11/5/2006
The organizations signing below express their vehement anxiety concerning the totalitarian attitude used against the reform movement and civil society, using an iron fest to suppress peaceful demonstrations in support of the judiciary and political activists in Egypt, manifested in the arrests of the demonstrators in front of the Judges Club.
the total number of the arrested reached 48 persons, among them 12 persons were arrested on Monday 24/4/2006, 16 persons on Wednesday 26/5/2006, 12 persons on Thursday 27/4/2006 in front of the High Judiciary House, and 8 persons on Sunday 7/6/2006 in front of South Cairo Court after using force with the demonstrators.
The return to the police state was obviously confirmed by the extension of the state of emergency which is applied since 1981, and was extended to 2008 reaching a total of 27 years under the harsh decrees of the Emergency Law.
It became very clear by the beginning of 2006, when punishments were applied to those who criticized the parliamentary elections results, which lead to presenting both judges Hisham El Bastawesy and Mahmoud Mekki to the Qualification Committee charged with what is their normal right to freedom of opinion and expression including issuing reports revealing the forging of the parliamentary elections in some constituencies.
This trial is considered a violation to the norms of fair trial especially when the suspects belong to a high judicial institution such as the Court of Cassation.
In contradiction with what the Prime Minister announced to use the Emergency Law only in cases of terrorism and drug-dealing cases and not to suppress political movements, syndicates and political parties. However, violence was used against political activists, as they were arrested and subjected to physical assaults. All the arrested persons were referred to State Security Prosecutor by the decree of Military Ruling No 1/1981 amended by Presidential Decree 1/2004 which added Law 14/1923 and Law 10/1914 to crimes viewed by the State Security (Emergency) Attorney.
This new violent attitude used by security forces against peaceful demonstrators affirms the government's new tendency to use violence as a tool to punish the opposition, referring to the assaults on Judge/ Mahmoud Hamza, head of North Cairo Court, and the physical assaults on Nadia Abu el Magd, the reporter of the Associated Press, in addition to the assaults on Al Jazeera crew and confiscating their camera, and arresting more than 300 person and detaining them in an unknown place, where some of them were subjected to beating. Its worth mentioning that the Egyptian security forces now developed a new squad, they call it the karate squad, that dressed in civilian clothes and they join the demonstrations and attack the demonstrators.
Accordingly, the signing organizations demand the following:
1- Fulfilling the Prime Minister's promise not to use the Emergency Law against political opposition.
2- The immediate release of all detainees.
3- Accelerating the finalization of the Judicial Authority Law to be presented to the Peoples Assembly.
4- Interrogating the police men who perpetrated the assaults and presenting them to justice.
5- Forming a committee of MP's to investigate any cases of using Emergency Law against political activists, syndicates or political parties.
Organizations signing the statement:
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
The Arab Organization for Judicial Reform
Prisoners Aid Association
Hisham Mubarak Center
Syndicates and Labor Services House
The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights
Development of Democracy Group
The Arab Center for Independency of Judges and Lawyers
The Egyptian Association for Increasing Social Participation
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
Andalusia Center for Tolerance Studies
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