| The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights |
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Press release EOHR Issues An Urgent Appeal: Release Anti-Iraqi War Activists Now EOHR regrets the continuing attitude taken by security forces toward the right to peaceful assembly and the people who chose to exercise that right. Demonstrators continue to get arrested as they protest the war in Iraq. The journalists’ syndicate had a peaceful assembly on Apr. 12, 2003 demonstrating its disdain for the American-led war in Iraq and Israeli measures taken against Palestinians. Security forces arrested the following people: Mohamed Hassan Hassan; Omar Abdel Latif and Waleed Abd El Razek. In addition, Ramez Gehad Fathi Abdel Aziz was arrested at five o’clock p.m. while at the El Horaya Café in Bab El Louk, Cairo merely because he was in the same place as demonstrators attending to his duties as editor for the newspaper International News. Also, journliasts Ibrahim El Sahari and Wael Tawfeek were arrested, the first at his home, the second while demonstrating with the rest of the syndicate. EOHR is deeply concerned about the arrests of peaceful demonstrators by security forces. We call on authorities to disclose their whereabouts and immediately release them so that they comply with the Egyptian constitution and international laws on human rights, all of which guarantee the right to peaceful expression of opinion. |