. This is a grave violation of the right to life. This part of the annual report includes a detailed presentation of the violations of the right to life based on the information gathered and documented by the EOHR. 1- Deaths resulting from torture in prisons and other places of detention : The EOHR documented 37 deaths inside prisons and other detention centers during 1999 and 2000. Field investigation carried out by the EOHR raises strong suspicion that at least 22 of those deaths resulted from severe torture. The EOHR also received complaints regarding the death of 15 political detainees who were deliberately deprived of medical care in their prisons. On 23 September 1999, at 6:30 a.m, 24-year-old Fareed Shawqi Ahmed Abdel 'Al (an embroidery worker) was arrested at his house by a police force from Al Raml police station led by officer Ashraf Foad. A few minutes later, Abdel 'Al was handed to officer Khaled Shalaby of Al Montaza police station. Abdel 'Al's father was then summoned to Al Montaza police station where he was informed that his son "committed suicide". The body was then burried under tight control and heavy presence of police forces. On 28 September, the family filed a memo at the public prosecutor's office accusing officers of Al Montaza police station of torturing their son to death. The family requested the digging out and autopsy of the body to discover the real cause of the death. The public prosecutor accepted the request. A delegation from the EOHR listened to the testimonies of the father of the deceased and others who witnessed the arrest. The EOHR then filed the memo 889 of 20 October 1999 calling on officials to investigate the death of Abdel 'Al. The case was then referred to Alexandria Criminal Court and the officers face the charge of murdering the deceased by the use of cruelty and torture. The verdict was yet to come out during the compilation of this report. On 9 May 2000, at 3:00 am, 29-year-old Khaled Salem Mohamed (a street vendor) was arrested by a force from Qwesna police station after he had a fight with a driver from a neighboring village. Mohamed was questioned by the public prosecution on the charge of attempt murder in the case 273/2000 and was ordered on 11 May to remain in custody for four days. On 14 May, Mohamed was brought before the prosecutor carried in a blanket by four soldiers and unable to walk or stand. The prosecutor renewed his detention for seven days and refered him to the hospital where he died on 18 May 2000. Both Mohamed's family and the EOHR filed many requests to officials to investigate his death until the prosecutor ordered an investigation to be carried out. I found signs of beating on his arms and around his nick and chest. I think they were signs of electroshocks. The signs on his shoulders and ankles showed that he was tied up." The Hadayek Prosecutor then arrived and summoned the health inspector who discovered signs of bleeding in Mohammed's nose, ears and mouth. The prosecutor questioned officer Mahmoud Farrag and chief soldier Hamdi who both said that Mohamed came to the police station sick and complaining about his heart. The health inspector decided the death was due to a sharp fail in the blood and respiratory circles. The injuries were documented by the prosecutor in the statement 339/2001. The body was then transferred to Zeinhum Autopsy Room where blood samples were taken and the cause of death was documented. A police car was present at the funeral. The family filed many requests to officials accusing officers of the Investigation at the Hadayeq police station of torturing their son to death. The EOHR filed the memo 31 of 24 January 2001 calling for an investigation of the death. On 27 March, 2001, at around 7:30 am, 19-year-old Moss'ad Ahmed Al Sayed Abu Seif who worked in an autogallery was having breakfast with his mother and friends when officer Abdel Nasser Zeidan of the intelligence force at Shubra (2) police station and his assistances broke into the house and the officer shot Abu Seif three times hitting him between his eyebrows, in his left eye and in his chest respectively. Moss'ad's mother told the delegation of the EOHR : "Before he left, the officer looked at me and said 'I told you I'll kill him and I did. I took [the body] and show me what you can do,.......'. I lost consciousness and the next time I saw my son was when the police was burying his body." The family reported on officer Abdel Nasser Zeidan accusing him of premeditated murder of their son. The EOHR's delegation listened to the testimony of eyewitnesses and addressed officials to investigate the murder. On 13 November 1999, 20-year-old Sherif Abdel Gelil (a peasant) was arrested along with his brother Ahmed after a fight. They were told they would be released on the same day. According to Ahmed's testimony, at around midnight the next day after the arrest, an officer called Walid ordered Sherif to take off his clothes and then took him to another room where his brother Ahmed could hear him scream for half an hour. Ahmed was then informed that his brother escaped from the police stations' window. Three days after Ahmed was released, an agent from the police station visited the family at night and told them Sherif was at the Galal Specialized Hospital in Zakazek. The family went to visit him on 20 November but he was in a coma and his room was guarded by the police. One of the nurses told the family that Sherif came with two agents from the police station who claimed they found him in the street. He was then transferred to the University Hospital where he died on 30 November. Signs of electroshocks where found on Sherif's palms, feet and the back of his head. The family filed a memo at the Menya Al Qameh prosecutor's office calling for an investigation. On 21 April 1999, the police arrested 22-year old Hani Kamal (A student in the Faculty of commerce at the University of Menoufeya) and his colleague Amr Mohamed Ahmed and took them to the Azbekeya police station on charges of robbery. According to Amr, they were split up inside the police station. Amr remained in his underwear with his hands tied to a window for several hours. After that, he was taken blindfold to the intelligence officer's room where he was forced to sit on the floor and one police inspector stood on each of Amr's legs while pressing his head to the floor. Amr was then tortured by electroshocks in his right arm and soldiers threatened to electroshock his penis. When Hani's turn came, Amr says he could hear him scream for 15 minutes and then he was silent. Amr was later surprised at the officers' change of treatment. He found the officers who tortured him offering him food and cigarettes. The next thing he knew was being summoned by the prosecutor to testify on the death of his colleague Hani. On 27 July, 1999, The EOHR filed a memo requesting the investigation of Hani's death. The Azbekeya prosecutor's office ordered an investigation in the case 6452/1999 to be carried out. On 27 February, 2000, around 3:00 a.m, 25-year-old Saeed Qenawi Seleem (a carpenter) was arrested for being a suspect in a robbery crime. Police confiscated a television set and a VCR from his house and he remained in custody at Imbaba police station for 11 days without being interrogated by any authority. On 8 March, 2000 the family was summoned by the police station to visit their son who was allegedly sick and kept in hospital. When the family went to the hospital they were directed to the Zenhum Autopsy Room where they found Saeed. Family members reported that there were injuries in different parts of the body, which was later buried by the police. The EOHR filed the memo 176 on 22 March, 2000 requesting an investigation of the death. On 9 February, 2000, the family of 46-year-old Sami Hassan Ahmed (a barber) learned about his detention at Boulaq Aboul Ella police station after he was arrested by officer Nadi Al Baroudi. When the family went to visit him at the police station they were told that he was there but "too tired" too meet with them. After they left they learned that he was dead. When they went to the Boulaq Public Hospital they were told that the body was moved to the Zeinhum Autopsy Room. Sami was buried on 10 February at his own town of Bagour, Menoufeya. The Public Prosecutor received the memo 2335 from the deceased brother and wife suspecting that he was murdered. The case's reference is 502/2000. The EOHR sent a fact-finding delegation whose members were also present at the prosecutor's interrogation. The EOHR also filed the memo 127 on 24 February requesting an investigation of the death. On 27 February, 2000, 26-year-old Ahmed Hassan Abu Zeid (a worker) was arrested and detained at the Shubra Al Kheima (2) police station as a suspect. On 2 March, a force from the same police station led by an officer named Abdel Nasser broke into Abu Zeid's house and took his mother and brother to the police station where they were informed after three hours of detention that Ahmed died. When Ahmed's brother inquired about the cause of the death, he was physically assaulted by the police officer. A member of the family who saw the body of the deceased at the Nasser Public Hospital reported that there were black signs of beating on the shoulders, back and ankles, in addition to a cut in the lips. After autopsy, the body was buried on 2 March under heavy presence of security forces. The family filed complaints to the Interior Minister and the Public prosecutor calling on them to investigate the death. The EOHR filed report 152 on 6 March, 2000 with the same request. On 12 August, 1999, 34-year-old Abdel Hamid Ramadan Abdel Hamid (A worker) was arrested on a charge of drug dealing. He was detained until a court ruling came out in his favor from the Banha Misdemeanor Court on 1 March 2000. However, he remained in illegal custody until 9 March when he started serving a suspended one-month imprisonment verdict that was issued against him in 1991. Inmates in custody report that he was summoned to the Qalyoubeya Security Department on 10 March. He came back at 2 p.m on the same day and was taken to the Investigation unit upstairs where he remained until 10 .p.m. When he went back to his cell he was in a bad health condition with white foam coming out of his mouth. He died on 11 March before he received medical treatment of any kind. The doctor who inspected the body stated that the cause of death was due to the deceased's having had his ribs broken and from heart failure. The doctor added that he found abrasions in the kidneys and a blood clot in the brain. This testimony is stated in report 735/2000 at Qalyoub police station. 2- Deaths resulting from the unwarranted use of firearms by the police: On 27 August 1999, Lieutenant Ahmed Abdel Ma'boud Arafa, Head of the Talrak Police checkpoint headed a mission on the Sufeya Road. Accompanied by the head of the intelligence force of the district of Awlad Saqr, he detained several people who happened to use the road. He also broke into a wedding held at the village and detained the bridegroom and some of the guests and took them to the checkpoint. The villagers gathered in front of the police checkpoint and calling for the release of the detainees. Suddenly, officer Abdel Ma'boud came out of point and shot the gathering with the rifle of one of the soldiers, injuring Nadia Abdel Baqi in her right eye. the officer also led a campaign of arbitrary detention in the village arresting 14 people who were later charged of holding an illegal gathering and using force against the authorities. On 22 December,1999, An argument took place between officer Nagui Abul Ma'aty of the Tanta traffic police and a driver called Farouq Kamel. When some passer-bys tried to help the driver escape and to snatch the officer's gun, the officer fired his gun haphazardly killing Gamal Sha'ban Abdel Salam and wounding others. The infuriated people set the police car on fire and blocked the traffic, attacking cars and buses that existed in the scene. this led to the arbitrary detention of 14 people. On 11 March, 2000, a number of people gathered at 7:30 a.m to protest state negligence of the highway-neighboring village's need of a pedestrian bridge. The riot was triggered by an accident in which two students were killed and two others were injured after they were hit by a bus. The riots led to clashes between the police forces and demonstrators, who smashed a train and a bus that existed at the scene and threw stones at the police forces. The police responded by using tear gas and bullets to disperse the gathering. A large number of people were arrested and 17 of them were later accused of holding an illegal gathering and of vandalizing public property. During parliamentary elections of 2000, several bloody events took place leading to the death of five persons, including a child. Two people died in violent clashes in the district of Shubra Al Kheima, Greater Cairo. A 5-year-old female child choked to death after the police fired tear gas at demonstrators who were prevented from casting their vote. Moreover, Teacher Gamal Abdel Al Youssef was shot dead during clashes between police forces and voters in Ashmoun, Menoufeya. Similarly, 16-year-old Hani Nu'man Al Syousi was shot dead in Damietta. Events of Al Kosheh 2000: In the village of Al Kosheh, Sohag, with a Coptic majority of 70%, a routine argument took place on 31 December 1999 between a Muslim woman and a Coptic vendor in the big market that divides the Muslim-inhibited South and the Coptic-inhibited North. The argument led to violent clashes among the interference of a large number of armed villagers from both faiths - these clashes led to the death of 21 people. The delegation of the EOHR ,which remained in the scene until the violence settled down, documented all the casualties that resulted from the clashes as well as the testimonies of eyewitnesses in addition to other documents. The findings of the EOHR delegation state that the events resulted from the following: The state's negligence of its responsibility to solve the problem of kiosks and shops in the aforementioned market. This problem was the main trigger of the clashes and came to the surface upon the first chance. The absence of any effort by the state institutions to improve the infrastructure of the village, provide better conditions of life for its inhabitants, or strengthen peaceful coexistence between them. The negative feelings left among villagers, both Moslems and Copts, from the events that took place in Al Kosheh in 1998 and the police mismanagement of those events. |
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