Schlagwort: Amnesty International

Responding to continued fears over the fate of detained Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who has been on hunger strike in prison since April and started refusing water on 6 November, Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said:

“The Egyptian authorities have cruelly and stubbornly refused to release Alaa or even to share any information on his well-being or exact location with his family, even though his mother has for the past three days waited at the gates of Wadi al-Natrun prison in the hope of receiving a letter from him. Alaa is now being detained incommunicado after the authorities denied him access to his family and the outside world. This alarmingly increases the risk of enforced disappearance, as well as torture and other ill-treatment.

Alaa is a prisoner of conscience who should never have been detained in the first place. Yet, now, he faces a very real risk of dying in custody while his family waits in agony for news. 

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International

“Alaa is a prisoner of conscience who should never have been detained in the first place. Yet, now, he faces a very real risk of dying in custody while his family waits in agony for news. With the eyes of the world transfixed on the glittering resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh during COP27, the plight of Alaa and his family has exposed the frightening reality of Egypt’s human rights abuses and the authorities’ total disregard for human life and their obligations under international law.

“World leaders and delegates visiting Egypt for COP27 must do everything in their power to pressure the authorities into immediately releasing Alaa and to speak out publicly that they expect nothing short of his unconditional release. The Egyptian authorities must ensure he receives adequate healthcare in line with medical ethics at a facility of his family’s choice and surrounded by his family and loved ones. The international community cannot continue with this inaction when Alaa is at risk of torture and even death. This would leave a grave reputational stain and illustrate the cost of not putting human rights at the centre of diplomacy.”

Background

Alaa Abdel Fattah, who has spent most of the past nine years unlawfully deprived of his liberty, was last arrested in September 2019. He has been denied access to consular officials since acquiring British citizenship in December 2021. 

On 20 December 2021, Alaa, human rights lawyer Mohamed Baker and blogger Mohamed Radwan “Oxygen” were convicted on bogus charges and sentenced to between four and five years in prison following a grossly unfair trial in reprisal for their activism and human rights work. 

All three are prisoners of conscience, having been solely targeted for their peaceful activism. They are among thousands arbitrarily detained in Egypt for political reasons. 

Amnesty International has consistently documented concerns over the denial of adequate healthcare in prison and interference by prison wardens and security officials in their medical assessment and care, including delays or even refusal to transfer the critically ill to hospital. Amnesty International has previously raised concerns over the independence of medical staff in Egyptian prisons, who report to the Ministry of Interior. As such, there are strong grounds to believe that decisions over his healthcare will not be made by independent medical professionals in compliance with medical ethics and free from coercion or interference by the authorities.

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Nineteen Sahrawi activists languish in prison years after Moroccan courts convicted them in unfair proceedings, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today.

The convictions of the so-called Gdeim Izik group stemmed from their purported role in lethal violence that erupted on November 8, 2010, when Moroccan police dismantled a protest encampment in Western Sahara. The trials were marred by a heavy reliance on “confessions” that the defendants repudiated as extracted through torture.

“Nineteen men have now spent 12 years in prison, with years still to serve, after trials that leaned heavily on tainted confessions,” said Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The passage of time has only heightened the injustice in this case.”

The UN expert body on torture during the past year condemned violations of the Convention against Torture in three cases involving the Gdeim Izik defendants and cast doubt on the probative value of the Moroccan judiciary’s tardy investigations into their torture allegations, which were unable to establish whether torture had taken place during the interrogations six years prior.

On November 8, 2010, Moroccan security forces moved to dismantle the Gdeim Izik encampment, which consisted of about 6,500 tents that Sahrawis had erected a month before near El-Ayoun, in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara to protest their social and economic conditions. The resulting violent confrontations in the camp and in El-Ayoun killed 11 security officers, according to Moroccan officials, as well as three civilians.

The continued imprisonment of the Gdeim Izik group on the basis of tainted evidence shows that when it comes to those who oppose Moroccan rule over Western Sahara, a fair trial is a pipe dream.

Amna Guellali, Amnesty International

Moroccan security forces repeatedly beat and abused people they detained in the immediate aftermath. Twenty-five men, some of whom the police detained before entering the camp, were later charged with forming a criminal gang and participating in or being complicit in violence against security forces “leading to death with intent,” among other charges. The men included several Sahrawi human rights defenders.

With the repudiated confessions serving as the main evidence, a military court in 2013 convicted all 25 defendants, sentencing 23 of them, including one in absentia who had fled abroad, to terms of 20 years or longer, and 2 to time already served.

In 2016, the Court of Cassation voided the military court verdict on the grounds that it was based on inconclusive evidence. The case was referred to a new trial in a civilian court.

In 2017, the Rabat Court of Appeals retried the case and upheld all of the convictions while reducing the sentences for two defendants, who were then freed. Another one of the original 25 had been on provisional release since 2011 for health reasons and died in 2018.

During the trial, the Appeals Court ordered forensic medical examinations of defendants willing to undergo them seven years after their interrogations. The examining doctors concluded in the cases they examined that, given the passage of time, torture could neither be proven nor disproven. The court nevertheless proceeded to admit the disputed confessions into evidence, alongside newly introduced evidence that largely failed to link individual defendants to specific acts of causing death or grievous injury.

In a November 2021 ruling on a complaint brought by one Gdeim Izik defendant, Mohamed Bourial, the UN Committee against Torture criticized the appeals court’s torture investigations, both for their tardiness and their failure to accord with the Istanbul Protocol, a set of guidelines for investigating and documenting torture allegations. The Committee said that “the State party has far exceeded the reasonable length of time for dispensing justice in the complainant’s case …. 11 years after the events and the submission of the first allegations of torture, no investigation in accordance with the Istanbul Protocol has been carried out.”

The committee adopted a similar decision in July 2022 in response to a complaint by another Gdeim Izik prisoner, Abdeljalil Laaroussi, finding that “the appeals court did not duly take into consideration the allegations of torture of [Laaroussi] when convicting him on the basis of his confessions. By not carrying out any verification of the substance of the petitioner’s allegations, apart from the medical examination ordered by the court, which had not been carried out in line with the Istanbul Protocol and using those declarations in the judicial procedure against the petitioner, [Morocco] manifestly violated its obligations under article 15 of the Convention.” Article 15 prohibits admitting evidence obtained through torture in any proceedings, except as evidence against someone accused of torture.

The Committee in 2022 also criticized Morocco in its ruling on a petition filed by a third Gdeim Izik complainant, Sidi Abdallah Abbahah. The main issue was again the failure to investigate promptly his torture allegations. The appeals court had offered in 2017 to investigate Abbahah’s allegations dating to 2010, but Abbahah refused.

Following the 2017 trial, the authorities dispersed the 19 remaining Gdeim Izik defendants, who had been held together, to six prisons inside Morocco. Most are being held in prisons at least 1,000 kilometers from El-Ayoun, the city most of them are from. Several have carried out repeated hunger strikes since then, alleging abuses including denial of medical care or family visits, and abusive solitary confinement. All have also demanded transfers to prisons closer to their families in or near Western Sahara. The U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners states in article 59, that “Prisoners shall be allocated, to the extent possible, to prisons close to their homes…”

Omar Hilale, Morocco’s ambassador to the United Nations, on October 31 denied any mistreatment of the Gdeim Izik prisoners.

Morocco’s Court of Cassation upheld the verdict on November 25, 2020, leaving no avenues of domestic judicial appeal open.

On July 1, 2022, lawyers on behalf of 18 of the 19 prisoners filed a lengthy petition to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, asking it to declare their detention arbitrary. It has yet to issue a decision.

Most of Western Sahara, a non-self-governing territory according to the United Nations, has been under Morocco’s de facto control since it seized the territory from Spain, its former colonial administrator, in 1975. The government considers it Moroccan territory and rejects demands for a vote on self-determination that would include independence as an option. That option was included in the referendum that Morocco and the Polisario, the liberation movement for Western Sahara, agreed to in a 1991 UN-brokered ceasefire agreement. The United Nations does not recognize Morocco’s de facto annexation.

Moroccan authorities systematically prevent gatherings in Western Sahara supporting Sahrawi self-determination. Morocco obstructs the work of some local human rights nongovernmental organizations, including by harassing their members and blocking legal registration processes, and on occasion beating activists and journalists in their custody and on the streets. 

“The continued imprisonment of the Gdeim Izik group on the basis of tainted evidence shows that when it comes to those who oppose Moroccan rule over Western Sahara, a fair trial is a pipe dream,” said Amna Guellali, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Amnesty International.

Gdeim Izik group prisoners:

Name	Sentence	Prison
Abdallahi Elouali Lakhfaouni	Life in prison	Kenitra
Ahmed Elbachir Sbai	Life in prison	Kenitra
El Houssein Boujmaa Lmahjoub Zaoui	25 years	Kenitra
Mohamed Elbachir Allali Boutanguiza	Life in prison	Kenitra
Naama Abdi Asfari	30 years	Kenitra
Hassan Sidi Raddi Eddah	25 years	Kenitra
Abdeljalil Kamal Laaroussi	Life in prison	TanTan
Elbachir Laabd Lmehdar Khadda	20 years	Tiflet
Mohamed Lamine Abidine Haddi	25 years	Tiflet
Sidi Abdellahi Ahmed Sidi Abbahah	Life in prison	Tiflet
Mohamed Hassana Ahmed Salem Bourial	30 years	Ait Melloul
Mohamed Mbarek Ali Salem Lefkir	25 years	TanTan
Mohamed Ahnini Erouh Bani	Life in prison	Ait Melloul
Sidi Ahmed Faraji Iich Lamjayed	Life in prison	Ait Melloul
Brahim Daddi Ismaili	Life in prison	Ait Melloul
Mohamed Ambito Andela Tahlil	20 years	Ain Bourja
Abdoulah Ahmed Elhafed Toubali	20 years	Bouizakarn
Chaikh Lkaouri Banga	30 years	Bouizakarn
Mohamed Khouna Eddih Bobit	25 years	Bouizakarn

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Responding to the authorities’ decision to refuse some people the ability to disembark in Catania, Sicily, and efforts to push them back to sea, Julia Hall, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director at the Europe Regional Office, said:

Italian authorities must urgently allow all people on ship to disembark as soon as possible

Julia Hall, Amnesty International's Deputy Director at the Europe Regional Office

“The law of the sea is clear; a rescue ends when all those rescued are disembarked in a place of safety. There is no room for creative interpretations of the law when people are suffering and traumatized after risking their lives at sea.

“By forcing 35 people to remain on board the Humanity 1, Italy is not only violating its international obligations to disembark and protect them under both human rights and maritime law but also creating a risky situation which endangers the rescued people and the crew of Humanity 1. We urge the Italian authorities to allow all those still on board to disembark as soon as possible.

“Hundreds of people on board other non-governmental organization rescue ships should also immediately be assigned a place of safety where they can disembark and receive assistance.

It is disgraceful that the Italian government continues to assist Libyan authorities in violating their people’s human rights

Julia Hall

“It is disgraceful that the Italian government continues to assist Libyan authorities in violating their people’s human rights. It adds insult to injury that the Italian government also refuses disembarkation to those who managed to leave that country.

“Italy legitimately expects other EU Member States to share responsibility for people seeking asylum, but this does not justify imposing measures that only increase the suffering of already traumatized people.”

Background

Earlier today, the Italian authorities ordered the German-flagged rescue ship Humanity 1 to leave the port of Catania with 35 exhausted rescued men still on board. Italian authorities allowed the other 144 people rescued by Humanity 1 to disembark after a selection made on the basis of a brief physical examination by health officials sent on board by the authorities.

All the people rescued by Humanity 1 departed from Libya, were refugees and migrants are at constant risk of torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary detention and other abuses. After attempting to cross the central Mediterranean on unsafe boats, they were rescued by the Humanity 1 and spent up to two weeks on the rescue vessel.

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The Egyptian authorities’ arrest of hundreds of people in the past two weeks alone in connection to calls for protests during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), is a reminder of the grim reality of Egypt’s policy of mass arbitrary detention to crush dissent, Amnesty International said. At least 151 detainees are currently being investigated by the Supreme State Security Prosecution, while hundreds more have faced shorter arrests and questioning.

“The arrest of hundreds of people merely because they were suspected of supporting the call for peaceful protests raises serious concerns over how the authorities will respond to people wishing to protest during COP27 – an essential feature of any UN climate conference. The Egyptian authorities must allow peaceful demonstrators to gather freely and refrain from using unlawful force or arbitrary arrests to deter protests,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Research and Advocacy Director.

“World leaders arriving in Sharm El-Sheikh for COP27 must not be fooled by Egypt’s PR campaign. Away from the dazzling resort hotels thousands of individuals including human rights defenders, journalists, peaceful protesters and members of the political opposition continue to be detained unjustly. They must urge President Abdelfattah al-Sisi to release all those arbitrarily held for exercising their human rights. As a matter of urgency, this should include imprisoned activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who today escalated his hunger strike to stop drinking water.”

In the lead-up to COP27, the Egyptian authorities released 766 prisoners following a decision by President al-Sisi to reactivate a Presidential Pardons Committee (PPC) in April. Yet over the same period, Amnesty International has documented the arrest of double that number; 1,540people who were questioned over the exercising of free speech and association.

In the past six months, Amnesty International has gathered data from dozens of lawyers who regularly attend interrogations and detention renewal hearings, reviewed court decisions and other official documents, and interviewed former prisoners as well as relatives of detainees.

Arrested ahead of COP27

In recent weeks, security forces have arrested and detained hundreds of people in downtown Cairo and town squares across Egyptian cities over content on their phones — a tactic often employed by police ahead of expected protests. While most were released within hours or days, some were taken to prosecutors, while others remain subject to enforced disappearance according to 11 lawyers in Cairo, Alexandria, Sharqiya and Dakahliya.

World leaders arriving in Sharm El-Sheikh for COP27 must not be fooled by Egypt’s PR campaign.

Philip Luther, Amnesty International

In September, Abdelsalam Abdelghani, 55, was arrested at his home on the outskirts of Cairo. Prosecutors questioned him about a Facebook group called “Our right”, including posts calling for protests on 11 November. The prosecutor questioned him on accusations of spreading “false news” and being “a member of a terrorist group” before ordering his detention pending an investigation.

Incarceration crisis

Egypt’s security agencies continue to use extrajudicial powers to determine which prisoners are released and have blocked the releases of thousands of prisoners arbitrarily detained solely for exercising their human rights.

Former presidential candidate and political party leader Abdelmoneim Aboulfotoh’s health is also at risk in detention. Lawyers Hoda Abdelmoniem and Mohamed Baker remain detained simply for their work defending victims of human rights violations. The authorities have largely excluded anyone believed to be a member of or affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

The authorities have also continued to ignore decisions to release detainees in a practise known as rotation. Since April, Egypt’s security agencies have also refused to implement judicial orders for the release of at least 60 detainees. Instead, National Security Agency (NSA) officers have taken them from prison without notifying their relatives. Many were subjected to enforced disappearance for days in which their fate and whereabouts were unknown before bringing them before prosecutors to face bogus terrorism or other national security-related charges.

Most released following the reactivation of the PPC continue to face restrictions on their expression and liberty. Seven recently released detainees told Amnesty International that the NSA ordered they remove critical content they had posted on social media or threatened to arrest them when COP27 concluded. Some who did not adhere have already been re-arrested, such as Sherif al-Roubi, an activist released in June but re-arrested in September after giving a media interview on the hardships faced by former prisoners. Others recently released remain under police surveillance, while many are arbitrarily banned from travelling.

Restrictions and protests in Sharm El-Sheikh

According to the website of the Egyptian presidency for COP27, anyone wishing to organize protests in Sharm El-Sheikh must inform the authorities 36 hours in advance and show the organizers a COP27 badge. Protests will only be allowed between 10:00-17:00 in an area far from the conference and monitored by cameras. The authorities have also limited the content of protests to climate related issues.

Amnesty International finds these measures to be unnecessary and disproportionate, aimed at restricting the ability of individuals to protest safely in a way that allows them to be seen and heard. The authorities must ensure that the notification requirement is only used to facilitate protests and does not imply an authorization, and strictly refrain from dispersing or otherwise repressing any protests that fail to meet this requirement.

Arbitrary and disproportionate measures have also been taken against Egyptians, using passes and hotel reservations to limit access to Sharm El-Sheikh, workers in Sharm El-Sheikh are also heavily restricted in their movement.

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