URGENT APPEAL FOR ACTION:
EGYPT SECURITY FORCES RAID LEADING HUMAN RIGHT ORGANIZATION, HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS ARRESTED AND HELD INCOMMUNICADO
(19 December, 2013) The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) issues an urgent appeal for action concerning a raid by Egyptian security forces on the headquarters of the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR)which took place at approximately midnight on 18 December, 2013.
During the raid six human rights defenders were arrested and held incommunicado including: Mr. Moustafa Eissa, Head of ECESR Documentaries Unit, Mr. Mahmoud Belal, a lawyer, and four volunteers for the ECESR, Mr. Hossam Mohamed Nasr, Mr. El-Sayed Mahmoud El-Sayed, Mr. Mohamed Adel, and Mr. Sherif Ashour.
Five of the six detainees have been released on the morning of December 19 at approximately 11:00 am; while Mr. Mohamed Adel is still in detention.
These human rights defenders were working on a documentary about the strike by the Iron and Steel Workers Union within Egypt which was intended to be screened at a press conference the following day.
CIHRS believes this raid may signal a grave escalation of attacks against human rights defenders by the current Egyptian government, and a renewed security crackdown on independent human rights organizations within Egypt. The last such crackdown which took place in December of 2011 resulted in the raiding of several national and international organizations.
Please immediately send official protests and communications to the Egyptian government:
- Denouncing raids and attacks on human rights organizations in Egypt;
- Expressing deep concern for the safety of Mr. Mohamed Adel, and calling on the authorities to immediately release this individual;
- Call on the Egyptian authorities to immediately and independently investigate the individuals responsible for these attacks against human rights defenders;
- Remind the Egyptian authorities of their duty to guarantee that human rights defenders and human rights organizations can carry out their work without fear of attacks or reprisals, as established in the 1998 UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
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UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL FOR ACTION:
EGYPT SECURITY FORCES RAID LEADING HUMAN RIGHT ORGANIZATION, HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS ARRESTED AND HELD INCOMMUNICADO
(19 December, 2013) Update 15 hrs 00
More than 60 security and police officers stormed the office of the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) at approximately midnight on 18 December, 2013. According to eye witnesses some of the officers belonged to Azbakeya and Abdin police stations and some belonged to the Homeland Security Agency (formerly known as the National Security Agency).
The officers were heavily armed and held non-armed human rights defenders working at the ECESR at gunpoint using automatic machine guns. When the ECESR’s lawyer asked the police officers to provide them with a search/arrest warrant one of the officers, believed to belong to homeland security slapped him. Another police officer tried to stop the homeland security officer from beating the ECESR employee at which point the homeland security officer also beat the police officer and tore his clothes.
The police confiscated three laptops and a computer monitor within the office. They then arrested and blindfolded the ECESR lawyer, another ECESR employee and four volunteers. They were then put into a car and taken to an unidentified location. They were forced to stay blindfolded for the duration of their detention. While being dragged to the car all six defenders were beaten and slapped despite not resisting.
Later CIHRS found out that when storming the ECESR, police asked the building’s gatekeeper not to close the door of the building and to expect a raid. During the raid, heavily armed police forces blocked surrounding roads, including the Kasr el Nil and Tala’at Harb Streets.
Lawyers from Egyptian human rights NGOs requested information on the whereabouts of the six defenders throughout the night, including at the Azbakeya and Abdin police stations, as well as at the Cairo Security Directorate. The whereabouts of the detainees were not revealed. Informal channels of information confirmed that the arrested human rights defenders were detained in an unknown Homeland Security detention facility.
The next morning (19 December) at approximately 10am, five of the six detainees were driven blindfolded again to the Abdeen police station. The police returned the laptops and the monitor back to the arrested defenders and they were released at approximately 11 am.
Mohamed Adel, a well known member of the April 6th youth movement and a volunteer with the ECESR, remains detained in an unknown location.
When the five other detainees were released they were told that they were arrested by mistake and that the main purpose of the raid was the arrest of Mohamed Adel. Adel is standing trial along with Ahmed Maher, another prominent leader of the April 6th movement and well-known activist Ahmed Douma.
However, CIHRS believes that the intent of the government was to intimidate independent rights groups in Egypt. Moreover, the ECESR also believes the attack may be in response to the recent engagement of the ECESR on the review of Egypt at the United Nations (UN) treaty body on economic, social and cultural rights, as well as its ongoing engagement on the upcoming Universal Periodic Review of Egypt, and as such constitutes a reprisal for engagement with the UN.
It is important to note that Adel surrendered himself to the court on the day that Maher and Douma’s detention was being renewed, and the court at this time ordered his release on grounds that he did not have a standing in the case.
A group of human rights organizations including ECESR, CIHRS and others are holding an international press conference today at 3 pm at the office of ECESR that was raided.
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