Human Rights Organizations Condemn Gov’t Crackdown on Opposition

Eight human rights organizations issued a joint statement in which they condemned the policy of detentions that the Interior Ministry escalated in last period, specially against the Muslim Brotherhood group.
The statement voiced its fears that detention is the only means adopted by the Egyptian regime to deal with its opponents or what it calls troubles that can’t be solved, according to the regime, except through throwing troublemakers behind bars .

The statement attributed this security crackdown the group’s declaring its plans for establishing a political party, something that the Muslim Brotherhood was faced with on newspapers pages: request forming a political party” instead of working in thedark ” .
Also, the statement denounced arresting another group, called Salafis, and were accused of being Muslim Brotherhood supporters.

The organizations that signed the statement said:” while today’s detentions hit the Muslim Brotherhood more than others, past detentions hit the supporters of the movement of the judges for a judicial independence, and those calling for democracy and those who rejected rigging the referendums and the constitutional amendments that approves maintaining the system of emergency and torture; while we are about to enter into a new phase of constitutional amendments, which are approved only by the ruling party, and that will probably legalize the state of emergency through issuing ” the anti-terrorism law”, 2007 is expected to be full of protests and accordingly full of repression, detentions and tortures .”

The signatories demanded the powers struggling for democracy including public figures, civil society groups and organizations and parties to declare their rejection to the policy of detentions which is violating human rights whatever the one’s ideology or political attitude, and to declare their rejection to the policy of detentions which is currently the only instrument used by the Egyptian regime to deal with opponents, and they should exercise pressures to release all political and non-political detainees, and to lift the Interior Ministry’s tight grip over the country.

The statement was signed by:

The Egyptian Association Against Torture

The Arab organization for Criminal Reform

Nadim Center for Rehabilitating victims of Violence

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information

The Human Rights Society of helping prisoners

Hesham Mubarak’s Centre for Law

The Institution of Freedom of Thought and Expression

Society for Legal Aid to Human Rights

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