مركز النديم لتأهيل ضحايا العنف والتعذيب

Petition for immediate action by the United Nations Human Rights Council

The undersigned organisations urge the Human Rights Council to act urgently to respond to the violent repression of demonstrations currently underway in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond.  The Human Rights Council cannot be a passive bystander of such events, during which the lives of ordinary citizens have been taken or put at risk through violent and unlawful repression. Hundreds of thousands of people in several countries have taken to the streets to peacefully call for their fundamental rights and freedoms to be respected.  Several hundred demonstrators have been killed. Protestors, journalists, human rights defenders, former political prisoners and humanitarian workers have been beaten or arbitrarily arrested.   In the face of such wide-spread rights violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms the United Nations Human Rights Council can no longer remain silent.  The Council should:

Instead of the Egyptian Minister of Interior,8 activists brought to trial tomorrow for expressing solidarity with Coptic citizens

Eight young activists were arrested Tuesday the 4^th of January 2011from a solidarity gathering in Shubra. For hours lawyers and activists gathered yesterday in front of the North Cairoprosecution to demand the release of their colleagues. The eight activist were made to sign an acknowledgement today of their referral to an urgent trial tomorrow morning in the Rod El Farag court of demeanor, a procedure recently used by authorities against democracy activists Ahmed Doma (Justice and Freedom movement – Cairo) and Hassan Mostafa (Hashd movement – Alexandria) both of whom received a prison sentence of one month.

The eight activists were arrested from a solidarity gathering in Shubra, a neighborhood with Coptic majority, in the early hours of the 4th of January after being encircled by thousands of anti riot police and after violent clashes with police that resulted in several injured. Before the arrest the police would check the names of the protestors, permit the Copts to leave and keep who they believed were Muslim protestors inside the police cordon.

The violence against the solidarity movement following the massacre of the New Years' eve in Alexandria, which left an estimate of 21 dead, is an attack against several unified actions between Coptic and Muslim youth, which developed within the past days. 

As an example of the violence that took place in several locations since the beginning of 2011, please check the link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46YsFu511g4&feature=player_embedded

Update: Yucef released on the 29th of November 2010.

Update: Prosecution extends Yucef's detention 15 more days.

Journalist and activist Yucef Shabaan was supposed to present today in front of the magistrate of appeal to decide upon his release or extension of his administrative detention. On Friday the 19^th of November 2010 the Raml prosecution in Alexandria had ordered the detention of Shabaan for 4 days.. By law this decision should have expired today at 2.30 p.m. and Shabaan should have been released. But Yucef did not show up. Nobody saw him since his arrest on Friday while he was covering events in the area of Abu Soliman in Alexandria for the electronic El Badil newspaper where he works as a journalist.

Yucef was kidnapped from the street last Friday by officer Khaled Shalabi, chief of intelligence in Alexandria, who had previously threatened to “settle accounts” with Yucef during the latter’s participation in the Khaled Said protests. Upon his arrest, with other activists, Yucef was blindfolded, handcuffed and pushed into a microbus where he was brutally beaten by the officer himself and his assistants. The chief of intelligence pulled him by his hair and pushed his head out of the car window threatening that “Yucef will not be able to write again”.

The car initially took Yucef and the others to El Montaza police station. From there the rest of the detainees were then taken to El Raml police station where they were kept until they were thrown along the ring road, barefoot, with no IDs money or mobile phones. Yucef however was not with them. Since that day nobody has seen him.

Excerpts from the testimony of a survivor held in Madinet Nasr SSI headquarters:

They handcuffed me for 60 continuous days, even when I was asleep.. they locked me up in a cell, about 30 meters underground.. the officer told me: nobody knows you are here except the minister of interior.. as soon as I entered the place I was met by a reception of abuse that would shame anybody to hear.. they swore at my mother and myself with the most obscene words.. they accused me of several things,, stripped me of my clothes and then ordered me to put them on again.. they handcuffed me again and tightened the blindfold than said from no you are number 2.. forget your name.. they gave me the instructions to follow while I am there.. then they called one of the soldiers and told him get him two blankets and chose them full of fleas and lice.. they brought them.. they also allocated my space.. an area 1.5 m x 60 cm.. where I would put my blanket and sleep while still handcuffed and blindfolded day and night.. I was not interrogated for 7 days.. we were handled by the sergeants.. slapping, kicking, beating with the shoe on our face and we were made to stand for prolonged periods of time that could last 40 continuous hours.. we would hear the numbers being called out.. from 1- 89.. we would hear the screams of the victims days and night.. then the interrogation began and with that the electric shocks.

(from Madinet Nasr file.. to be published)

3 July

1. A lieutenant aggresses El Shorouk correspondent, verbally abuses him and beats him while covering an accident. The officer was informed of the nature of the correspondent’s profession but continued his aggression. (El Shorouk newspaper)

4 July

1. Blogger Amr Salama, author of the blog “Lessa Aish,” was arrested because of his coverage of electoral developments.  His last posts to Facebook before his arrest were the following: “After the National Democratic Party canceled elections in Sharqeya's Haheya district, in blatant disregard of court orders, I went to the Abu Kabir and Faqous districts – the most contested in Sharqeya.  I took photographs from inside polling staff headquarters, where they sat eating kofta and kebab and forging votes on election ballots for the NDP candidates in Abu Kabir.  Freedom for Amr Salama” (from Facebook).
2. From a letter: “Dear Residents of al-Fint village, al-Fishan Center in the Beni Suef governorate. Allow me to introduce myself: I have received advanced degrees, having completed a degree in philosophy and a master's degree from the Faculty of Literature at Cairo University.  Nevertheless, I am an Egyptian with little future, and am threatened by injustice, lies and slander.  On May 31, 2010, I was on a microbus in my village, al-Fint, heading toward al-Fishan to spend the night with one of my relatives.  Ramy Atef, an officer with the al-Fint police department, blocked my path.  He tried to take me from the microbus, and when I asked him why, he said, “get down,” and shoved me down on the back seat.  Then he threw me off the microbus and beat me with both his hands and feet, cursing and screaming insults.  He had   several officers from the al-Fint police department with him.  They took 1500 pounds from me, my ID, and two mobile phones.  He warned: “I took nothing from you,” then handcuffed me and took me to al-Fashin, where he beat me, cursed me and tortured me in every way possible.

Assessment issued by Duarte Nuno Vieira, Chief Forensic Pathologist, Professor of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Head of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine of Portugal (see attached CV) and Jørgen L.Thomsen, ChiefForensic Pathologist, Professor of Forensic Medicine, Head of the Institute of Forensic Medicine of Odense (see attached CV), concerning the forensic reports dated 10th June 2010 and 27^th June 2010, following the autopsies performed on Khaled Mohamed Said Sobhi on 7^th and 16^th June, 2010.

The opinion expressed is based upon the forensic reports indicated above (an English version was provided) and upon a set of seven photographs, of which two show Khaled Mohamed Said Sobhi alive (Photos 1 and 2 attached), 3 in the morgue from the first autopsy (Photos 3, 4 and 5 attached) and two from the second autopsy (Photos 6 and 7 attached).

Thus:

1) The report of the first autopsy, performed on 7th June 2010, reveals that it did not comply with the minimum international standards for forensic autopsies and that there were numerous significant deficiencies. For example, the description of the macroscopic anatomopathological findings observed is manifestly inadequate: basic data such as the weight and individual characteristics of the various organs are not given; there was no histological study (always essential) or complementary imaging tests (which would have been very relevant in this case to prove the absence of lesions), and the dissection technique used (as shown in the description of the opening incisions provided in the second autopsy) was inadequate for the situation (for example, the neck should never have been dissected using a single mentopubic incision), etc.

1 May
1. General Ismail El Shaer, first assistant to the Minister of Interior, sends a warning to independent MPs refusing their request to organize a peaceful demonstration demanding political reform. The demonstration was planned to head to parliament to submit the demands to the chair. In its refusal, the Cairo security directorate states that within the current security situation such demonstrations and protests may lead to disruption of public security in the capital and obstruct traffic to the disadvantage of citizens interests. The security directorate held MPs responsible for any breach of its orders. (EL Masry El Youm)
2. The detention of 8 members of the Muslim Brotherhood was renewed for 15 days. They are charged with belonging to a banned group and possession of books and publications that advocate the ideology of the group. (El Shorouk)
2 May
3. Security forces close Hussein Hegazi street in advance of the workers' protest demanding the court-ordered minimum wage.
4. Security forces blocked downtown in preparation of the 3rd of May demonstration by MPs and representatives of political parties. A security source told Al-Masry al-Youm that the demonstrations will be stopped, even if force is required to do so, especially since “they have been warned.” The source added that security forces will be spread throughout Midan Tahrir, through Magis al-Shaab and Qasr al-Aini streets, and in front of the Omar Makram Mosque, and that demonstrators would be dealt with severely.