Amnesty International Report 2017/18
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154 Amnesty International Report 2017/18 executing six unarmed men and a 17-year- old boy.
DETENTION Torture and other ill-treatment remained routine in official places of detention and was systematic in detention centres run by the National Security Agency. In July, a Coptic man was arrested and detained in Manshyet Nasir police station in the capital, Cairo, in relation to a minor offence; 15 hours later, he was dead. Family members stated that they saw bruises on the upper part of his body, and the official autopsy report stated that his death was the result of a “suspected criminal act”. Prison authorities, including in Tora Maximum Security Prison and Wadi el- Natrun Prison, punished prisoners detained for politically motivated reasons by placing them in indefinite and prolonged solitary confinement. In February the Ministry of the Interior amended the prison regulations to allow solitary confinement to be increased up to six months; a practice that can amount to torture or other ill-treatment. Political activist Ahmed Douma spent his third year in solitary confinement in Tora Prison, confined to his cell for at least 22 hours a day. Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad el-Hadad remained indefinitely detained in solitary confinement in Al Aqrab maximum security prison since his arrest on 17 September 2013. Other forms of ill-treatment and medical negligence in prisons continued; dozens of prisoners died, often due to prison authorities refusing to transfer them to hospital for medical treatment. In September, former Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Mahdi Akef died in prison from pancreatic cancer. UNFAIR TRIALS Hundreds were sentenced, some to death, after grossly unfair mass trials. In September a Cairo criminal court sentenced 442 people in the case of the August 2013 al-Fateh mosque protests to prison terms of between five and 25 years after a grossly unfair trial of 494 defendants. Courts continued to rely heavily on reports of the National Security Agency and unsound evidence, including confessions obtained under torture, in their sentencing. Civilians continued to face unfair trials before military courts; at least 384 civilians were referred to military trials during the year. DEATH PENALTY Ordinary and military courts continued to hand down death sentences following grossly unfair mass trials. In June the Court of Cassation upheld the death sentences of seven men in two different cases after grossly unfair trials. At least six of the men had been subjected to enforced disappearance and tortured to force them to “confess” and the court relied heavily on these coerced confessions in its verdict and sentencing. Also in June, the Military High Court upheld death sentences against four men following grossly unfair trials in which the court relied on “confessions” obtained under torture during 93 days of incommunicado detention. 5 On 26 December the authorities executed 15 men who had been convicted by a military court of killing nine military personnel in North Sinai in 2013. WOMEN’S RIGHTS Women and girls continued to face inadequate protection from sexual and gender-based violence, as well as gender discrimination in law and practice. The absence of measures to ensure privacy and protection of women reporting sexual and gender-based violence continued to be a key factor preventing many women and girls from reporting such offences. Many who did report offences faced harassment and retaliation from the perpetrators or their families. In some cases, state officials and members of parliament blamed victims of sexual violence and attributed the incidents to their “revealing clothing”. In March a young student was attacked and sexually assaulted by a mob in Zagazig city, al-Sharkia governorate. Instead of arresting the perpetrators and bringing them to justice, the Security Directorate in al-Sharkia governorate Amnesty International Report 2017/18 155
issued a statement mentioning that by “wearing a short dress” the victim had “caused the mob attack”. Women continued to face discrimination in the judiciary. A number of women who attempted to apply to the State Council for appointment as judges were not given the papers needed to process their requests. One woman filed a suit against the State Council on grounds of discrimination. REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Asylum-seekers and refugees continued to face arrest, detention and deportation for entering or exiting the country irregularly. Between January and April, immigration officials deported at least 50 asylum-seekers from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan, including young children, to their countries of origin without giving them access to legal representation or to UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. The forced return of Eritrean asylum- seekers, as well as Ethiopian and Sudanese nationals with a well-founded fear of persecution, constituted refoulement. In July the authorities rounded up Chinese students, mostly of the Uighur ethnic minority, arresting at least 200 and deporting at least 21 men and one woman to China, in violation of Egypt’s non-refoulement obligations. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE In the worst crackdown in over a decade, the authorities across Egypt rounded up and prosecuted people on the grounds of their perceived sexual orientation after a rainbow flag was displayed at a concert in Cairo on 22 September. These prosecutions provoked a public outcry. Security forces arrested at least 76 people and carried out at least five anal examinations, a practice which amounts to torture. Those arrested included a man and a woman who were detained for three months for carrying the rainbow flag at the concert, as well as people who made online expressions of support for the raising of the flag. Many of those arrested were entrapped by security forces through online dating applications. Courts sentenced at least 48 people to prison terms of between three months and six years on charges that included “habitual debauchery”. The other people arrested remained in detention facing questioning by prosecutors. In late October, a group of parliamentarians proposed a deeply discriminatory law explicitly criminalizing same-sex sexual relations and any public promotion of LGBTI gatherings, symbols or flags. The proposed law carried penalties of up to five years’ imprisonment, or 15 years’ imprisonment for a person convicted of multiple charges. FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF The authorities continued to violate the right to freedom of religion by discriminating against Christians. In August, security forces prevented dozens of Coptic Christians from praying in a house in Alforn village in Minya governorate, citing reasons of security. There was continued impunity for sectarian attacks on Christian communities, and the authorities continued to rely on customary reconciliation and settlements agreed by local authorities and religious leaders. Amid this impunity, violence by non-state actors against Christians increased significantly. Armed groups in North Sinai killed seven Coptic Christians between 30 January and 23 February, prompting an unprecedented internal displacement of at least 150 Coptic families living in North Sinai. 6
failed to offer them the necessary protection or appropriate compensation. In December, IS claimed responsibility for the shooting of 10 people in an attack on a church in Helwan in southern Cairo. In November, an attack on a mosque in North Sinai during Friday prayers killed at least 300 worshippers. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. WORKERS’ RIGHTS The authorities subjected dozens of workers and trade unionists to arrest, military trial, dismissal and a range of disciplinary measures, solely for exercising their right to strike and form independent trade unions. In June a Cairo Misdemeanours Appeal Court Yüklə 2,84 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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