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Arish…random arrests, detention and torture:
Stop the tragedy
23/11/2004
Continuous torture
These are the most important testimonies of the families of detained individuals. However it was imperative that the mission speak to someone who had been arrested and subsequently released in order to find out what was happening inside the Arish state security office - particularly since rumours of torture were circulating amongst Arish residents. Many witnesses testified to hearing screams coming from the office.
The family of Ahmed Hamdan Abdallah Abu Sheeta
The following ten members of the Abu Sheeta family were arrested:
1. Ahmed Hamdan Abdallah Abu Sheeta
2. Hany Abdallah Hamdan Abu Sheeta
3. Fayez Abdallah Hamdan Abu Sheeta
4. Ahmed Abdallah Hamdan Abu Sheeta
5. Hossam Abdallah Hamdan Abu Sheeta
6. Ismail Abdallah Hamdan Abu Sheeta
7. Iman Ahmed Hamdan Abdallah Abu Sheeta
8. Mohamed Ahmed Hamdan Abdallah Abu Sheeta
9. Samir Radwan Hussein Muslim (cousin of Ahmed Hamdan)
10. Mimi Radwan Hussein Muslim (cousin of Ahmed Hamdan)
- Ahmed Hamdan Abdallah Abu Sheeta's wife
"They arrested Hany, Hossam and Fayez because they wanted to arrest Ahmed. On the 9th day of Ramadan at 6 a.m. Fayez came to the house accompanied by police officers and soldiers who searched the house and destroyed some of its contents. They arrested my husband Ahmed and a small knife. From that day I don't know anything about what happened to him. Later on I found out that they arrested my son Mohamed and my daughter Iman who is Ahmed Abdallah's wife."
Meeting Iman was crucial since she was the principle witness to the torture inside the state security office. She appeared extremely distressed while describing the events, as if she was not merely retrieving their memory but reliving their pain. Mission members let her speak freely and tried to calm her terror. Eighteen years old, her husband Ahmed is also her cousin.
"Members of the security forces came and asked about my husband Ahmed. I told them that he was working, driving the taxi. This was at dawn, about two weeks ago. They said 'fine, we'll wait here' and went and spread out inside the house and kept me detained until the afternoon of the following day. Even though I told them everything I knew they still kept me detained. The female neighbours who came and asked after me were detained as well; even a young girl who came to give me some cooperative money was detained. Her mother came to ask after her and see why she was late and she was detained. Then the husband of this woman came, and he's crippled and uses crutches and they detained him inside my house as well. At the end there were six women detained inside my house.
Two days later they again came at dawn and searched the house but didn't find anything. I was so scared of the constant raids on my house after that they I went to my father's house - he was arrested on the 23rd October. Anyway last Tuesday which was the 26th October a force came to my father's house and asked about my husband. My mother was the one who met them and she told them that he wasn't there so they asked about me. My mother denied that I was there so they arrested my brother Mohamed who is sixteen years old. They beat him while they were leaving the house so I ran out of the house quickly and said 'leave Mohamed I'm here.' They arrested me and Mohamed and took me to the state security office.
As soon as we went into the office they recorded my name in the register and asked me why I was there. I told them because of my husband. There were 140 names recorded that first day. Nobody spoke to me at all but I could hear voices and screams all night long. I was sitting in the corridor with about forty other women including five that had babies with them. They would take one woman at a time and she would come back a while later and her whole body would be trembling.
The next day they took me to a room. An officer was sitting in it and he asked me about my husband and his friends, where they go, who they talk to…I told them everything I know. There was constantly someone being tortured in the room next to the one I was in and we could hear him screaming. As we were leaving the interrogation room we saw them naked and tortured." Iman told the mission that during her own questioning she was insulted, the officer for example asking her "who are your husband's friends you b****?" When she was unable to answer they threatened her with electric shocks, bringing the electric wires close to her fingertips. Iman said that she was trembling when they brought the wires close to her fingertips and added "we used to go to the officer who interrogated us but didn't know who he was because they blindfolded us and we didn't even know who was in the room with us." Iman told the mission that she was not given any food, the men clubbing together to buy food. They prevented anyone bringing in food or money. "There was even one woman who had a stomach ache and we asked for some aniseed tea for her. The officer demanded the money for it. We got the money together from the men when she said that she didn't have any money. After that they took me the house and searched it for the third time and took books and Ahmed's diary." Iman's mother says that her daughter had previously had an abortion and suffered haemorrhaging during her detention. Iman says "I asked for anything for the haemorrhaging but they didn't bring me anything. The thing which frightened me the most was that one time I went up to the officer for the investigation and there was someone in the room who I heard talking to the officer and he said "how should we deal with this body sir, we want to bury it anywhere" After that I heard my husband Ahmed's voice while he was being tortured. I asked 'is that Ahmed?' but no-one answered me. I stayed inside there for five days, and God only knows what happened to me during these days"
- Mohamed Ahmed Hamdan Abdallah, a 16 year old secondary school student.
"I was arrested at the same time as my sister Iman on Tuesday. When we went into the state security office they left me there for two days and on the third day took my upstairs. I was blindfolded and they asked me about Hamada [Ahmed], Iman's husband and I told them that I didn't know anything about him. The officer said 'take off his clothes' and they took all my clothes off except for my boxer shorts. I heard the sound of a motor which I realised afterwards was the electric shock machine because they threatened that they would give me electric shocks and I felt a tingling in my finger tips. They let me go downstairs and then took me upstairs a second time and asked me about Hamada. I told them that I didn't know anything and they slapped me in the face. They then took me downstairs and nobody spoke to me until I was released with Iman. We were sitting in the corridor which is 1 m² x 9 m² with about 104 other people. There was one man called Ahmed Samy who's a science teacher. They took him for interrogation at midnight and he didn't come back until five in the morning, hardly able to stand up, walk or lift his hands and arms. I had to feed him myself he wasn't able to use or move his hands at all. They transferred him in the end. And there was also Ismail Abdallah my cousin. They really hit him hard and he said that they hung him, and his hands were red. His elbows were injured and he wasn't able to stand up. On the day I arrived there was one man whose name I didn't know who had been beaten really hard and was injured."
More than one "aural" witness reported seeing Hany Abdallah Abu Sheeta in detention centres lying on the ground and bleeding profusely as a result of injuries caused by torture. He was transferred to hospital by state security force officers after the severity of his injuries became obvious. He was placed under surveillance and then transferred to another hospital and a detention order issued against him.
Hany's family confirm that they have heard nothing from their son since his arrest and that "only God knows" the truth of the sightings described above. The mission was unable to meet other members of the Abu Sheeta family because they refused to speak out of fear that they would be detained or that family members already in detention would be harmed.
4. Results of the mission and recommendations
A quick reading of the testimony of eye witnesses and released detainees tells us the following:
- Security forces' treatment of civilians during arrest operations and house raids is heavy handed. It has spread terror amongst Arish residents whose rights have been violated and who have been subject to treatment such as the removal using force of women's veils in the street.
- State security forces have detained many people as "pawns" during their pursuit of a single suspect. These pawns have in some cases been mistreated and tortured.
- Large numbers of indiscriminate arrests have been made. The mission was unable to pinpoint the exact number of people arrested since the Taba bombings, but it is estimated that some 3,000 people from Arish and neighbouring villages have been detained since 7th October and early November when the mission arrived in Taba, including 67 women. This figure was arrived at through witness statements.
These acts come despite EOHR's press statement issued immediately after the Taba bombings which urged security forces to respect human rights during their investigations into the identity of the perpetrators of the bombings, and treat suspects in a humane manner which respects their human dignity. While recognising that combating armed violence and protecting citizens is of paramount importance, it stated that respect for human rights and standards of justice can and must form an integral part of the counter terrorism efforts and security investigations of all states, because the fight against terrorism will only succeed where there exists full respect for human rights. Respect for human rights and counter-terrorism measures are not mutually exclusive, as was reaffirmed by the International Committee of Jurists' biennial conference held under the title 'upholding human rights and the rule of law in fighting terrorism.'
In the light of this EOHR makes the following demands:
1. Random arrests, which violate the right to personal security, must end. Article 41 of the Constitution provides that:
Individual freedom is a natural and inviolable right. Other than in cases of flagrante delicto no-one may be arrested, searched, detained, have his freedom restricted in any way or be prevented from moving freely except following an order necessitated by police investigations or public security. This order must be issued by the competent judge or the public prosecution office in accordance with the law.
EOHR also emphasises the necessity of ending the implementation of the Emergency Law which is the legal tool used to attack this and other rights guaranteed by the Egyptian Constitution and international human rights instruments.
2. Arbitrary detention, a flagrant violation of the Constitution and international human rights instruments must be ended. Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that "nobody shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile." It also violates a number of the provisions of the Egyptian Penal Code which forbid illegal arrest.
3. The Egyptian authorities must immediately release detainees and "pawns" in application of the law and the Constitution, and must reaffirm their respect for human rights values.
4. An immediate investigation must be launched into allegations of torture and the appropriate measures taken to stop torture. Both the Egyptian Constitution and the Criminal Procedures Code forbid torture and provide for the inadmissibility of confessions obtained through torture in court. The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment which was ratified by Egypt in 1986 and incorporated into Egyptian law under Article 151 of the Constitution obliges Egypt to undertake measures to prevent it.
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