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EOHR welcomes acquittal of the "Revolutionary Socialist"
five and demands annulment of the Emergency Law
14/3/2004
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights welcomes the acquittal by an emergency state security court of Ashraf Ibrahim Mohamed, Naser Farouq el-Baheiri, Mostafa Mohamed el-Bassouni Shaheen, Yehya Fikri Amin Zahra and Raymon Edward in case no.
128 [2002] known as the "Revolutionary Socialists" case.
In 2000 the Prosecutor General charged the five with the following:
1) The first three defendants were accused of leading an illegal group whose aims were the annulment of the Constitution, prevention of national institutions from carrying out their activities and the overthrow of the Government.
The first defendant was in addition accused of possessing printed material promoting the aims of the group intended for distribution, and of deliberately sending false and damaging information about Egypt alleging human rights abuses abroad to foreign human rights groups.
2) The fourth and fifth defendants were charged with belonging to a banned group.
EOHR considers this case an inevitable consequence of the restrictions imposed by the Emergency Law on the right of freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to protest and peaceful gathering.
While acknowledging the significance of this acquittal EOHR demands:
- An end to the Emergency Law continuously in force since 1981, and automatically renewed every 3 years without justification.
The Egyptian Government seeks to widen its use based on the need to fight terrorism, but in doing so assaults the right to a fair and impartial trial and other rights guaranteed under the Egyptian Constitution and international human rights instruments.
EOHR launched its campaign against the Emergency Law ("together to stop the emergency law") in 2003.
- The abolishment of emergency state security courts formed upon the order of the President under the Civil Laws Declaration issued pursuant to Law 162 [1958]. The decisions of these exceptional courts cannot be appealed, and only the President possesses the right to overturn their verdicts or order that defendants be retried.
Their verdicts are only considered final after they have received the assent of the President.
- That the right of all citizens to be tried by a natural judge be respected, that they enjoy all their legal rights in court and that they have the right of appeal as guaranteed by the law.
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Copyright © 2002 EOHR. All rights reserved. 