CAIRO,
April 11, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The Egyptian
National Council for Human Rights gave credence in its first annual
report to widespread torture by Egyptian police and security forces.
The
358-page report, obtained by Reuters Sunday, April 10, hit out at the
shocking practices used by police personnel to extract information
from suspects.
The
council, which was set up by the government only last year and is
chaired by Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former UN secretary-general and a
former Egyptian deputy prime minister, also called for ending the
notorious emergency law, in force since 1981.
It
said that this law provided a loophole by which the authorities
prevent some Egyptians enjoying their right to personal security.
Torture
Under
emergency law, up to thousands of alleged members of Islamist groups
have been in jail since the 1990s, even after they completed their
sentences, according to the report.
Some
detained without charge are not released after the maximum period of
detention, it added.
Citing
reports which the council received during the year, it says that in
Egyptian police stations, suspects are subjected to electric shocks,
hung by their arms or legs from the ceiling or from doors, sprayed
with cold water, made to stand naked in cold weather for many hours,
or beaten with sticks, belts, electric cables, whips or rifle butts.
Instruments
of torture are usually readily available in police stations, it said,
citing complaints.
The
report described in detail the deaths in detention of nine Egyptians
during the year and called them “regrettable violations of the right
to life.”
It
additionally said that it was normal investigative practice to arrest
everyone around the scene of a crime and torture them to obtain
information.
Arbitrary
Detentions
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“We tried to write a report that is a real reflection of the human rights situation in Egypt,” said Seada.
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The
report also corroborated reports that 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.
“Arbitrary
detentions took place in north Sinai, where many detainees and their
relatives were subjected to torture,” it said.
Egyptian
police arrested some 140 women, most of them relatives of Egyptians
arrested after the October 2004 bombings in the Sinai peninsula, who
held a new protest against the arbitrary detentions, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported April 9.
The
women gathered in the morning in the left-wing Tagamu party’s
headquarters in the northern town of El-Arish and kicked off a sit-in
which they vowed to pursue until their relatives are released.
They
also threatened a hunger strike should their demands not be met by the
government.
Patchy
Answers
The
council spent the year asking government departments to respond to
citizens’ complaints, but the response was patchy.
The
Interior Ministry, which runs the police force and the prisons,
answered 27 of the 242 requests it received from the council.
On
torture allegations, it answered three out of 75.
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.
One
of the council’s key recommendation is that emergency law be
abolished rapidly so that people can take part “in an impartial and
reassuring atmosphere” in a referendum on the constitution and in
presidential and parliamentary elections later this year.
“Continuing
the state of emergency is likely to spread among citizens a feeling of
alienation and a temptation to stay away from participation in public
life,” it said.
Tougher
The
report 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.
Hafez
Abu Seada, Secretary-general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human
Rights and a member of the council, said members close to the
government had raised objections to the language in the report but
eventually yielded to the activist group.
“We
tried to write a report that is a real reflection of the human rights
situation in Egypt,” he told Reuters.
Over
the past few months, several protests against the extension of
President Hosni Mubarak’s rule or power transfer to his son Gamal
took place in some Egyptian cities and universities.
The
protests, spearheaded by the Kefaya (enough) Movement, have also
broken down a fear of criticizing president Mubarak, who has ruled
Egypt since 1981 and is expected to seek a fifth six-year term in
elections this year.
