Faces of a Crackdown, Video Interviews With Former MB Detainees

When Human Rights Watch began videotaping interviews with former detainees from Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, researchers asked whether the subjects might face repercussions for speaking out about their detentions.

“They’ve all been in jail before, some many times over. The government’s arresting people all the time,” replied Ahmad `Izz al-Din, a newspaper editor and the press secretary to the supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood. “They will be arrested again sooner or later. Sooner, later – what’s the difference?”

A few weeks later, on December 14, 2006, State Security and police officers arrested `Izz al-Din at his home in a predawn raid. As of May 30, he is in Tura Prison, on the outskirts of Cairo. His trial and that of 32 other leading members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood before a military court began on April 26, 2007 at a base outside Cairo. On May 8, a Cairo administrative court found that President Hosni Mubarak’s order to try the men before a military court was not valid, but on May 14 the Supreme Administrative Court reversed that decision after the government appealed. Their military trial will resume on June 3.

Egyptian law and government practices severely compromise the right of Egyptian citizens to freedom of association and sharply restrict the ability of groups to become legal political parties. Because the Muslim Brotherhood constitutes the largest and most influential opposition political group, it has been the main target of government repression and its members are arrested on an almost weekly basis solely for attempting to exercise their right to freedom of association and expression.

The number of Muslim Brotherhood members arrested over the past year dwarfs those arrested on any other political charge. Human Rights Watch has the names of more than 1,000 detained between March 2006 and Maarch 2007. As of May 23, 223 members of the Muslim Brotherhood remained in detention.

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood have renounced violence for more than 30 years, and today its leaders routinely stress the group’s nonviolent character and their commitment to gradual reform in accordance with democratic principles. But the Egyptian government continues to ban the organization as “a threat to national security.” The Egyptian Interior Ministry did not respond to Human Rights Watch’s request for a videotaped interview concerning its reasons for banning the organization.

In the years before the 1952 revolution, at a time when several now-legal political parties also maintained militias, the Muslim Brotherhood established an armed wing that participated in acts of violence. With government support, the Muslim Brotherhood openly recruited and trained volunteers to fight in the 1948 war with the newly established state of Israel.

President Gamal `Abd al-Nasser maintained ties with the Brotherhood before the 1952 revolution that brought the Free Officers to power, and the Brotherhood claims that Nasser was himself a member. But after a 1954 assassination attempt that he blamed on the Brotherhood, Nasser banned the group, arrested many of its members, and subjected many of them to severe torture. In an interview with Human Rights Watch, Rashad al-Bayumi, a member of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Council, described the torture he endured and his military trial from that era.

Nasser’s successor, President Anwar al-Sadat, after a six-year period of relative tolerance for the banned group, detained Brotherhood activists as part of a broad crackdown that netted more than 1,000 opposition figures from across the political spectrum in 1981. Detainees were tortured. Fatima Fadla Sa`id, the wife of `Isam al-`Irian, who is now the head of the Brotherhood’s Political Committee, described visiting her husband in prison at this time and finding that interrogators had torn his beard out in clumps.

Since Hosni Mubarak became president following Sadat’s assassination in 1981, authorities have alternated between allowing the Muslim Brotherhood more space to operate and reining it in through wide-scale arrests. Security forces conducted broad crackdowns in 1992 and again in 1995, ahead of parliamentary elections in that year. Most of the 1995 detainees were released soon after the elections, but military courts sentenced 54 key members to five years in prison for membership in the organization.

At the time of the November-December 2005 parliamentary elections, no members of the Muslim Brotherhood were in government custody. In November 2005, `Isam al-`Irian told the BBC that it was the first time in 20 years that no members of the group were detained in the lead-up to parliamentary elections. In the 2005 vote, Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated candidates running as independents won 88 out of 454 seats in the lower house of Parliament, despite widespread irregularities and state-sponsored violence. This showing made the Brotherhood the largest opposition group in Egypt’s legislature.

Brotherhood MPs used their seats in parliament to urge the government to enact democratic reforms and the Brotherhood lent its support to judges campaigning for judicial independence and clean elections in the spring of 2006. Mubarak’s government again cracked down, arresting at least 792 Brotherhood members between March and mid-October.

In December 2006, the government again stepped up its campaign against the Brotherhood after students demonstrated against the way student union elections were conducted at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University by wearing black hoods and staging a martial-arts display. Though the students apologized for their actions and Brotherhood leaders were quick to distance themselves from the demonstration, the government arrested more than 140 Al-Azhar students and 17 senior Brotherhood members in simultaneous predawn raids on December 14. Prosecutors subsequently charged the 17 with providing the students with weapons and combat training. On January 29, 2007, a Cairo criminal court dismissed all charges against them and called on the government to respect its ruling. Nevertheless, security forces re-arrested the 17 moments after their acquittal. On February 6, 2007, Mubarak referred their cases and those of 24 other Brotherhood members, including some based outside of Egypt, to a military tribunal.

The government again renewed the crackdown on the organization after the Muslim Brotherhood announced it would field candidates in the June 11 elections for the Shura Council, the upper house of the Egyptian Parliament. According to the Muslim Brotherhood, security forces arrested 87 of its members between March 19-22.

While today it is unusual for prominent Muslim Brotherhood detainees to be tortured in custody, there have been exceptions for those less well-known. Muhammad Usama, Cairo office manager for the Muslim Brotherhood, told Human Rights Watch that interrogators beat and electrocuted him and those detained with him in 2005 until one of the detainees died of a diabetes-induced seizure. Two Brotherhood-affiliated students from a rural area who requested anonymity, saying they feared for their families’ safety, told Human Rights Watch that State Security interrogators had hung them by their wrists, beat them, and electrocuted them when they were detained in 2006. Such incidents are rarer now than in the past.

The arrest and detention of members of the Muslim Brotherhood on politically motivated charges violate Egypt’s commitments under its international treaty guarantees of the rights to individual liberty, fair trials, freedom of association, and freedom of speech.

The government has detained members of the Brotherhood under provisions of Egypt’s Emergency Law, in place without interruption since1981, that allow authorities to hold detainees for years under continually renewed “administrative detention” orders without charge, trial, or legal recourse. Prosecutors have at times brought charges against detainees, but have released them before their cases reached trial, leaving the charges pending. When Brotherhood members do stand trial, they are most often charged with membership in a banned organization. Article 86(bis) of Egypt’s Penal Code, passed as part of antiterrorism legislation in 1992, criminalizes membership in an organization that “impairs the national unity or social peace.”

Such overbroad and vague prohibitions invite abuse. As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Egypt has undertaken to uphold the right to freedom of association. Article 22 of the covenant specifies that the only permissible exceptions to this right are those “which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order, the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights of others.” These exceptions are narrowly framed, and the burden of demonstrating that such action is necessary in a specific case rests with the state. For a state to adopt the extreme measure of banning an organization, it would need to show that this was strictly necessary to achieve a specific and legitimate purpose within one of the enumerated exceptions.

It is the government’s responsibility, where evidence exists that a group or its members are engaged in illegal conduct – such as acts of violence or incitement to violence – to prosecute them according to the law. But the Egyptian government has never convincingly justified its continued ban of the Muslim Brotherhood and the widespread and ongoing arrest of its members.

Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated MPs led the parliamentary opposition to constitutional amendments that Parliament approved in a party-line vote on March 21, 2007, and that Egyptian voters approved in a March 26 referendum. Judicial and civil-society monitors, including those from the ruling party’s National Council on Human Rights, said that serious irregularities marred the polling, and that the real turnout was a fraction of the official rate of participation, of 27 percent.

One of the adopted amendments outlaws any political party or political activity “within any religious frame of reference or on any religious basis or on the basis of gender or origin.” The ICCPR, which Egypt ratified in 1982, prohibits such broadly worded bans on particular categories of political parties or political activity. Rather, it guarantees to citizens, in article 25, the right to take part in the conduct of public affairs either directly or through freely chosen representatives and the right to vote and to be elected in periodic and fair elections. These rights entail participation in, and voting for, political parties, and may not be denied on the basis of race, religion or gender, among other distinctions. The present law violates the rights of supporters of a party that claims a religious basis for its program to associate together and to vote for representatives of their choice, and is difficult to reconcile with article 2 of the Constitution, which holds that “Islam is the religion of the state…and the principle source of legislation is Islamic jurisprudence (Shari`).”

Article 9 of the ICCPR further provides that everyone “has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention.” To ensure freedom from arbitrary detention, article 9 provides that anyone “who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings before a court, in order that that court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his detention and order his release if the detention is not lawful.” Article 41 of the Egyptian constitution likewise affirms that “no person may be arrested, inspected, detained or have his freedom restricted in any way or be prevented from free movement except by an order necessitated by investigations and the preservation of public security.” Many of the Brotherhood detainees were held as long as eight months without ever being charged or brought to trial. Others were convicted by military courts whose procedures fell far short of international standards, and whose decisions could not be appealed. Still others were first acquitted by civilian courts, promptly re-arrested, and detained again pending a trial before a military court.

To fulfill its international obligations to protect fundamental rights, the Egyptian government should immediately release all members of the Muslim Brotherhood and any other members of political organizations or movements, who are being detained solely for peacefully exercising their rights to free association and expression.

According to lawyers, the following members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood were detained as of May 23:

Facing military trials:

1. Muhammad Khairat Sa`ad `Abd al-Latif al-Shatir, Mazra`it Tura Prison
   
2. Muhammad Mahmud Hafiz Muhammad, Mazra`it Tura Prison
   
3. Hasan `Izz al-Din Yossuf Malik, Mazra`it Tura Prison
   
4. Ahmad Mahmud Ahmad Shusha, Mazra`it Tura Prison
   
5. Ahmad Ashraf Mustafa `Abd al-Warith, Mazra`it Tura Prison
   
6. Sadiq `Abd al-Rahman Sadiq al-Sharqawi, Mazra`it Tura Prison
   
7. Hasan Muhammad Ahmad Zalat, Mazra`it Tura Prison
   
8. Farid `Ali Ahmad Galbat, Mazra`it Tura Prison
   
9. Gamal Mahmud Sha`ban al-Sayid, Mazra`it Tura Prison
   
10. Mahmud al-Mursi Muhammad Qurra, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
11. Yassir Mahmud `Abdu `Ali, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
12. `Abd al-Rahman Muhammad Muhammad Sa`udi, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
13. Khalid `Abd al-Qadir `Ali `Auda, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
14. Usama `Abd al-Muhsin `Abdullah Sharbi, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
15. Muhammad Isma`il `Ali Bishr, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
16. Midhat Ahmad Mahmud al-Hadad, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
17. `Isam `Abd al-Halim Ibrahim Hashish, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
18. Diaa’ al-Din al-Sayid `Abd al-Magid Farahat, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
19. Ahmad Ahmad Ahmad al-Nahas, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
20. Amir Muhammad Bassam al-Naggar, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
21. Sa`id Sa`d `Ali `Abdu, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
22. Mahmud `Abd al-Latif `Ali `Abd al-Gawad, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
23. Ayman Ahmad `Abd al-Ghani Hasanin, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
24. Mahmud Ahmad Muhammad Abu Zid, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
25. Salah al-Dosuki `Aamir Murad, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
26. `Isam `Abd al-Muhsin `Afifi Muhammad, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
27. Mamduh Ahmad `Abd al-Mu`ti al-Hussaini, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
28. Sayid Ma`ruf Abu al-Yazid Musbah, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
29. Muhammad Mihni Hasan Mussa, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
30. Fatihi Muhammad Baghdadi `Ali Muhammad, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
31. Mustafa Muhammad Mahmud Salim, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
32. Ahmad `Izz al-Din Ahmad Muhammad al-Ghul, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
33. Muhammad `Ali Muhammad Baligh, Mazra`it Tura Prison

Not facing military trials as of May 23:

1. Amin Idris Muhammad Idris, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
   
2. Muhammad `Abd al-`Aziz Ibrahim al-Tahrawi, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
   
3. Ayman Fahmi al-Sayid Sayid Ahmad, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
   
4. Muhammad Hasan Ahmad Hasan Qishta, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
   
5. Abu al-Futuh Muhammad Mahmud Qishta, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
   
6. `Abd Rab al-Nabi Mahmud Qishta, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
   
7. Muhammad al-Sayid Ibrahim, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
   
8. Ahmad Soliman Ibrahim Shu`il, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
   
9. `Abdullah Muhammad `Ali al-Nahas, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
   
10. Sa`d Abu al-`Ainin Mutwali, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
11. Gamal Sa`d Badawi Khalifa, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
12. Mustafa Muhammad Mustafa al-Halwani, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
13. Ahmad `Abd al-Gawad Shahin, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
14. Fatihi `Abd al-`Aziz `Abd al-Gilil, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
15. Fatihi Tawfiq Nasr al-Din, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
16. `Abd al-Salam Zaki Muhammad Bashandi, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
17. Muhammad Ibrahim Ahmad Hussin, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
18. `Ali Allah Nasr Nasr Ziyaddi, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
19. `Abd al-Nassir Hamid `Abd al-`Al Abu al-Dahab, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
20. Nassir Ramadan `Aid Hussain, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
21. `Ashur Muhammad Muhammad, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
22. Muhammad Qurani Muhammad, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
23. Ahmad Ibrahim Bayumi Sabra, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
24. Sa`d Mahmud Muhammad, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
25. Gamal `Abd al-Fatah Rajab Hasan, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
26. Ayman Qurani Muhammad Muhammad, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
27. Al-Sayid Muhammad Muhammad al-Najar, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
28. Muhammad `Abd al-Rahman al-Mursi, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
29. Hamid Mansur Abu al-Nasr, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
30. Muhammad Zakariyya Muhammad Mahmud, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
31. Tawakul Muhammad Mas`ud Muhammad, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
32. Fo’ad Fatihi Ahmad `Olwan, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
33. Hosam Muhammad Rif`at Ibrahim, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
34. `Adil Muhammad Hanafi Hasan, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
35. `Ala’ `Abd al-Rahman Muhammad, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
36. Ahmad Muhammad Ahmad `Ali, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
37. `Abd al-Rahman Abu al-Hasan Muhammad, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
38. Ahmad Ahmad `Ali Muhammad Garmun, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
39. Ahmad Anwar Soliman, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
40. Muhammad Hasan Muhamad al-Shikh, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
41. Mahmud Ibrahim Yossuf Doma, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
42. Zakariyya Zakariyya al-Sa`idi, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
43. Gabir Muhammad `Ali `Abd al-Hamid, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
44. Nur al-Islam `Abd al-Munsif Hammad, Wadi Al-Natrun Prison
    
45. `Ali Muhammad Muhammad Hisham, Burg Al-`Arab Prison
    
46. Munir Ahmad Mabruk Hatata, Burg Al-`Arab Prison
    
47. Ahmad Muhammad `Abd al-Salam al-Sab`awi, Burg Al-`Arab Prison
    
48. Ashraf Muhammad `Alam al-Din, Burg Al-`Arab Prison
    
49. Ahmad Mahmud Isma`il, Burg Al-`Arab Prison
    
50. Salah `Abbas Muhammad al-Buhi, Burg Al-`Arab Prison
    
51. Muhammad Kamal Khamis, Burg Al-`Arab Prison
    
52. `Okasha Mahmud `Okasha `Abbad, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
53. Gamal `Abd al-Salam Radwan, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
54. `Abd al-Majid Muhammad `Omran, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
55. Farid Mussa Muhammad Sha`ban, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
56. Ahmad Ahmad `Abd al-Wahab Dallah, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
57. Khalid Abu al-Majd Muhammad, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
58. Muhammad Abd al-Fatah `Owais, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
59. Ashraf `Issa Jibali, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
60. Mahmud Sayid Abdullah Ghazlan, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
61. Mahmud Sa`d `Oliwa Muhammad Taha, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
62. Gamal Fatihi Muhammad Nassar, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
63. Mustafa Tahir `Ali Ghunimi, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
64. Muhammad al-Muhamadi Hasan al-Sorugi, Mazra`it Tura Prison, Provisional detention
    
65. Muhammad `Ali Ibrahim al-Qasas, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
66. Muhi Hamid al-Sayid Muhammad, Mazra`it Tura Prison
    
67. Gamal Abd al-Fatah al-`Ashri, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
68. Muhammad Faruq al-Badrawi, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
69. Shakir Fo’ad Qassim, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
70. Shahat Sabri `Abd al-Nabi Salim, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
71. `Abd al-Nassir `Abd al-Rahman Muhammad, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
72. Mansur Nasr Mansur, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
73. Hisham Ahmad Muhammad, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
74. Hamdi `Abd al-Sami` Muhammad, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
75. Muhammad Ragab `Atiyya, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
76. Usama `Awad Mardi, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
77. Ahmad Muhammad `Abd al-Qadir Rabi`, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
78. Ahmad Mahmud `Abd al-Hafiz, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
79. Muhammad Hilmi al-Sayid, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
80. Ahmad Muhammad Ibrahim al-Sayid, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
81. Sa`d `Abbas Sa`d, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
82. Walid Mustafa Gabir, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
83. Ashraf Fo’ad Isma`il, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
84. Ahmad Mukhtar al-Sayid, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
85. Salih Muhammad Salih, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
86. Wahid Rida `Abdallah, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
87. Samir Ahmad Muhammad Hammad, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
88. Mahmud Mustafa Muhammad `Agina, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
89. Muhammad Mahmud Muhammad `Abd al-`Al, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
90. Nadir Tawfiq Mustafa, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
91. Salim Ramadan `Abd Rabuh `Abd al-Rahman, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
92. `Abd al-Mun`im Mahmud Ibrahim Muhammad Hasan, Al-Mahkum Prison
    
93. Ahmad Ibrahim `Ali al-Hifnawi, Mazra’it Tura Prison
    
94. Sami al-Sayid Guda al-Shawish, Mazra’it Tura Prison
    
95. Muhammad `Abd al-`Aziz Muhammad `Aiyyad, Mazra’it Tura Prison
    
96. `Ashur Muhammad Mustafa al-Halawani, Mazra’it Tura Prison
    
97. Nagib `Abd al-`Aziz Mahmud al-Zarif, Mazra’it Tura Prison
    
98. `Ashur Soliman Ghanim, Mazra’it Tura Prison
    
99. Muhammad Sa`d `Abd al-Wahab al-Bahr, Mazra’it Tura Prison
    
100. Fatihi Muhammad Ibrahim Shabab al-Din, Mazra’it Tura Prison
     
101. Abu al-Futuh `Afifi Shusha, Mazra’it Tura Prison
     
102. Muhammad `Abdullah Mahmud Isma`il, Mazra’it Tura Prison
     
103. Usama Ibrahim Soliman, Mazra’it Tura Prison
     
104. Khalid Mustafa Ibrahim al-Qamhawi, Mazra’it Tura Prison
     
105. Ihab Muhammad al-Sayid, Mazra’it Tura Prison
     
106. Mahdi Muhammad Qharsham, Mazra’it Tura Prison
     
107. Ahmad Muhammad Abu al-Futuh, Mazra’it Tura Prison
     
108. Fawzi Muhammad `Ashur, Mazra’it Tura Prison
     
109. Hasan Sif al-Nasr Mahmud, Mazra’it Tura Prison
     
110. Salama Hasan Higazi, Mazra’it Tura Prison
     
111. Ahmad Khamis Shama, Mazra’it Tura Prison
     
112. Muhammad `Abd al-`Aziz Muhammad, Mazra’it Tura Prison
     
113. `Omar `Abdullah `Abdullah, Al-Mahkum Prison
     
114. `Omar Mahmud al-Hurish, Al-Mahkum Prison
     
115. `Ala’ al-Din Muhammad Hasan Muharam, Al-Mahkum Prison
     
116. Yihia Rizq `Ali `Issa, Al-Mahkum Prison
     
117. `Abd al-Hakim `Ali Ahmad al-Sharqawi, Tanta Prison
     
118. Muhammad Ibrahim al-Kurdi, Tanta Prison
     
119. Muhammad Kamal `Atiyya Zaghlul, Tanta Prison
     
120. Muhammad Muhammad `Abd al-Ghani Farag, Al-Mansura Prison
     
121. Ahmad al-Sayid Ahmad al-Sayid `Oliwa, Tanta Prison
     
122. Ahmad `Abd al-Mu`ti Ahmad Zahra, Tanta Prison
     
123. Muhammad Kamal Khamis, Burg Al-`Arab Prison
     
124. Muhammad Ra’fat Salih, Al-Mahkum Prison
     
125. Ibrahim Ramadan `Atiyya, Al-Mahkum Prison
     
126. Muhammad Fawzi Mahmud, Al-Mahkum Prison
     
127. Ahmad Hamid `Ali al-Hisi, Al-Mahkum Prison
     
128. Al-Nadi Mahmud al-Sayid, Al-Mahkum Prison
     
129. Muhammad Gamal `Abd al-Raziq, Al-Mahkum Prison
     
130. Muhammad Mufid Muhammad, Al-Mahkum Prison
     
131. `Adil `Abdullah Yunis Istiqbal, Tura Prison
     
132. Subhi Hasan `Abd al-`Al, Tanta Prison
     
133. Muhammad al-Sayid Muhammad Isma`il, Tanta Prison
     
134. Rif`at Muhammad `Abd al-`Alim, Tanta Prison
     
135. `Ala’ Ahmad Mas`ud, Tanta Prison
     
136. Muhammad Muhammad `Abd al-`Aziz, Tanta Prison
     
137. `Ali Mussa `Ali Mussa, Tanta Prison
     
138. Muhammad Mahmud Mussa, Tanta Prison
     
139. Mustafa Muhammad `Abd al-Halim, Tanta Prison
     
140. Samir Ahmad `Abd al-Hamid, Tanta Prison
     
141. Muhammad Sabri Muhammad Mussa, Tanta Prison
     
142. Al-Sayid `Abd al-Majid Muhammad `Ali, Tanta Prison
     
143. `Abd al-Nassir `Abd al-Hamid Ibrahim, Tanta Prison
     
144. Hamdi `Abd al-Wahab Ahmad, Tanta Prison
     
145. Samir Mahmud `Abd al-Fatah, Al-Mahkum Prison
     
146. Rida Fatihi Mahmud, Al-Mahkum Prison
     
147. Ashraf Muhammad al-Sayid `Alam al-Din, Burg Al-`Arab Prison
     
148. Salah Sayid `Abbas Muhammad, Burg Al-`Arab Prison
     
149. Muhammad Faiyyad `Abd al-Mun`im, Al-Zaqaziq Prison
     
150. Mahmud al-Sayid al-Wahid, Al-Zaqaziq Prison
     
151. Muhammad Ahmad al-Sayid Gassir, Al-Zaqaziq Prison
     
152. Ahmad Mahmud `Abd al-`Alim, Burg Al-`Arab Prison
     
153. `Abd al-`Alim Rajab Mussa, Tanta Prison
     
154. Hasanin Muhammad Hasanin, Isma`iliyya Prison
     
155. `Ali Muhammad Muhammad `Abdullah, Isma`iliyya Prison
     
156. Muhammad Isma`il `Abdullah, Isma`iliyya Prison
     
157. Islam Ahmad `Abd al-Khaliq, Isma`iliyya Prison
     
158. Ahmad Muhammad Suilam, Al-Zaqaziq Prison
     
159. Kamal `Abd al-Latif `Abd al-Tawab al-Bahnasi, Al-Munufiyya Prison
     
160. Muhammad Hasan `Awad Rashid, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
161. `Abd al-Mu`iz Mustafa `Issa Bayumi, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
162. Midhat `Ali `Abd al-Fatah Muhammad, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
163. `Abd al-Hakam al-Sayid Muhammad Ghanim, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
164. Muhammad Rashad Ahmad `Abd al-Rahman, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
165. `Abd al-Qadir `Abd al-Hakim `Abd al-Gawad Zahran, Mazra`it Tura Prison/li>
     
166. Ibrahim al-Sayid Muhammad `Ashur, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
167. Samih `Abdullah al-Yamani, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
168. Mukhtar al-Sayid `Ali `Ali, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
169. Salah Sa`id `Abd al-Salam, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
170. Ayman `Ali `Abd al-Fatah, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
171. `Abd al-`Aziz `Abd al-Qadir Ibrahim `Ali, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
172. Muhammad Shawkat `Ali Hasan al-Malt, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
173. Ahmad Muhammad Ahmad Salim, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
174. Nassir Salah `Atiyya, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
175. Muhammad Khairy Hasan, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
176. Khalid `Abd al-Ra’uf Mahmud Shalabi, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
177. Muhammad Shafiq `Ali Hasan al-Malt, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
178. `Abd al-Karim Higab, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
179. Salah `Aqab, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
180. Muhammad `Abd al-Badi` Sa`d, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
181. `Isam Sayid Ahmad, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
182. Nassir al-Sayid `Abd al-Rahman, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
183. Hosam Muhammad `Abd al-Salam, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
184. Muhammad Mahmud `Abdullah, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
185. Ashraf `Abd al-Hamid Ghanim, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
186. Magdi Ahmad Lutfi, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
187. Muhammad Sa`id `Abd al-Salam, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
188. Mahmud Ahmad `Abd al-Mutilib, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
189. Sami al-Anwar, Mazra`it Tura Prison
     
190. `Ala’ Muhammad Mursi, Mazra`it Tura Prison

Mahmud `Izzat Ibrahim Mahmud `Izzat Ibrahim, 62, is a professor of medicine at Zaqaziq University. He is secretary general of the Muslim Brotherhood. Security forces arrested him in 1965, tortured him during interrogation, then jailed him after a military trial. He was detained again, for six months, in 1992. Security forces again detained him as part of mass Brotherhood arrests ahead of parliamentary elections in 1995, and a military court sentenced him to five years in prison for membership in a banned organization. He served the entire sentence. Security forces again detained him, this time for three months, ahead of the 2005 elections, then again in August 2006. He was last released October 18, 2006. Human Rights Watch spoke to him on December 14, 2006, the day police arrested more than 17 senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and 140 Brotherhood-affiliated students at Al-Azhar University in simultaneous predawn raids.

Rashad al-Bayumi Rashad al-Bayumi, 70, joined the Muslim Brotherhood in 1948. Today he is a professor of geology at Cairo University and a member of the Guidance Council, the Brotherhood’s executive body. In 1954, he was arrested and tortured before being convicted in a military trial. He was imprisoned from 1954 until 1971. Authorities also detained him for four months in 1996, again for two-and-a-half months in 2002, and most recently from March to August 2006.

`Isam al-`Irian `Isam al-`Irian is the head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Political Committee. Security forces first briefly detained him in 1979, then again in 1981 as part of a President Anwar al-Sadat’s broad crackdown against all opposition forces. Interrogators tortured him after Sadat’s assassination while he was under investigation by the Public Socialist Prosecutor, an office Sadat frequently used to try political opponents. Interrogators and the prosecutor determined he was innocent of any connection to the murder and released him in August 1982. Security forces arrested him again shortly before the 1995 parliamentary elections, and a military court sentenced him to five years in prison for belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood. Security forces again detained him ahead of the 2005 parliamentary elections and released him without trial more than five months later. Security forces once again arrested him in May 2006 and held him for seven months on charges of belonging to a banned organization and participating in an unlicensed demonstration. He was released in December 2006 without trial. Human Rights Watch spoke with him the day after his release, soon after a court refused the prosecution’s request for him to be placed under house arrest.

Fatima Fadla Sa`id Fatima Fadla Sa`id married `Isam al-`Irian in 1978. Their second child, Yusuf, was born and died while his father was in prison. She describes visiting her husband after his torture.

Muhammad Usama Muhammad Fuad Muhammad Usama is the office manager at the Muslim Brotherhood’s Cairo office. Security forces detained him on May 29, 2005, tortured him, and held him for six months. State Security confiscated approximately 245,000 Egyptian pounds ($43,018) when they raided his apartment. He told Human Rights Watch that prosecutors have not informed him of any action they took in response to the complaints he lodged against State Security for his torture and the confiscated money.

`Asim Shalabi `Asim Shalabi, 50, is a publisher, president of the Arab Publisher’s Union, and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Security forces detained him ahead of the 1995 parliamentary elections, soon after he injured his leg in a car accident. His leg became worse without treatment in prison, so he was briefly transferred to a hospital but returned to prison before the treatment was concluded. He still walks with a limp as a result. Security forces again detained him in April 2006, shortly before he was scheduled to publish a book on Egypt’s Emergency Law. The government has twice closed his business. The most recent closure caused loses, he said, of close to $500,000.

Yihya Sami Hamid Yihya Sami is a civil-engineering student at `Ain Shams University and a Muslim Brotherhood activist. At a May 11, 2006, demonstration in support of judges campaigning for judicial independence and free elections, police beat him, arrested him, and a prosecutor ordered him detained for 15 days. Press photographs of police kicking him on the ground became iconic of the crackdown on the spring 2006 demonstrations. Here he describes his arrest and interrogation.

Muhammad Sulaiman Muhammad Sulaiman is a student at `Ain Shams University’s Faculty of Arts and a Muslim Brotherhood activist. At a May 11, 2006, demonstration in support of reformist judges, police beat him and then detained him for 15 days before releasing him without trial.

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