UAE Activists on trial

The piece below has been contributed by Jenifer Fenton, a freelance journalist based in the UAE, formerly with CNN.

Five activists charged with opposing the government and insulting the country’s leadership returned to court on Monday in the United Arab Emirates. Ahmed Mansoor, a prominent Emirati human rights activist and blogger, and four others - who face up to five years in prison if convicted - have pleaded not guilty.

Behind closed doors in Abu Dhabi’s Federal Supreme Court the prosecution called two more witnesses who testified about the activists’ internet articles and blogs. There was a gathering of about 50 pro-government demonstrators outside the courthouse who protesting against the five: Emiratis Mansoor, Nasser bin Ghaith, Fahad Salim Dalk and Hassan Ali Al Khamis; and Ahmed Abdul Khaleq, who does not carry identification papers.

Earlier this year, Mansoor was among 133 Emiratis who signed a petition to President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the Supreme Council of the seven Emirates asking for the country to have direct elections.  The group also asked that the Federal National Council (FNC) be granted legislative powers; the body is only an advisory one.

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Morocco vs. solidarity: Kamel Jendoubi

I was shocked, although not altogether surprised, to learn about Kamel Jendoubi yesterday. I was in Morocco most of the summer and just flew back as Jendoubi, a renowned Tunisian human rights activist, was being prevented from entering the country. Jendoubi had been invited by Moroccan rights groups, who wanted to honor his activism. The authorities gave no official reason for him being barred, but it appears pretty clear that it's to appease the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia, perhaps in exchange for a modicum of support on the Western Sahara or in Morocco's spat with Libya over the same issue. 

Jendoudi heads the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, which has its name indicates links activists across the region. Meetings like the ones in Morocco, perhaps the country of the south Mediterranean with the strongest civil society groups and experience, are essential to lend a hand to those in more repressive countries like Tunisia. Rather than let a meeting that would have highlighted Morocco's relative openness and record of progress on human rights, the authorities decided to block Jendoubi's entry. That decision is not only nasty, it's stupid.

Morocco just hosted, about 10 days ago, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs who oversees MEPI and democracy initiatives. In a few weeks, it will be reviewing its human rights records as part of its advanced status negotiations with the EU. Both the US and the EU have been generous donors, giving funds in part on the condition of better human rights governance. It is true that, a decade ago, some impressive improvements were made in womens' rights and human rights more generally in Morocco. But these donors, as well as all Moroccans, should ask themselves whether the constant celebration of these improvement is warranted. 

The Jendoubi affair comes as torture — and even more worryingly, impunity for torture — is making a return in the kingdom's police stations. [If you read French, then Ibn Kafka's recent long post on torture in Morocco, the first in a series, is a must-read.] This has been in part because of the War on Terror and the encouragement to torture from patron-states, but also because whatever transition took place in Morocco over the past decade has been — constitutionally, legally, administratively, culturally — quite shallow, often engaged in theatrics rather deep reform.

One of the striking things, having spent a couple of months in Morocco every year for the past five years, is that this lack of progress / regression is becoming palpable. The disappearance of media outlets like Le Journal or Jarida al-Oula and abundance (or hegemony) of shallow magazines and newspapers constantly engaging in regime propaganda is starting to suffocate the atmosphere for those interested in politics. Whatever dynamic existed at the beginning of Muhammad VI's reign, at least when it came to politics, is rapidly losing momentum. It's still a freer country than Tunisia or Algeria, but you feel some form of limit has been reached. Preventing an act of solidarity with a Tunisian activist, a petty act, might be a symbol of this.

Time reports on Israeli abuse of Palestinian children

Israeli Prisons: Are Palestinian Children Abused? - Yahoo! News:

"Walid Abu Obeida, a 13-year-old Palestinian farm boy from the West Bank village of Ya'abad, had never spoken to an Israeli until he rounded a corner at dusk carrying his shopping bags and found two Israeli soldiers waiting with their rifles aimed at him. 'They accused me of throwing stones at them,' recounts Walid, a skinny kid with dark eyes. 'Then one of them smacked me in the face, and my nose started bleeding.' According to Walid, the two soldiers blindfolded and handcuffed him, dragged him to a jeep and drove away. All that his family would know about their missing son was that his shopping bags with meat and rice for that evening's dinner were found in the dusty road near an olive grove. Over the course of several days in April last year, the boy says he was moved from an army camp to a prison, where he was crammed into a cell with five other children, cursed at and humiliated by the guards and beaten by his interrogator until he confessed to stone-throwing. (See pictures of Israeli soldiers sweeping into Gaza.) Walid says he saw his parents for only five seconds when he was brought before an Israeli military court and accused by the uniformed prosecutor not only of throwing stones but of 'striking an Israeli officer.' The military judge ignored the latter charge and chose to prosecute Walid only for allegedly heaving a stone at soldiers. The boy got off lightly: he spent 28 days in prison and was fined 500 shekels (approximately $120). Under Israeli military law, which prevails in the Palestinian territories, the crime of throwing a stone at an Israeli solider or even at the monolithic 20-ft.-high 'security barrier' enclosing much of the West Bank can carry a maximum 20-year-prison sentence. Since 2000, according to the Palestinian Ministry for Prisoner Affairs, more than 6,500 children have been arrested, mostly for hurling rocks."

Read the rest. This report is partly based on the research of the Swiss NGO Defense for Children International's Palestine Section. Their report is here.

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Human Spin Watch

Rather confused reactions from HRW on the Obama speech: HRW's reaction to the Obama speech at 11:15pm Cairo time on June 4 (comment below - after the long excerpts):

US/Egypt: Obama Dodged Rights Issue Generalities Failed to Send Tough Message on Mideast Repression (Cairo, June 4, 2009) – President Barack Obama’s speech on June 4, 2009 failed to advance the promotion of human rights in the Muslim world, Human Rights Watch said today. In a much-anticipated address, Obama spoke bluntly about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but kept to generalities when it came to the pressing need for human rights and democratic reforms in the region. “If Obama wanted to tackle the issues that cause Muslim ill-will toward the US, he should have taken on the region’s repressive regimes, many of them US-backed, including his hosts,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Egypt and others will interpret his bland generalities as a signal they have nothing to fear from their friends in Washington.” Speaking before 2,500 invited guests at Cairo University, Obama addressed democracy as a major source of tension between the United States and Islam around the world. His choice of Cairo for this much-anticipated speech was controversial because of Egypt’s record of stifling the opposition, holding tainted elections, and imprisoning dissidents. Obama said that all people yearn for “the rule of law and administration of justice,” but did not criticize the state of emergency that has undermined respect for human rights in Egypt, Algeria, and Syria, among other countries. President Hosni Mubarak in 2008 renewed the Emergency Law, in force since 1981, which allows authorities to suppress demonstrations, detain opponents arbitrarily, and try them in special security courts that do not meet international fair trial standards. On freedom of expression, Obama spoke of the importance of the “ability to speak your mind” but missed the opportunity to criticize the imprisonment of dissidents, journalists, and bloggers in Egypt and elsewhere. On torture, Obama spoke only in the context of post 9/11 practices by the United States, noting that the United States has “unequivocally prohibited” its use. But he failed to speak of the practice of torture in the Middle East and of US complicity in the renditions to countries where torture is systemic, including Egypt, or of the need for measures to bring accountability for such practices. Coming four years after then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s pro-democracy speech in Cairo, which some contend helped to widen space for democratic activism in Egypt, Obama’s comments on democracy had been eagerly awaited. In that speech, Rice said that in Egypt “peaceful supporters of democracy – men and women – are not free from violence,” and that “the day must come when the rule of law replaces emergency decrees – and when the independent judiciary replaces arbitrary justice.” In contrast, Obama’s argument that “governments that protect these rights are ultimately more stable, successful, and secure,” and his reiteration that “you must maintain your power through consent, not coercion,” will not make the Egyptian government or any others in the region feel particularly uncomfortable. “Obama failed to address the dire state of human rights in the region and the past US practice of ‘rendering’ persons to countries like Egypt for torture,” said Whitson. “His Cairo speech brings us no new beginning in terms of promoting human rights.”

HRW's follow-up message 50 minutes later:

Dear all, Apologies, but please do not use the news release headlined “US/Egypt: Obama Dodged Rights Issue,” which was sent in error at 4:15 p.m. EDT. We will send a corrected version shortly.

HRW's final release over three hours after that:

Obama Mid-East Speech Supports Rights, Democracy But US Needs Stronger Message for Repressive Regional Allies (Cairo, June 4, 2009) – President Barack Obama’s much-anticipated June 4, 2009, speech to the Muslim world avoided confronting authoritarian governments directly, but sent a welcome message that Washington would not let the prospect of empowering Islamist parties deter it from supporting democracy in the region, Human Rights Watch said today. Speaking before 2,500 invited guests at Cairo University, Obama said the issue of democracy and human rights was a major source of tension between the United States and Islam around the world, in part because of the Bush administration’s use of democratic rhetoric to justify the war in Iraq. He pledged, however, that the United States would continue to support human rights and democratic principles in the region. “For the US to regain credibility, it will have to follow through even when voters in the Middle East elect governments Washington doesn’t like,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “If Obama wants to tackle the issues that cause Muslim ill-will toward the United States, he should take on the region’s repressive regimes, many of them US-backed – including his hosts.” Obama’s choice of Cairo for the speech was controversial because of Egypt’s record of stifling the opposition, holding tainted elections, and imprisoning dissidents. Obama said that all people yearn for “the rule of law and the equal administration of justice,” adding, “Those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere.” Obama stressed that the US would “respect the right of all peaceful and law-abiding voices to be heard around the world, even if we disagree with them” and “welcome all elected, peaceful governments – provided they govern with respect for all their people,” an apparent reference to Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood. However, Obama missed an important opportunity to criticize the state of emergency that has undermined respect for human rights in Egypt, Algeria, and Syria, among other countries. President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in 2008 renewed the Emergency Law, in force since 1981, which allows authorities to suppress demonstrations, detain opponents arbitrarily, and try them in special security courts that do not meet international fair trial standards. On freedom of expression, Obama rightly spoke of the importance of the “ability to speak your mind,” but failed to criticize the imprisonment of dissidents, journalists, and bloggers in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and elsewhere. Obama spoke about torture in the context of post-9/11 practices by the United States, noting that his administration has “unequivocally prohibited” its use. “Obama told his Middle Eastern audience that the US has ended torture, but it would have been better had he also urged governments of the region, including Egypt’s, to do the same,” Whitson said. Acknowledging the suffering of both Israeli and Palestinian people, Obama pressed both sides to take steps to end their conflict. He said the US did not support “continued Israeli settlements” in the Occupied Territories, and urged Hamas to stop the use of violence. Obama implicitly called on Israel to end its blockade of Gaza, noting “the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza does not serve Israel’s security.” But Obama did not mention the upcoming UN Human Rights Council mission, led by Judge Richard Goldstone, to investigate abuses by both sides in the recent conflict in Gaza. Human Rights Watch said Obama should have used this opportunity to push Israel to cooperate with the international investigation. “Obama’s made a start in restoring America’s image in the Middle East, affirming US support for human rights principles,” said Whitson. “He’s laid out general principles, but now he needs to be more specific about what Washington expects from its authoritarian allies – that they free political prisoners, end torture, allow a free press and tolerate genuine political opposition.”

It's not that the final release is that bad, although the initial one was better as far as HRW's remit -- human rights -- are concerned. But the initial one had a lot more info about the problematic nature of having Egypt, a serial abuser, as host and also raises the bilateral issue of rendition, an ongoing program Obama did not cancel. Basically the first release was an Egypt-focused one, centered on the relegation of democracy and human rights to a distant concern for the Obama administration. The final release tones down that criticism and adds, rightly, that Obama should have called on Israel to comply with the Goldstone Enquiry and highlighted the most recent massive abuse of human rights in the region, Israel's Operation Cast Lead. Worth noting the initial release had nothing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I wonder what brought about the change of mind. Both releases make valid points, I wish they had made both the points about Egypt and the relegation of human rights promotion in Obama's foreign policy as well as his need to take a stronger stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after Gaza. (Although I do think the point in the final press release about the US sending the signal that will not shirk from empowering Islamists by respecting their democratic elections is wrong -- after all, if this was so Hamas would be recognized as the legitimate government of Palestine.)

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Morocco's Le Journal: "We are all Shia"

My friend Abou Bakr Jamai, publisher of Morocco's Le Journal weekly now in forced into exile because of bogus lawsuits against his magazine, sent me this week's cover highlighting Morocco's new religious crusade for "the right Islam" that must be followed. This campaign is aimed at asserting the "Sunni malekite nature" of "Moroccan Islam"; its aim is to buttress the pro-monarchy traditionalism of very Morocco-specific institutions such as the "Commandership of the Faithful" (specific in that it argues that the king has the same role as a Caliph, but only for Moroccans), Sherifism (high respect for descendants of the prophet, a very Shia tradition that has since Sultan Moulay Ismail in the 17th century been a key part of governance through a ethno-religious aristocracy) and the prominence of apolitical Sufi tariqat. The campaign to reimpose these traditionalist values is partly a not-so-badly thought out attempt to limit the spread of salafism (I applaud that) but has also spread into paranoia about Iran-funded Shia conversion and as a way to put pressure on Islamic parties, legal and unrecognized. But it's the kind of thing that the Moroccan regime has long done - asserting a Moroccan Islam that is nice and fluffy vs. the Islam of its opponents - and, moreover, the foreigners usually lap it up. [caption id="attachment_3928" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption=""We are all Shia, Sunni, Jewish, Christian, atheist, agnostic..." "][/caption]

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FGM Ban

Egypt recently passed a new Child's Law. One of the most controversial parts of the law was the criminalization of female circumcision, or FGM. I just did a story on this for yesterday's edition of The World. One things I discovered is that while the figure that's commonly mentioned is that 96% of women in Egypt are circumcised, the figure for teenage girls is about 80% and they project (from government health surveys in which they ask mothers whether they plan to circumcise their daughters) that the rate for young girls will be 60% by 2015. The Muslim Brotherhood made a big fuss over this law when it was discussed in parliament. One MP brought his circumcised daughters and wife to parliament as an argument for FGM. I had read about this and went to interview Saad Katatni, the head of the Brotherhood's parliamentary block. He was much more diplomatic with me than his MPs had been in parliament. He actually said he recognizes that FGM isn't required by Sharia. But he said it shouldn't be banned because in some "exceptional cases" it's needed. Pressed on what those exceptional cases might be, he said they were when the organ (he meant clitoris) "طويل طولا شاذا", meaning "is perversely/abnormally long." This harks back to the popular belief that female circumcision is necessary for some women whose clitorises otherwise would grow to a monstruous size. When I asked Katatni about the death of Budur (the schoolgirl who died last summer while undergoing FGM), he said isolated cases shouldn't lead us to condemn the practice completely. He said: "If I as a doctor makes a mistake during a given operation, and the patient dies, do I discard this branch of medicine, do I erase this branch of science?”

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Mahalla detainees appeal to civil society

Letter to head of the Judges' Club Zakariya Abdel Aziz from the three Mahalla detainees, Kamal El-Fayyoumy, Tareq Amin, and Karim El-Beheiry:

We would like in the beginning to correct certain information which has reached the press about our (the three of us) having been transferred to the prison hospital as a result of our hunger strike. The truth is that we are still in prison after the administration refused to call an ambulance to take us to hospital, and as a result of the inability of Karim el-Beheiry and Tareq Amin to stand on their feet - as a result of their extreme weakness. Instead, a “nurse” was summoned to examine Karim, whose condition has seriously deteriorated. We would like to know the reason why we remain in detention. We will continue the hunger strike until we either die or receive this information. We were tortured in the state security headquarters in Mahalla on the 6th, 7th and 8th April. Officers tortured Karim using electricity while Tareq Amin and Kamal el-Fayyoumy were insulted verbally and physically assaulted. We then spent eleven days in Borg el-Arab prison in a cell with individuals with criminal convictions. When the Tanta court ordered that we be released we were held for four days in the El-Salam police station [noqtat shorta] situated between Mahalla and Tanta before we were taken to Borg el-Arab prison were we began our hunger strike.

[From Fustat: Letter from Burg al Arab prison]

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Jailed Tunisian comic freed

After the jump is a press release (in French) by Tunisian rights activist Sihem Bensedrine on the release of comic Hedi Ouled Baballah, who recently spent two months in prison for cannabis possession. It's widely believed by Tunisian NGOs that the real reason for his imprisonment (and the beatings he received at the hands of police) was a sketch he made at a private event in Tunis imitating President Zine Eddin Ben Ali. The sketch had been taped by mobile phone and widely circulated in Tunisia.

Don't forget Tunisia -- along with Syria and Jordan it is the worst police state in the region, but is completely ignored by much of the Western media because it is a "liberal" country (i.e. it persecutes Islamists and frowns on the veil). In fact it's one of the most perverse and most corrupt regimes around -- it makes Egypt look good in comparison -- and sooner or later this small and relatively developed country will pay the price for ignoring political reform. It's a real shame, because it some respects it is more like a southern European country in terms of education levels, etc.

l’Observatoire pour la défense des libertés de la presse, de l’édition et de la création
L’humoriste tunisien Ouled Baballah libéré

Tunis le 02 avril 2008

L’OLPEC se félicite de la libération de l’humoriste tunisien, Hédi Ouled baballah survenue le 20 mars dernier à l’occasion du 52ème anniversaire de l’indépendance. Ce dernier a bénéficié d’une libération conditionnelle après avoir passé plus de 2 mois en prison.

Hédi Ouled baballah avait été arrêté le 14 Janvier 2008 au péage de Mornag et conduit au poste de police de Ben Arous(banlieue de Tunis). Il a été inculpé de « détention d’une matière stupéfiante classée dans la catégorie B. » (cannabis) et condamné le 4 février par le tribunal de première instance de Ben Arous à un an de prison et une amende de mille dinars.
Devant le tribunal où il a comparu le 4 février 2008, il avait nié les faits et déclaré qu’il s’agit d’une machination policière liée à son dernier sketch. Cette hypothèse a été considérée comme la plus crédible aux yeux des ONG de défense de la liberté d’expression, tenant compte du fait que le célèbre humoriste venait de présenter un sketch audacieux dans un lieu privé où il imitait le président de la république tunisienne et que ce sketch a largement circulé en Tunisie par un enregistrement de téléphone portable.
Le comédien avait déjà été arrêté auparavant durant 3 jours et passé à tabac dans les locaux de la police en mars 2007 suite à la présentation d’un premier sketch, toujours dans un lieu privé, où il imitait également le président tunisien. Choqués par cette arrestation, des artistes et des personnalités du monde de la culture se sont mobilisés pour exiger sa libération à travers le monde.

L’OLPEC rappelle que le journaliste indépendant, Slim Boukhdhir est toujours en prison en train de purger une peine d’un an à laquelle il avait été condamné en décembre 2007 ; officiellement, il a été inculpé d'outrage à policier et de refus de présenter sa carte d’identité. Ce qu’on lui reproche en vérité ce sont ses écrits sur la corruption dans des journaux publiés à l’étranger. Actuellement, il est détenu dans des conditions inhumaines à la prison de Sfax et l’accès à son médecin lui est dénié;

L’Observatoire
- Félicite Hédi Ouled Baballah ainsi que sa famille pour sa libération.
- Il exige la libération sans condition du journaliste Slim Boukhdhir.
.
Pour l’Observatoire
La secrétaire générale
Sihem Bensedrine

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"Govts Ever More Draconian, Group Says"

How things are getting worse:

NEW YORK, Mar 27 (IPS) - One of the Arab world's most widely respected non-governmental organisations is charging that at least 14 Middle East and North African governments are systematically violating the civil liberties of their citizens -- and most of them are close U.S. allies in the war on terror.

In a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) said that there have been "huge harassments of human rights organisations and defenders have been increasingly subject to abusive and suppressive actions by government actors... in the majority of Arab countries, particularly Egypt, Syria, Bahrain and Tunisia."

The group this week called upon the international community to "exert effective efforts to urge Arab governments to duly reconsider their legislation, policy and practices contravening their international obligations to protect freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and freedom to form associations, including non-governmental organisations."

It added that "Special attention should be awarded to providing protection to human rights defenders in the Arab World."

[From RIGHTS-MIDEAST: Govts Ever More Draconian, Group Says]

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CIA Largely in the Dark on Interrogation Tactics?

The Washington Independent is a new online magazine, mostly about Beltway politics. Spencer Ackerman has an intriguing piece on how the CIA had to learn interrogation and torture techniques from Middle Eastern countries after 9/11 has its own staff were largely untrained in them.

But 9/11 changed all that. Despite having nearly no off-the-shelf experience, the CIA was tasked by President Bush to come up with a robust interrogation program for the most important al-Qaeda captives. So the agency turned to its partners for assistance in designing its interrogation regimen: Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia—all countries cited by the State Department for using torture—among others. Additionally, as Mark Benjamin has reported for Salon, two psychologists named Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell, who worked as contractors for CIA, helped the agency "reverse-engineer" the military and CIA training on resisting torture for use on detainees. Suddenly, waterboarding, an illegal practice of simulating or in some cases inducing drowning, became an American-administered practice.

I'm not sure how this can make that much sense -- didn't the CIA provide the torture training and interrogations manuals to Iran's SAVAK in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as Latin American dictatorships? To be fair Ackerman briefly mentions the supposedly Nazi-inspired KUBARK Manual, but there was also the 1983 "Human Resources Exploitation" Manual used in Pinochet's Chili and elsewhere. Moreover, the idea that CIA and other US staff were distant from actual interrogation in the rendition countries is not true. Last year I interviewed a senior intelligence officer in a rendition program country who said the Americans from the CIA and FBI routinely walked in and out of the interrogation rooms and detention centers. Not to mention that interrogation and torture does not seem to have been a problem for the people at Guantanamo. One can't help getting the feeling that the people that Ackerman spoke to pulled a fast one on him. The idea that torture has only been used under the Bush administration, while perhaps self-serving for CIA officials with careers that will outlive the administration, is quite laughable. The US, France, Japan and many others have been using these techniques (notably against anti-colonial movements and in counter-communism policies) for a long, long time.

Also read: Watching torture and this book, Torture and Democracy [Amazon], by Darius Rejali, which appears to be one of the more thorough discussions if the issue out there. From the book's blurb:

As the twentieth century progressed, he argues, democracies not only tortured, but set the international pace for torture. Dictatorships may have tortured more, and more indiscriminately, but the United States, Britain, and France pioneered and exported techniques that have become the lingua franca of modern torture: methods that leave no marks. Under the watchful eyes of reporters and human rights activists, low-level authorities in the world's oldest democracies were the first to learn that to scar a victim was to advertise iniquity and invite scandal. Long before the CIA even existed, police and soldiers turned instead to "clean" techniques, such as torture by electricity, ice, water, noise, drugs, and stress positions. As democracy and human rights spread after World War II, so too did these methods.

Also see this interview of Rejali.

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DENIED: Egypt Bloggers Plan Parallel Torture Film Festival

Egypt: Bloggers Plan Parallel Film Festival on Police Torture:

Egyptian bloggers have announced that, while the Cairo film festival is taking place from 27 November to 7 December, they will hold a parallel festival in which a "Golden Whip" will be awarded to the best video showing "controversial acts of torture allegedly committed by the security authorities." Two policemen received three-month jail sentences on 5 November for mistreating a detainee. A video of the incident, filmed with a mobile phone, caused an outcry among human rights activists and enabled identification of the two police officers.

Also, Hossam points out that YouTube has pulled down the Egyptian police torture page. Update: Blogger Wael Abbas, who released some of the first torture videos, is denying that any such festival is taking place - see comments.

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Three years in prison for Emad al-Kabir torturers

I have just received this press release from the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP -- yes, that's a mouthful) saying that the police officers who beat and molested Emad al-Kabir last year. It's good news in an otherwise pretty awful case -- remember that al-Kabir, a bus driver, was sentenced last January to three months of prison for "resisting arrest." We've covered the case a lot as part of the "al-Adly videogate" scandal, when bloggers published several videos of torture in Egyptian police stations.

Historic verdict: defendants jailed for torture of el-Kebeer The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) commends the verdict issued today by the Giza Criminal Court against assistant investigating officer Islam Nabih and policeman Reda Fathy, both based at the Boulaq Dakrour police station. The two men were convicted of the torture and sexual assault of Emmad Mohamed Ali, popularly known as Emmad el-Kebeer, and sentenced to three-years imprisonment. The case was brought by lawyer and ACIJLP director Nasser Amin after a clip circulated on the Internet showing the torture and sexual assault of el-Kebeer. Police investigations were initiated, and culminated in the judgement handed down today. ACIJLP praises the verdict issued against the two men which reaffirms the integrity of the Egyptian judiciary and its effectiveness in the protection of human rights. The judgement represents a new stage during which the Egyptian judiciary will fight torture. ACIJLP thus celebrates this verdict and urges the Egyptian legislator and government to take widespread measures in accordance with Egypt’s commitments under the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

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Rural Egypt's Return to the Ancien Regime

Middle East Online has a translation of a Monde Diplomatique article I'd previously linked to on the reversal of agrarian reform in Egypt. This excerpt deals with the new law passed in the 1990s that has led to many farmers losing land and helped former landlords regain land they had been forced to sell under Nasser:

The 1992 law changed farmers’ lives profoundly. Average rent values have risen 10-fold, and now represent between a third and a half of gross annual income. Perhaps three-quarters of the farmers renting in 1996 have given up because of debts. Farmers have had to indebt themselves to pay rent, and households sell jewels and livestock, reducing expenditure (less meat in the diet, fewer children at school). As the number of very small holdings has declined, those over 10 feddans (4.2 hectares) have improved in number and surface area. It is clear that inequalities in the distribution of agricultural land are again rising, despite the advances between 1952 and 1980 and the relative immobility thereafter. Over the past 10 years there have been social explosions over land in the governorate of al-Minufiyya, where Kamshish lies. They are the result of manoeuvres by former landowners and have been ignored by the media. Dispossessed families used the new legislation to recover their previous holdings, or obtain more attractive parcels. There have been violent clashes between farmers and the police or hired agents working for these families. Villagers have been intimidated, illegally imprisoned (and tortured), or summarily tried and heavily sentenced. The Land Centre for Human Rights considers that between 2001 and 2004 there were 171 deaths, 945 injuries and 1,642 arrests.

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On the UN Human Rights Council

The Israeli government and President Bush are right about the UN Human Rights Council: it does not fairly spread blame for human rights abuses. But the problem is not that it blames Israel too much -- it does quite an appropriate job in that. It's just that it should also focus on other countries, including members such as Egypt (local human rights organizations even campaigned against their country's membership here!) and of course places like Sudan, Iran, China, North Korea or Myanmar. But everything it says about Israel holds, and it doesn't mean it should change its mind about regularly reviewing human rights abuses in Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories. I can't say I like the Council's composition much, but then again I don't like the way the Security Council works either -- and that's much, much more important. [I bring this up because a commenter left the link above.]

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New: Muslim World Journal of Human Rights

Readers may be interested to know that Berkeley Press has just launched the Muslim World Journal of Human Rights.

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Egyptian torture NGO under threat

Speaking of crackdowns in Egypt, it seems that NGOs working on torture are also being targeted:

CAIRO, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Egypt has told a rights group that aids torture victims it will be shut down for financial misdeeds, the group said on Thursday, in what activists called a government effort to quash criticism. The Association for Human Rights Legal Aid (AHRLA) said it had received notice it was being dissolved and its assets seized over accusations it had accepted foreign funding without government approval. AHRLA denied any wrongdoing. Egyptian and international human rights groups dismissed the accusations as political cover for an attempt to silence a group that has raised embarrassing torture cases in court. Government officials had no immediate comment.

More info in Arabic after the jump on planned demo in support on AHRLA.

وقفة احتجاجية يوم الأحد 16 سبتمبر، 10 صباحا دعما لحق المصريين في مناهضة التعذيب دعما لحق المصريين في تنظيم أنفسهم دعما لحرية المجتمع المدني المصري واحتجاجا على قرار إغلاق جمعية المساعدة القانونية لحقوق الإنسان تدعوكم حملة المنظمات غير الحكومية للدفاع عن حق التنظيم للمشاركة في وقفة احتجاجية يوم الأحد الموافق 16 سبتمبر 2007 (اليوم الذي حددته وزارة التضامن ومحافظ القاهرة لإغلاق جمعية المساعدة) في تمام الساعة العاشرة صباحا أمام مقر الجمعية: 2 شارع معروف (تقاطع طلعت حرب)

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Video shows child victim of torture in Egypt

The video below, updated to Google Video by Ikhwanweb.com, a Muslim Brotherhood website, shows an interview with a child and his mother, who say he was tortured in a police station in Mansoura, northern Egypt. The video is graphic and shows the child's burn wounds and other injuries. As horrible as these scenes are, it is videos like these (and the internet technologies to deliver them) that are lifting the veil on the type of police brutality that is apparently routine in Egypt.

Again, proceed with caution due to the graphic nature of the footage.



Update: I didn't realize it at the time of my earlier post, but the boy in the video has died from his wounds. (I had read about the scandal last week, but did not put two and two together.) From what I gathered from various online sources, the boy was quickly buried by the police before a proper autopsy could be carried out. Human rights activists called for his body to be exhumed and a new autopsy carried out, and Mansoura police to be charged:

Egypt to exhume boy's body

Cairo - Egypt's chief prosecutor has ordered the exhumation of the body of a teenager who died in police custody amid family allegations he was tortured to death, said reports.

A new autopsy would be carried out on 13-year-old Mamduh Abdel Aziz, who died in hospital in the Nile Delta town of Mansura on Sunday, four days after police took him there because he lost consciousness while in their custody on a theft charge.

His family immediately filed a complaint against police, claiming they tortured him to death.

The police report said he died of a lung complaint, and the interior ministry denied any torture, saying that burns on his body were accidental.

However, a legal source said on Sunday that the boy had lost consciousness during his six days in police detention, apparently after being beaten.

Related: Egyptian cops find torture kit. What a country.

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Nasty Iran, Persepolis

Activists' parents accuse Tehran of torturing their sons:

Fears that Iran is systematically mistreating political prisoners and dissidents have been further fuelled after the parents of three detained student activists claimed their sons had been tortured. In a letter to the country's judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the parents alleged that the students have suffered a catalogue of physical and psychological abuses since being incarcerated in Tehran's Evin prison in May.

Two weeks ago I got to see the animated feature version of Persepolis. One of the things I drives home very effectively is that the fundamentalist regime in Iran has been much, much worse in terms of human rights and torture (never mind personal freedoms) than the old Shah regime, with its notorious CIA-trained SAVAK security service, ever was. Even more so, the film makes a very effective point in showing how fundamentally retarded that government was, much like any government that seeks to police the private moral life of its citizens -- in other words, an extreme version of what the "secular" regimes in many Arab countries have resorted to. Think of Egypt, and those trials to forcibly divorce public figures judged to be apostates, or the current contradictory statements of the Mufti, or among the opposition of the ridiculous moral crusades regularly brought out by the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt or the PJD and its supporters (such as at-tajdid newspaper) in Morocco.

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WWII mines Egypt

I have this article on qantara.de on the WWII mines and other ammunition left behind on Egypt's North coast. The Egyptian government wants to re-launch its efforts to clear the zones that are affected, but wants to have it all paid for by its international donors. As Egypt has brought to perfection the art of donor-shopping probably more then any other nation, I guess in the end they'll find someone stupid enough to pay the bills submitted by the Egyptian army. In contrast to what appears to be common in other countries, the Egyptian army maintains its monopoly over mine-clearing. Which is why not much has happened until today and which is why most donors rightfully so are reluctant to contribute. Excerpt from the English translation:

It was not until 1982 that the Egyptian government acknowledged the problem. "It was a question of costs and priorities," Fathy El Shazly, director of the national northwest coast development program, frankly admits. He refers to the history of his country, which after the Second World War was first busy gaining independence and then tied up in four wars against Israel. A bit more haste would have been advisable, though. According to the NGO "Landmine Monitor," there have been 8,313 mine-related casualties in this region since 1982, including 619 deaths. As can be observed again and again whenever natural disasters or accidents occur, however, the Egyptian government evidently does not place much importance on its own citizens. It has done little to help the victims to date. The Egyptian army did clear some 3.5 million pieces of ammunition out of the desert between 1982 and 1999, but since then a lack of funds has slowed down their efforts – at least that's the official line. Since things are moving much too slowly for the private sector, which has great plans for the region, some hotels and oil companies have begun to remove buried ammunition at their own expense in order to build access roads to their projects.

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The Quranists

I haven't had time lately to look into the arrests of several members of a "Quranist" group -- people who reject the hadith and present a reformist practice of Islam based entirely on the Quran -- but as well as being a blatant violation of freedom of belief, there seems to be several other overlapping elements here. One is that at least one of the Quranists, Amr Tharwat, is involved in the pro-democracy NGO Ibn Khaldun Center, run by the prominent Egyptian-American liberal Saad Eddin Ibrahim. Tharwat was involved in election monitoring. The other is that the arrests could be a response to the Quranists' mockery of al-Azhar recent fatwas about urine-drinkling and adult breastfeeding, which cause a furore here last month and put the august institution on the defensive. By al-Azhar's Sunni standards, the Quranists' beliefs are highly unorthodox if not downright sacrilegious (I don't know enough about the Quranists to be sure). So what we are seeing here is yet another form of the state Islamism that has become rampant in Egypt since the 1970s. Who needs to worry about the Muslim Brotherhood when you already have bigots in power? I've pasted some statements about this case below, with links to the Quranists' website. Statement from the Ibn Khaldun Center: June 7th, 2007 On Wednesday May 30th, Amr Tharwat an Ibn Khaldun employee, was arrested by Egyptian State Security at his families' residence in Matereya. Mr. Tharwat was the major organizer of the recent Shura Election monitoring as well as the Ibn Khaldun public opinion polling that was carried out earlier this year. In addition to Mr. Tharwat, the Egyptian authorities arrested four other people staying at the house of Dr. Ahmed Sobhy (Adellatif Mohamed Saied, Ahmed Dahmash, Abdelhamed Abdelrahman, Ahmed El Sayed, Amr Tharwat) and confiscated files, books, and computers that were found on the premises. Those arrested were originally taken to the Shubra El Khima police station, but in the seven days since their arrest nothing has been heard regarding there whereabouts or the nature of the charges filed against them. Several human rights organizations as well as the team of lawyers working on this case have made repeated requests to the Egyptian government regarding this issue and have received no response until now. Some speculate that the group was arrested due to their involvement in the religious "Quranic" movement which stresses the importance of the Quran over the Sunna and Hadith. A website was recently constructed for the movement which has gained notoriety for criticizing fatwas issued by Al Azhar authorities. The Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies strongly condemns the arrest of Egyptian citizens for peacefully exercising their rights of free expression. We call upon local as well as international civil society organizations to help convince the Egyptian authorities to immediately disclose the location of those arrested and to allow them access to legal representation. Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim - ICDS Chairman These are links that either include information on the Quranic movement or on the case of Amr Tharwat and his family: http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=324 http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/show_news.php?main_id=325 http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/show_news.php?main_id=320 http://ara.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-05-31T212301Z_01_EGO164601_RTRIDST_0_OEGTP-EGY-ARREST-MN6.XML&archived=False http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=63126 http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=324 http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/show_news.php?main_id=320 http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/show_news.php?main_id=325 Letter from HRW to Ministry of Interior: Gen. Habib Ibrahim Habib al-`Adli Interior Minister, Arab Republic of Egypt Al-Shaikh Rihan Street Cairo, Egypt 11641 June 18, 2007 Your Excellency, Human Rights Watch is writing to request information about the whereabouts of `Amr Tharwat, `Abd al-Latif Muhammad Said, Ahmad Dahmash, `Abd al-Hamid `Abd al-Rahman, and his brother, Ayman `Abd al-Rahman, and to inquire about any charges State Security prosecutors have brought against them. Tharwat is an employee of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies. According to the Ibn Khaldun Center, the other men are his relatives. We are concerned that all the men, who were last reported to have been taken into police custody, are victims of enforced disappearances. According to information from the Al-Andalus Center for Tolerance and Nonviolence Studies, State Security officers arrested Said, Dahmash, and `Abd al-Rahman in a predawn raid on May 29. Shortly before dawn two nights later, State Security officers arrested Tharwat and his relative Ahmad al-Sayid and confiscated files, books, and computers from the apartment. They quickly released Ahmad al-Sayid, but have reportedly called him in for questioning several times since. State Security officers detained Ayman `Abd al-Rahman on June 17. According to the Ibn Khaldun Center, Tharwat and the others were initially taken to a State Security facility in Shubra al-Khima, but no official acknowledgement of their detention has been given, nor has any information about their whereabouts. Lawyers for the detainees and human rights organizations inquiring about Tharwat's whereabouts, including in a complaint to the Public Prosecutors office (registered as Case Number 9191/2007) alleging illegal arrest and enforced disappearance, have received no response from any authority to date. Tharwat helped organize civil-society groups' efforts to monitor the June 11 elections for the Shura Council. He also participated in the Ibn Khaldun Center's public opinion polling earlier this year. All the men except al-Sayid reportedly adhere to the "Quranist" school of thought. Human Rights Watch is concerned that the men's detention might be related to any of these activities or to their religious opinions. Your Excellency, the International Committee of the Red Cross has said that "No matter how legitimate the reasons for a person's detention, no one has the right to keep that person's fate or whereabouts secret or to deny that he or she is being detained. This practice runs counter to the basic tenets of international humanitarian law and human rights law." Article 41 of the Egyptian constitution affirms that "no person may be arrested, inspected, detained or have his freedom restricted in any way or be prevented from free movement except by an order necessitated by investigations and the preservation of public security." Your Excellency, Human Rights Watch calls upon you to ensure that Egypt's international legal obligations are followed and that no instances of enforced disappearance are allowed to take place and that the detention and whereabouts of Tharwat and the other men listed is immediately acknowledged. Furthermore, if security forces have evidence that Tharwat or the other men listed, have committed a crime, Human Rights Watch calls upon you to ensure that in accordance with international law they are allowed visits from their lawyers and other due process rights, including a trial before an independent, impartial court. If not, Human Rights Watch urges you to release them immediately. Thank you for your attention to this important matter. Sincerely, Sarah-Leah Whitson Executive Director Middle East and North Africa Division

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