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Reopening the Egyptian file in the Gulf area
EOHR lodges a complaint against Saudi Arabia authority before the International Council For Human Rights
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7/11/2007
EOHR expresses its deepest worries concerning the Saudi Arabian authorities' decision of cutting the hands of Amr Mohamed Zareef, an Egyptian citizen who was charged with robbery and the execution of "A.M.A", an Egyptian dispenser who was charged with disdaining religions.
Regarding this, EOHR confirms that Saudi Arabian authorities didn’t abide by the international criterion related to human rights in theses two cases - especially to the main guarantees regarding a fair and just trial according to Articles 14-15 from the International Covenant on Civil And Political Rights, some of the violated guarantees are the following:
• Violating the right of standing before neutral, independent and competent court
This right means to establish the court and determine its competence before the crime was committed; every citizen should be aware of his natural judge. Courts should be formed by laws according to subjective criterion and not to be formed by a decision taken by a specific authority. This conflicts with the principle of equality before law as we can see two convicts committing the same crime and one of them submitted to a court according to legal documents while the other is submitted according to a decision taken by a specified authority .
• Violating the right to a public trial
One of the main condition for a fair and just trial is to be public, in other words, the trial must be attended by individuals in all its stages but this right was not accomplished in these two cases .
• Violating the right of granting the suspected the adequate facilities to prepare his defense.
One of the main guarantees of fair trial is the guarantee stipulated in Article 14 passage B from the International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights which claims that the suspected should be provided by all kinds of facilities and time to prepare his defense, and both of these two cases lacked this right.
• The right of appealing against decisions pronounced before higher court
" Every individual charged with a crime has the right of appealing before a higher court to look into the decision taken and the punishment taken against him" . this is the last guarantee which was claimed in passage No.5 of Article 14 from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This right is not stipulated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights only, but in other international covenants such as:
Article 7 from the African Covenant
Article 8 from the statute of the International Criminal Court
These two cases are considered a violation of Article 23 of the International Covenant On The Protection Of the Rights Of All Migrants Workers and the Members of their Families. This article stipulates that the migrants workers and their families enjoy with the protection and help provided by the consular or diplomatic authority of their country if there is a violation to this convention. Also passage 7 of Article 16 of the same convention stipulated that the consular authority should be aware of arresting or detaining or remaining any migrant worker or members of its family without delay.
It is noticed that the Egyptian diplomatic representatives failed to meet and call the defendants into these two cases mentioned above.
Also these two cases are considered a violation of the main principles of the lawyer's role which was ratified by the 8th United Nation Conference for Preventing Crime and Treating Defendants 1990. the first principle stipulated is that every individual has a right to choose a lawyer to defend him through all criminal procedures levels, also the second principle stipulated claims that the government has to provide an effective procedure and a mechanism able to interact with lawyers effectively and to provide the principle of equality without distinguishing by any means as in color or origin or nationality or language or religion or opinion or birth.
According to the international covenants of human rights which guarantee the right to free trial and right to life and in respect of the Egyptian workers file abroad, EOHR takes some procedures as follows:
1. lodging a complaint to the International Council for Human Rights and to the international and domestic organizations especially in Saudi Arabia to investigate into the two cases and taking a quick decision concerning this issue.
2. calling Saudi Arabia for reviewing its domestic laws according to the international conventions and the International Covenant On The Protection Of the Rights Of All Migrants Workers And the Members of their Families of 1990, and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and articles related to the right to a fair and just trial and to the International Convention against Torture.
3. Calling the Gulf countries and in particular Saudi Arabia for canceling bondsman system which conflicts with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic and Social Rights and prevents migrant worker to move from a place to another, EOHR calls for canceling all restrictions which prevent the workers to choose their suitable work and force them to disclaim their unpaid money. EOHR calls the Egyptian Authority and Embassy for interfering in this kind of cases to defend the rights of Egyptian citizens and to guarantee their lives in standing before a fair and just trial.
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