Egypt

The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A2

Dear Prime Minister,

We are writing this Open Letter to urge that you intervene in the case of Canadian citizen Mohamed Fahmy, who has been imprisoned for over one year in Egypt, with a direct request to the Egyptian government that he be released immediately and unconditionally and allowed to return to Canada.  We appreciate Minister Baird’s efforts to resolve the case during his visit to Cairo this week.  However, the fact that Mr. Fahmy remains imprisoned, with no clear commitment from Egyptian authorities to release him, points to the necessity of you now becoming involved.  We note that Mr. Fahmy himself made that request of you yesterday; and we very much agree with him that action from you personally is now urgently required.

Criminal justice system spiralling out of control

In response to the court ruling for 188 people to be sentenced to death in Egypt today on charges of killing 11 police officers in the town of Kerdasa in August 2013 Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Hassiba Hadj Sahrouai said:

“The death penalty ruling against 188 people to be sentenced to death in Egypt today is just another example of how the country’s criminal justice system is spiralling out of control.  These latest death sentences clearly expose a pattern of issuing death sentences en masse in cases involving police killings.”

“It is quite telling that the sentencing, the third such conviction we have seen this year, was handed down in the same week that the case against former President Hosni Mubarak was dropped and and former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and his aides were cleared of all charges over killing protesters during the 'January 25 revolution'. This is blatantly a case of justice being meted out based on a political whim."

Widespread student protests against the repressive practices of the current government have rocked Egypt since the academic year began on October 11th. The subsequent crackdown by the authorites has been marked by arbitrary and excessive use of force resulting in hundreds of arrests and injuries.

Amnesty International Canada and the Egyptian Canadian Coalition for Democracy have co-authored the following statement of solidarity:

We, the undersigned student associations and clubs, are following closely the situation in Egypt and the violation of the basic human rights of Egyptian students in universities all over Egypt since the start of the school year there in October.

Egypt’s defence of its human rights record lay in tatters today, Amnesty International said following the country’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) examination at the UN Human Rights Council today.

The Egyptian delegation in Geneva rejected criticism from UN member states despite damning evidence of human rights violations collected by Amnesty International and others.

“As expected, we saw a lot of posturing today from Egypt. The picture of the country the delegation provided was unrecognizable,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Program at Amnesty International.

“At best, they are completely disconnected from the scale of the human rights crisis engulfing the country. It was a pathetic attempt at a cover up.”  

Leading Egyptian human rights organizations had earlier announced they were withdrawing from the UPR process altogether for fear of reprisals by the authorities.

Many fear a sweeping crackdown will begin in five days’ time, when a government deadline for NGOs to register under the current Mubarak-era repressive Law on Associations expires.

Testimonies gathered by Amnesty International indicate that Egyptian security forces used excessive force to crack down on student demonstrations at Alexandria University this week, injuring at least 35 students and leaving three other students in a critical condition. Two security officers were injured during the clashes according to official figures.

Students interviewed by Amnesty International described how protests that started peacefully on university grounds later descended into violence. Security forces stationed outside the university’s main gate fired tear gas and shotgun pellets at a crowd of students, some of whom hurled ‘hmarich’ (fireworks), Molotov cocktails and stones. It is not clear how the clashes began but as they intensified, security forces broke down the main gate storming the university premises, chasing students and continuing to fire at them.

Egypt is tightening its chokehold on civil society, Amnesty International warned, as the country’s independent NGOs face the risk of being shut down if they fail to comply with a compulsory requirement to register by 2 September.

All non-governmental organizations could face closure and possible prosecution if they do not register by that date under the existing draconian law on associations.

“The looming deadline sounds very much like a death sentence for independent Egyptian NGOs. The authorities’ ultimatum is not about enabling NGOs to operate and instead paves the way for the closure of those that are critical of the government,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“The Egyptian authorities must immediately withdraw the requirement for compulsory registration, which is contrary to international human rights standards.”

The organization also urged the authorities to drop plans for a new law on NGOs which is set to be even more repressive than the current legislation.

•        At least 16,000 detained and at least 80 deaths in custody recorded in past year
•        Torture and other ill-treatment in detention continues unabated
•        Fair trial standards routinely flouted 

A surge in arbitrary arrests, detentions and harrowing incidents of torture and deaths in police custody recorded by Amnesty International provide strong evidence of the sharp deterioration in human rights in Egypt in the year since President Mohamed Morsi was ousted.