• EGYPT
  • January 12, 2016
  • 8 minutes read

UK Rights Organization Denounces Murder of 4 Coup Opponents in 3 Days by Coup Regime in Egypt

UK Rights Organization Denounces Murder of 4 Coup Opponents in 3 Days by Coup Regime in Egypt

During the last three days, security forces in Egypt killed four opponents with live ammunition, in two different provinces, then fabricated absurd stories to justify the heinous crimes.



On January 9, 2016 Dr Mohamed Mahmoud Awad, 30, was shot dead by security forces in Fayoum (southwest of Cairo). In justifying his killing, security officials announced: "A security force arrested Awad on charges of preparing for January 25, 2016 demonstrations. When they brought him into a police car, he assaulted an officer and tried to escape. He was then hunted by the security force and shot dead".


The Interior Ministry’s account of the killing of Awad is evidently an utter lie, based on the official report, which stated that Awad’s injury was in the abdomen (from the front). If he was indeed running away, the injury should have been in the back.


In her testimony to AOHR, the sister of the dead young-man said: "At 6:30 in the evening Saturday, January 9, 2016, a security force broke into my brother’s clinic, and shot him without provocation or justification – according to witnesses. Then, they took him, wounded, to an armored vehicle. Less than an hour later, we received a call telling us that my brother’s body was in Fayoum General Hospital’s morgue.


"When we went to collect my brother’s body from the hospital morgue, security forces kicked us out of the hospital and refused to hand us the body, or even let us see it. However, one of the doctors told us my brother had been shot in the stomach."


This was not the first incident in 2016. Two days ago, on January 7, 2016, the Interior Ministry announced in an official statement that its forces killed three citizens – it described as terrorists – in the Tenth of Ramadan City in Sharqeya (north-east of Cairo).


The statement said: "Security forces went out to arrest some persons implicated in several terrorist acts. As soon as they approached the property, place of the incident, in the Tenth of Ramadan City, those persons attacked the security forces with a hail of bullets. So, the security forces responded, killing all three attackers. The bodies were then transferred to Zeinhom morgue. The dead were: Nashaat Mahmoud Essam Ahmed, Mohamed Atwa Mustafa and Maher Abdullah Hassan".


The Interior Ministry’s account of this incident is a perfect copy of its description of most such incidents to justify dozens of such extrajudicial killings of opponents. The fabricated story also included clear contradictions regarding the number of those killed, the weapons that fired a barrage of bullets as described by the statement, and so on.


In their testimony to AOHR, the family of Nashaat Ahmed, 25, said: "Nashaat was wanted by coup security forces for being one of the opponents of the regime. So, he lived in an apartment with friends in the Tenth of Ramadan City. After midnight on Wednesday, January 6, 2016, we received a call from Nashaat’s neighbors, who told us that security forces arrested him along with two others who had been with him in the apartment.


"In the morning, we were shocked to hear an Interior Ministry statement announcing the death of Nashaat and his friends, and that the bodies were in Zeinhom morgue. Then, authorities prevented us, the families of the three victims, from receiving or even seeing the bodies, until the following day. Nashaat had been shot four times, all of which in the head and neck."


In his testimony to AOHR, the father of Mohamed Atwa Mustafa, 21, said: "We were shocked to hear the Interior Ministry statement that announced the killing of my son along with two friends in clashes with security forces. He had been wanted on fabricated charges, simply because he is regarded as one of the regime’s opponents. When we went to Zeinhom morgue to receive the body, we were turned away, until the following day. The corpse had two shots in the head".


The deaths of these four brings the number of those who have been executed by security forces since the coup (July 3, 2013) to 53 people, in addition to 39 people killed in that same period in dubious circumstances with not enough information, but the Ministry of Interior claims they died while carrying out terrorist operations. No authority investigated the deaths to confirm or refute the Ministry’s allegations.


The Arab Organization for Human Rights in Britain confirms that the Egyptian security forces’ account of the murder of four opponents in the incidents in question is a false and absurd statement, and that these persons were victims of cold-blooded premeditated murders. Indeed, there is an escalating wave of extrajudicial killings of dissidents in Egypt.


AOHR affirms that hundreds of Egyptians hounded by security forces for being dissidents are at risk of being killed outside the framework of the law at any time, with their fundamental rights, particularly the right to life, callously violated.


AOHR urges UN specialized bodies and international community institutions to urgently investigate all the horrid crimes committed by the Egyptian regime, especially the policy of extrajudicial killing.


AOHR also calls for an end to international silence regarding the Egyptian regime’s crimes. Indeed, strong relationships and political and military support for the Egyptian regime gave it the green light to trample human rights, especially the right to life, making the international community a partner complicit in these crimes.


Arab Organization for Human Rights in Britain