I received the following statement from Human Rights Watch:
Egypt should immediately release six men who have been detained for more than 90 days without charge since their arrests following a workers strike and street protests in Mahalla al-Kobra in April, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch also called on authorities to suspend the prosecution of 49 others by a security court where procedures violate fair trial rights and to investigate allegations that some of the men were tortured.
The men, whose names were released by Human Rights Watch, were arrested after thousands of security forces prevented workers from striking to protest the failure to implement promised wage increases at Mahalla’s Misr Spinning and Weaving textile mill, Egypt’s largest factory on April 6. Mahalla residents took to the streets later that day and again on April 7 to protest recent food price hikes. Witnesses said security forces used live ammunition to disperse demonstrations, and news reports said two people were killed.
“Not only has the government blatantly violated the right of workers to strike, it has refused to provide those arrested with basic due process rights,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch. “Nothing justifies torturing and indefinitely detaining protesters without charge.”
Six of the men were arrested on April 6 and 7, and 32 others were detained during a three-day sweep on April 21, 22 and 23. The six men have been detained for over three months without charge, leaving it unclear what, if any, crime they are alleged to have committed. The 32 others currently in detention had been detained without charge in “preventive custody” until June 6, when a prosecutor charged them and transferred their cases, along with 17 others, to Egypt’s Supreme State Security Court.
In total, the East Tanta General Prosecutor’s Office transferred 49 cases to the Supreme State Security Court, according to a charge sheet obtained by defense lawyers. All 49 men face a wide range of charges, including participating in a gathering of five or more people “of a nature to disturb public order” in violation of Egypt’s Emergency Law, as well as destroying public property, illegally possessing firearms, and assaulting policemen.
Egyptian human rights lawyers say the men could face lengthy prison terms, since judges can increase criminal sentences in cases related to national security or public order.
Two former detainees from Mahalla told Human Rights Watch that security forces tortured them in custody.
On April 10, Mahalla police arrested James Buck, an American journalism student, and Muhammad Maree, a 23-year-old veterinary student who was working as his translator. Buck told Human Rights Watch that the public prosecutor in Muhalla ordered their release later that night, but that police rearrested them moments later. They later released Buck.
On April 11, Marei told Human Rights Watch he was transferred to State Security Investigations (SSI) offices in Mahalla, where officers interrogated him for seven hours, beating him, kicking him in the head and genitals, and threatening him with electric shock by holding electricity cables so close to his head that he could hear the current. He said the SSI threatened to put him “in the oven,” and that his feet and hands were bound so tightly during the interrogation that he lost feeling in them for four days. He was beaten “into unconsciousness” before being transferred, blindfolded, to a detention center and kept in solitary confinement for 19 days.
Marei said his family tried to visit him, but SSI officers denied that he was in custody. They then transferred him to Burj al Arab prison, near Alexandria, where he twice went on hunger strike to protest continued detention. He did not see his family for 32 days, and did not see a lawyer for 42 days. He was released on July 5, after 87 days in detention, without ever being told of any charges against him.
The statement is also available in Arabic here. One point though, While the statements (both in Arabic and in English) were titled: “Egypt: Release Dozens of Protesters Held Without Charge,” it was very disappointing that the content of the statements themselves limited the call for the “immediate release” to only six of the detainees, and suspending the prosecution of the 49.
I hope statements from other rights watchdogs will state CLEARLY that they support the IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF ALL those who’ve been rounded up in Mahalla during and after the uprising.