AOHR Blasts Continuous Security Pursuits of Ikhwan, Torture in Police Stations

The annual report of the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) blasted the Egyptian authorities” continuous pursuit of Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan) members during the last year.

 

The authorities arrested approximately 3245 of Ikhwan leading figures under different justifications. 220 of them were kept in custody and 613 others received detention orders in addition to jailing 428 others.

 

The report, issued yesterday about human rights in the Arab world, monitored increasing acts of violence between citizens and security troops in the Egyptian peninsula of Sinai after the incident of a security ambush opening fire on a cement-laden lorry driven by two Sinai locals.

 

The report, of which Al-Masry Al-Youm got a copy, was based on the annual report of the National Council for Human Rights, which included warnings against torture incidents and inhumane acts the citizens were exposed to in police stations and detention camps. The report lashed out at a number of negative aspects such as the phenomenon of overcrowded prisons.

 

It emphasized that the state did not expand in applying amnesty and conditional release policies. It turned a deaf ear to demands for assigning the task of prisons” supervision to the ministries of Justice and Social Solidarity instead of the Interior Ministry.

 

It stressed the continuation of complaints about partially suspending visits in some prisons, in addition to imprisoning some prisoners in remote prisons.

 

The report welcomed the public prosecutions” implementation of the Public Prosecutor”s orders to inspect detention camps and launch investigations into violations of detainees” rights.

 

But, it criticized the absence of that inspection from the detention camps affiliated to the State Security Agency and failure to launch necessary investigations into maltreatment and torture claims in these camps.

 

With regard to the freedom of expression in Egypt, the report noted a noticeable increase in the number of lawsuits filed against journalists relating to their job reaching 500 lawsuits.

 

The report referred to increased demands by workers and syndicates for reconsidering workers syndicates’ law and making it more democratic in order to remove administrative restrictions on workers syndicates.

 

With regard to women status, the report said there have been several complaints by parents of veiled Muslim students about a decree by the Franciscan Nuns School, where they are students, dismissing them because they did not take off their hijab (Muslim headscarf) .  

 

The report said the filed reports were referred to the prosecution last November. On the other hand, a preparatory school female teacher was pressurized to put on hijab.

 

It said women freedom of movement and going to outdoors festivals was violated in some Upper Egyptian villages, noting that sheikhs and inhabitants prevented women from exiting their houses to celebrate a religious occasion.

 

The report noticed that the state of sectarian congestion escalated during the past few years on the backdrop of some Christians and Bahais-relating problems. With regard to the Christians, about 7-10 millions or 9% of total population, the report said there is a state of congestion represented in violent reactions to some incidents of assault, joint marriage or converting to another religion.

 

The report added that some called for canceling the second article of the Egyptian constitution, which is relating to the Islamic sharia and removing the religion box from the national ID numbers. International goings-on helped increase the impact of these developments and issues.