Egypt: A new era of brutality
Barrister Solaiman Tushar :
In April 2022, the local and international human rights organizations called on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to halt the executions from mass death sentences issued against 16 persons in July 2021 in Case 303/2018, known in the media as “The 2015 bombing of the police bus in Beheira.”
The trial took place in a special court authorized during the country’s 2017-21 state of emergency, which did not permit any appeal.
It is claimed that the defendants did not have a fair trial before the emergency court and demanded a retrial in ordinary courts.
In June 2022, Amnesty International called to repeal death sentences following a verdict in the “Helwan Brigades” case, which the organization characterized as a “torture-tainted grossly unfair mass trial” for more than 200 defendants.
Egypt already ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
Under Article 3 of the UDHR “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person”.
Article 8 of the UDHR confirms that “Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.”
Article 10 of the UDHR states that “Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him”.
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi created an era that does not confirm the right to life, the right to get fair justice, the right to freedom of movement, freedom of expression, and so on.
Presently, human rights violation is a common phenomenon that includes, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; political prisoners or detainees; transnational repression against individuals in another country; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; serious abuses, unlawful or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings by the government or its agents, and by terrorist groups; enforced disappearance by state security; torture and cases of cruel, in a conflict, including reportedly enforced disappearances, abductions, physical abuses, and unlawful or widespread civilian deaths or harm; serious restrictions on free expression and media, including arrests or prosecutions of journalists, censorship, and the enforcement of or threat to enforce criminal libel laws to limit expression; serious restrictions on internet freedom; gender-based violence and a lack of investigation and accountability for such crimes; crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons; and significant restrictions on workers’ freedom of association, substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including overly restrictive laws on the organization, funding, or operation of nongovernmental and civil society organizations; restrictions on freedom of movement; serious and unreasonable restrictions on political participation; serious government restrictions on domestic and international human rights organizations.
In August 2022, the Campaign to Stop Enforced Disappearances reported that 2,300 of the 3,000 cases submitted to the Presidential Pardon Commission (PPC) for pardon or release involved enforced disappearances.
The situation for ordinary Egyptians is worse than ever.
The economy is in crisis, saddled with foreign debt, surging inflation, and a currency that has depreciated by nearly half.
An estimated third of Egypt’s 105 million people live in poverty, and the most populous Arab nation is currently selling off or leasing government-owned assets, like Telecom Egypt, public transport, or ports, to finance its foreign debt obligations.
In 2012, Mohammed Morsi became Egypt’s first democratically elected president.
But Egypt’s military removed the country’s first democratically-elected president Mohammed Morsi from power on 03 July 2013 and set up an interim government.
El-Sissi came into power then and is still in power.
Meanwhile, security forces cracked down on political opponents and their supporters, killed hundreds in street protests and arrested thousands of others.
Top Brotherhood leaders were sentenced to death in mass trials.
At the same time, El-Sissi has tightened his grip on power.
Independent journalists and anti-government activists have been harassed or arrested.
(The writer is Advocate, Bangladesh Supreme Court).
