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Al Beheira governorate
Death and random arrest in Sarando
A report by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
21/3/2005
Summary
The problems currently experienced by the fellahin residents of Sarando date back to the 1960s. In 1960 the Egyptian government granted each family lease of between roughly one and half to two feddans under the Agricultural Reform Law until 1973 when President Anwar Sadat released land owned by Salah Nawar's family and gave 50 feddans to each individual and 100 to each family. The residents were made subject to the terms of the Agricultural Credit Association (ACA) rather than the Agricultural Reform Law, and on the basis of this three contracts drawn up; one copy was deposited with the ACA, another with the tenant and the third with landlord. The government determined the rental value paid to Salah Nawar's family.
Between 1973 and 1997 Law 96 on Agricultural Lands was issued. The Nawar family duped agricultural lands employees in order to obtain false release of land without the knowledge of the fellahin. In 1997 after the law governing the relationship between owner and tenant was issued Salah Nawar went to the village and demanded that they sign one copy of lease contracts printed by him. All the contract's clauses favoured the owner. Some of the fellahin asked for a copy of the lease, which was refused. Nawar forced some of the fellahin to sign receipts testifying that they had received money from him and blank cheques. Nawar continued to impose his authority on the fellahin, raising legal complaints on the basis of the receipts against anyone who opposed him. He brought legal action against Mohamed Ragab al Sayyed for example on the basis of a receipt for 150,000 LE, knowing that Ragab does not possess these kinds of funds. On the basis of this pressure Ragab was compelled to surrender his land to Nawar under the threat of prison. Nawar used the same tactics with a large number of village residents, continuing to remove them from their land until the fellahin were under the impression that the land was not theirs. These removals continued and grew in number until the 1st January 2005 when the fellahin agreed that each resident would return to the land originally given to him under the Agricultural Reform distribution of land. When they did this Salah Nawar presented a complaint to Damanhour police accusing eighteen fellahin of assault. A summons was sent to these eighteen residents, and on the same day nine of them proceeded to the police station. There they were threatened by the chief of investigations Mohamed Ammar and his men, beaten, insulted and forced to sign a statement attesting that they did not oppose Salah Nawar. They were released after signing this document and given a list of the individuals who had to report to the police station. When the nine fellahin returned to the village at 5 a.m. they recounted what happened to the other residents and informed those whose names were on the list that they had to report to the police station. These individuals were scared of going.
On Wednesday the 5th January 2005 the chief of investigations went to the village with a large number of detectives and investigations officers at around 3 a.m. They stormed many houses and arrested male residents without legal cause. They for example broke the door of one resident's home, Abu Zid, stormed into his bedroom and arrested him after assaulting both him and his wife. The home of Samir Mohamed Qutb Helal was broken into despite the fact that he does not own agricultural land and he and his son work as taxi drivers. Police forces destroyed the front door of their home, and arrested Samir and his son Amr, making them get changed from their night clothes and beating women and children in the house. They then went to the house of Mohamed Ragab al Sayyed and stormed into his house in the same manner. Not finding him at home, they chose to assault his wife and children. They entered the bedroom and broke the cupboard while searching for the deeds to agricultural land. They took Ragab's son, a second year Al Azhar student and prevented him from attending an exam.
They subsequently proceeded to the home of Kamal al Hasary, where the door of his flat was broken by detective Attiyah Rady who assaulted al Hasary's wife who at the time was six months pregnant leading to haemorrhaging for which she was hospitalised in Damanhour Public Hospital. They were then taken to an unknown place until the 6th January 2005 when the village residents proceeded to the Damanhour prosecution office in order to secure their release, in particular the release of Ibrahim Mohamed Ragab al Sayyed in order that he could attend an exam. The head of the prosecution office telephoned the chief of investigations in Damanhour police station who denied that he was holding these individuals.
On Friday the 7th January 2005 the village residents preceded to the police station to ask about the group who had been arrested. They learnt that three of them had been charged with murder and unlawful possession of weapons.
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) dispatched a fact-finding mission to Sarando on the 17th January 2005.
On Friday the 4th March 2005 at 4 a.m. Mohamed Ammar led a force from Damanhour investigations unit and three central security vehicles to the village and arrested seven of its residents - some of whom had previously been arrested. They were accused of inciting other residents against Salah Nawar's family and forced to sign documents handing over their land to Salah Nawar's family.
At 9 a.m. on the same day village residents were met by Salah Nawar and two cars filled with people carrying cudgels and guns. They took three tractors to the fields which they used to dig up. The fields were being used to cultivate corn a month short of harvest. This provoked the anger of the fellahin and led to confrontations between them and Salah Nawar's men joined by residents of surrounding villages who lent their support to the Sarando villagers. They burnt the tractors and six of Nawar's cars in a drainage ditch. During these confrontations Alaa Mohamed Abdel Wahab Nawar, one of Nawar's men (fifty years old) was killed.
At 10.30 a.m. ten central security vehicles filled with soldiers assaulted and threatened village residents. They stormed houses, smashing front doors in the process and terrifying the houses' occupants. All the villages' residents - men, women and children - fled, except for six who were arrested and detained until their release on the 10th March 2005.
After the Friday prayers eleven village residents were arrested and brought before the prosecution office on a charge of murder and burning the tractors . The prosecution office detained them for four days during the course of investigations. This detention was then renewed for a further fifteen days.
Sixteen people are still wanted by the police and remain at large.
EOHR sent a second fact-finding mission to the village on Friday the 4th March 2005, followed by a third on the 16th March after violations were continuing to take place. The mission received information about the death of Nefissa Zakaria Ahmed al Murakby (30 years old.)
According to information received by EOHR al Murakby was arrested on the 13th March 2005 and held in the home of Mohamed Suleiman Hassanein whose house was being used as a detention centre for female village residents. She was released at dawn on Monday the 14th March in an extreme state of fatigue. That evening she was struck by paralysis and taken to the accident and emergency department of Damanhour Public Hospital at 9.30 p.m and from there to the gynaecology department .
The initial diagnosis was confirmed as shock. She was referred to a gynaecologist on March the 15th 2005 at 1 a.m. with a final diagnosis of septic shock. She died at 6 a.m. the same day.
Introduction
The villages of al Barnougy, Nadiba, al Amaraya and Sarando are located in the governorate of Buhayra which itself stands twenty two kilometres to the west of Damanhour. The villages contain a total of some 8,000 residents, and have only a primary and preparatory school. Only 5% of residents are educated, and the majority of people work in the desert for a daily wage (in crop gathering, tilling the land, agriculture or in surrounding hamlets.)
The events described in this report began at the start of 2005 when the fellahin refused to abide by the Nawar family's orders. The situation deteriorated when Nawar went to the fields and destroyed crops, leading to confrontations between the two groups and the death of two people, the injury of several others and destruction of crops and homes.
Report methodology
EOHR sent three fact-finding missions to investigate the events in Sarando. The report relies primarily on eyewitness statements; EOHR lawyers met with eighteen witnesses, many of whom refused to give their name. Each eyewitness provided a statement in private and the mission collected statements which corroborate each other. The mission also heard the testimony of other witnesses which, to a considerable extent, agrees with the eyewitnesses' testimony.
Some witnesses confirmed that Nefissa Zakariya (who died at 3 a.m. on Tuesday the 15th March 2005) died when she was released and taken to Damanhour Public Hospital after losing consciousness.
Arbitrary and violent arrest
A large number of the eyewitnesses interviewed by the EOHR fact-finding mission attested that arrests were made randomly and did not conform to the stipulations of the Criminal Procedures Code. Arrests were made without the permission of the public prosecution office while investigations forces from Damanhour police station broke into homes without prior permission. Eyewitnesses assert that police forces entered homes early in the morning and destroyed personal property while searching for the deeds to agricultural land.
Eyewitness testimony: arbitrary and violent arrest
Qutb Mahmoud Qutb Helal, 19 years old, farmer
"The story began last Tuesday [4/1/2005]. We were asleep at home when suddenly the door was broken down at dawn - at exactly 3.30 a.m. I found Mohamed Bey Ammar, chief of investigations on top of me while I was asleep in bed, and they were destroying all the houses without giving a thought to the inviolability of the home; All the houses had women sleeping in them, but they didn't care.
After that I was arrested. They took my clothes off and blindfolded me, and put me in handcuffs. They put me in a car with other people and took us to the police station. There they tied our legs in a single chain, and our hands were tied behind us (handcuffed behind the back). We were detained in the chief of investigations' office for three days and nights without any food or drink - they even prevented us from going to the bathroom. There was one detective called Attiyah Rady and another called Adel who punched and kicked us. Later we were taken to the public prosecution office and released on 50 LE bail."
Karima Moustafa Rady, 35 years old, housewife
"We were safely asleep at home when suddenly we found Mohamed Bey, the investigations officer knocking at the door with ten other detectives. They asked about my husband Mohamed Ragab al Sayyed Abdel Hafez. That was last Thursday [5/1/2005]. They searched the whole house and turned it upside down looking for the deeds. They found my son Ibrahim studying because he had an exam the next morning. They took him, hitting him and insulting him. When I went outside and screamed in the street the officer hit me and they took my son and blindfolded him after handcuffing him. When we went to the police station the next day to ask about him they told us that he wasn't there."
Al Sayyida Mohamed Youssef, 45 years old, housewife & Walida Al Sayyid Kamal al Hasary 27 years old, housewife
"The thing which concerns me most is that the whole world hears about this. Write it all down because this scandal has not made us ashamed to talk anymore. Last Wednesday night we were all asleep, me, my two daughters, my son and his wife when suddenly, it was as if all hell broke loose and there was a loud knocking on the door. Then they broke down the door. We were startled and started screaming and they starting hitting me and my children and went into the room of my son and his wife without any shame - I swear that it happened as I'm telling you - and took my son while he was undressed, and hit him and his wife who is pregnant. She's currently in hospital because they hit her and she started bleeding. After that they turned the house upside down looking for the deeds papers and have brought a case against my son."
Simsima Abdel Hamid al Garf, 52 years old, housewife
"Last Wednesday I, my mother and my sister were asleep when at dawn we heard someone knocking at the door. My mother got up to open it and before she got there the door was broken down by the force with which the detectives were knocking. The door fell on us before she could open it and they entered the house and when my mother and sister started shouting the detectives started hitting and swearing at us. My mother is seventy years old and we were wearing our nightclothes. They asked us where my brother Moustafa is and when I told them that he works in the desert they hit all three of us and told us that if he didn't come to the police station they would bring a weapons case against us."
Ibrahim Mohamed Ragab al Sayyed, 16 years old, second year Al Azhar student
"I was arrested on Wednesday. They took me from the house at dawn and hit me and my mother, and took us to the police station in Damanhour. There we found lots of people from the village. They made us take our clothes off and lie down on the floor. They left the windows open - it was winter - and the cold ripped through our bodies.
The next day they took me to Mohamed Bey's office, the chief of investigations, and asked me about my father. There was a detective standing behind me while my hands were handcuffed, and when I told them that I didn't know where my father was the detective punched me and was swearing at me. After that they took us all to the detectives' room and we sat down on a bench. Our legs were tied together by a steel chain, and we stayed like that for two days. Mohamed Bey came and went on hitting me and told me that I would only leave the police station when my father appeared. They didn't let me go and I missed the chance to go to my exams."
Abdel Karim Moustafa Abu Rass
"About a week before these events Salah Nawar came to me and demanded that I intervene in the situation to put an end to the problems between him and the village residents. I promised him that I would, but somebody died and I was busy with that. After that I was taken by surprise on Friday by the fight which broke out between the village residents and Salah Nawar's family when Salah Nawar acted hastily and attacked the village residents. He had more than forty men with him and he went and dug up fellahin's corn. I got really angry when it happened and this act made the fight flare up even more. I found out that a member of Salah Nawar's family died and lots of people were injured. The government came and took lots of people away, and those that remained fled."
B & Y
"On Friday Mohamed Ammar and his crew from Damanhour investigations came with three central security cars - this was at 4 o'clock in the morning. They arrested seven people from the village without permission from the prosecution office on the wishes of Salah Nawar.
On the same day at 9 o'clock in the morning Salah Nawar appeared with two cars filled with people carrying guns and sticks. They went to the land with three tractors and dug it up despite the fact that it was sewed with corn less than a month away from harvest. That made the fellahin burn with rage and the battle started between them and Salah Nawar's men. Even residents from neighbouring villages came and supported the fellahin. Suddenly the tractors were on fire and the three cars belonging to Salah Nawar were pushed into the ditches. In the middle of the fight Alaa Mohamed Abdel Wahab Nawar (50 years old) was killed. He is one of Salah Nawar's men. There are several stories surrounding his death; some people say that he was killed by a hatchet to the head, while others say that someone from the village stabbed him in the throat. Another story going round the village is that one of Salah Nawar's men killed him so that they can accuse the fellahin of doing it.
At 10.30 ten central security cars arrived filled with soldiers and they started hitting the village residents and threatening them. They went into homes, breaking doors and that's why all the residents, men and women fled and left the village."
Names of the accused in the Sarando case
| 1. Moustafa Abdel Hamid al Garf |
| 2. Gamil Abdel Moneim Qabil |
| 3. Karam Mohamed Hussein al Fiqhy |
| 4. Abu Talab Mohamed Abdallah Abu Zina |
| 5. Emmad Eddin Mohamed Mahmoud al Fiqhy |
| 6. Mohamed Mahmoud Attiyah al Shinawy |
| 7. Abdel Razeq Abdel Razeq Abu el Alaa |
| 8. Ahmed Abdel Hamid Khalaf |
| 9. Mohamed Rady al Garf |
| 10. Mohamed Ragab Khalil |
| 11. Moustafa Abdel Rahim Moustafa al Baqly |
| 12. Abdel Moneim Moustafa Mohamed Bassioun al Baqly |
| 13. Salah Abdel Gawad Mohamed Abdel Gawad |
| 14. Mabrouk Ahmed Abdel Aziz Mohamed al Hasary |
| 15. Mohamed Ibrahim Antar Dessouq |
| 16. Alaa Mohamed al Fiqhy |
| 17. Gaber Said al Fiqhy |
| 18. Mohamed Abdallah al Gizawy |
| 19. Adel Abdel Moneim al Baqly |
| 20. Aida Abdallah al Gizawy |
| 21. Rihab Gumaa Mohamed al Nahrawy |
| 22. Mabrouka Mohamed Abdel Aziz Qabil |
| 23. Rania Samir Mohamed |
| 24. Rasmiya Mohamed Khalaf |
| 25. Kawkab Abdel Moneim Qabil |
| 26. Samah Abdel Hamid al Garf |
The mission's findings
EOHR's mission reached the following findings:
1. Excessive use of force by the police
That forces from the Damanhour police station led by chief of investigations Mohamed Ammar had used excessive force against the residents of Sarando was made clear to the fact-finding mission by the high number of arrests and the damage to homes and personal possessions.
2. Destruction of homes and terrorising of residents
This was clear to members of the first and second fact-finding missions despatched by EOHR. Eyewitnesses testified to the fact that police forces destroyed homes without a valid legal cause in the early hours of the morning, destroyed doors, entered homes and beat their occupants - both men and women - and insulted them, terrifying children. Security forces also arbitrarily arrested village residents Mission members saw many homes whose doors had been destroyed and contents damaged.
3. The unjustified intervention by the police led to the situation becoming more serious
It was clear to the mission that the intervention by the police, its unjustified use of force and its siding with one party to the dispute against the other led to the situation deteriorating in the manner described in this report.
Recommendations
The seriousness and scale of the violations which occurred in Sarando, the mass punishment inflicted in the form of the destruction of their homes, the seizure of their land, the arrest of men, women and children, their detention in illegal detention centres and their horrendous torture which led to the death of one woman necessitates the taking of a bundle of legislative and practical measures to stop the tragedy of Sarando.
1. Immediate release of all detained residents of Sarando and neighbouring villages. The public prosecution office must launch a thorough investigation into these events and make public its findings.
2. Arbitrary arrests which violate the right to personal safety as described in article 41 of the Constitution must be stopped. Article 41 states:
Individual freedom is a natural right and is inviolable. Other than in cases of flagrante delicto no person may be arrested, inspected, detained or his freedom restricted or prevented from free movement except by an order necessitated by investigations and preservation of social order. This order shall be given by the competent judge or the public prosecution office in accordance with the provisions of the law. The law shall determine the period of custody.
An internal inquiry must be carried out into the incidents of arbitrary detention and random arrest.
3. Officers who break the law and violate citizens' rights in police stations must be disciplined and brought to account. Periodic investigations by the public prosecution office of police stations and detention centres must be carried out in order to establish detainees' legal status, impound instruments of torture and bring those who use them to account.
4. The public prosecution office must launch an immediate inquiry into the allegations of torture of Sarando residents in detention centres presented by individuals and human rights groups.
5. The government must be encouraged to take serious and immediate measures in order to stop the torture inside police stations and detention centres and establish respect for the Constitution, domestic legislation and international human rights instruments such as the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
EOHR calls on the attorney general and the Interior Minister to intervene immediately in order to stop the transgressions witnessed by Sarando and bring the police officers responsible for torture to account. It also urges civil society groups to stand in solidarity with the fellahin of Sarando in order to protect their rights to freedom, personal security and life.
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