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EOHR rejects Agiza life imprisonment sentence
and demands he be tried before a natural judge
27/4/2004
The Supreme Military Court today issued its verdict in the "Retournees from Albania" case during which Ahmed Hussein Agiza was retried after the appeal submitted by his lawyer which was accepted on the 4th February 2004.
Agiza was sentenced to life imprisonment for the first charge and cleared of the second charge.
In 1999 when the Military Prosecutor General charged 107 defendants, including Agiza (no.19) under Articles 86 and 86a of the Penal Code.
They were charged with belonging to an illegally founded organisation which aimed to hinder the application of the Constitution and other laws and prevent the authorities from exercising their functions using terrorism as a means of realising these aims. They were also charged with colluding on an illegal pact to commit premeditated murder, possessing weapons and ammunition and forgery of civil and official documents. (Punishable under Article 48 of the Penal Code.)
On the 18th April 1998 the Court issued an execution sentence for 9 defendants, ordered the imprisonment of 78 others and freed 20 defendants.
It sentenced Agiza, in absentia, to life imprisonment with hard labour.
Agiza was arrested on the 8th December 2001 in Sweden and deported to Egypt on the 22nd April 2002. The appeal submitted by his lawyer was accepted and he was sent for retrial in the 3rd district of the Supreme Military Court.
The Court reached its decision after Agiza was retried in a trial spread over three hearings that in total lasted for 17 days.
During the trial the Court refused to accept the defence's request to allow witnesses to give testimony or its demand that it be given enough time to obtain and prepare papers necessary for the defence.
It was in addition denied its request for forensic examinations.
While acknowledging the authorities' role in punishing and fighting activities that threaten the security and safety of the citizen and the state, EOHR reaffirms that this is not incompatible with respect for human rights and the right to a fair and unbiased trial before a natural judge.
This fundamental right must not be derogated from under any pretext.
EOHR is deeply saddened by the continuous transfer of citizens for trial before military courts.
This practice deprives them of their right to a trial before a natural judge, their right to appeal to a higher court and thire right to appear in an independent court founded according to the law.
These essential conditions for a fair trial are not respected in any of the military or supreme state emergency courts.
It urges President Mubarak to exercise his constitutional and legal powers to stop the implementation of this sentence, to order Agiza's retrial before a natural judge and to stop the practice of the transfer of citizens to military courts.
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Copyright © 2002 EOHR. All rights reserved. 