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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
Egypt
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Human Rights Watch World Report 1992
Middle East Watch: Egypt
</hdr>
<body>
<p>Human Rights Developments
</p>
<p> A state of emergency has been in force in Egypt almost
continuously for over twenty-four years. The broad powers of
detention that it affords has led to tens of thousands of
arbitrary arrests and the related widespread practice of
torture. (Emergency powers are defined in Law 162 of 1958, as
amended (the Emergency Law), explained below, and Law 105 of
1980, which permits the detention of persons accused of
security offenses outlined in the Penal Code.)
</p>
<p> Parliament, dominated by the ruling National Democratic
Party, voted in May to uphold a presidential decree extending
Egypt's emergency law for three more years. President Hosni
Mubarak called for the vote without notifying legislators in
advance that the item would be on the agenda, preempting a
nascent campaign to challenge renewal of the law.
</p>
<p> The need to thwart terrorism, prevent assassinations, and
control drug trafficking are justifications offered by the
government for the continuation of the state of emergency. For
example, Prime Minister Atef Sedki asserted that there were
"countries that wanted to export their terrorist plots to Egypt
after the contemptible occupation of Kuwait." ("Egypt:
Emergency Law Extended Three More Years," Mideast Mirror, May
9, 1991.) However, government critics contend that President
Mubarak's latest extension of the emergency law is really part
of a strategy for keeping a lid on political dissent,
particularly protests over price increases mandated by Egypt's
economic restructuring plan. The use of the emergency law during
the Gulf war--and its subsequent application to "profiteers"
who might, as the government put it, "exploit" price increases
caused by economic restructuring (Some five hundred
"profiteering merchants" were reportedly placed under
administrative detention in the first week of May.)--represent
not only an extension of the law's scope, but its apparent
institutionalization in Egypt.
</p>
<p> In April, leaders of four legal political parties--al-Wafd, Labor, Liberal and the National Progressive Unionist
Grouping sent a memorandum to President Mubarak arguing that the
law "was originally introduced for special and limited
exceptional cases, as stipulated in the Constitution and the
law. The legislators' aim was not for that law to turn into a
permanent law that obstructs ordinary laws introduced to protect
citizens' freedom and security." They stressed that the
institutionalization of the emergency law was incompatible with
human rights guarantees: "No state in the world has lived under
an emergency law for ten years while its government continued
to claim adherence to democracy and veneration of human rights."
(Al-Wafd, April 8, 1991, as reported in Federal Broadcast
Information Service (FBIS), April 16, 1991.) Egypt's opposition
political parties in 1991 continued to push, unsuccessfully, for
reform measures. At a press conference in July, ten parties
demanded "genuine democracy" in Egypt and proposed that a
constituent assembly draft a new constitution and put it to a
national referendum. (The parties were: al-Wafd, the Labor
Party, the National Progressive Unionist Grouping, the Liberal
Party, the technically illegal Muslim Brotherhood, the Arab
Socialist Party, the Green Party, the Democratic Unionist Party,
Ummah, and Misr al-Fatah.) Among the guiding principles proposed
were: respect for human rights and civil liberties, press and
publication freedom, freedom to form political parties,
restrictions on the application of the emergency law, and
judicial supervision of elections.
</p>
<p> Mass arrests, warrantless arrests, and administrative
detention were all used by the Egyptian authorities in 1991.
During the Gulf war, the authorities sent strong signals that
the public expression of anti-war views would not be tolerated.
Journalists, opposition activists, intellectuals, students and
Islamists were targeted for arrest and detention. In most
cases, the detainees were charged with preparing leaflets for
distribution or preparing to incite disturbances harmful to the
security of the state. Most were released without charge in
March during a Ramadan amnesty announced by the government.
Examples of those detained include the following:
</p>
<p>-- On January 23, Dr. Mohammed Abdel Latif and his assistant,
Dr. Abdel Rahman El-Bana, were arrested in Cairo, apparently
because Latif's company had taken out an advertisement
publicizing statements against the war by several professional
associations. Latif had been arrested in 1989 and tortured, and
there were fears that he would again be a torture victim. The
Egyptian government denied that torture had been used and
released Latif on February 7.
</p>
<p>-- Magdi Hussein, head of the youth organization of the
Islamist Socialist Labor Party (SLP) and deputy chief executive
of the SLP's weekly newspaper al-Sha'b (The People) was arrested
after giving a January 25 sermon at a Cairo mosque in which he
criticized both the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the Gulf war.
A former member of the Egyptian Parliament, Hussein was charged
with inciting unrest and criticizing the government. According
to Amnesty International (AI), Hussein was brought before a
prosecutor who ordered him kept in custody for fifteen days. He
was released on February 25. (Hussein was charged under
Articles 80 and 102 of the Penal Code, which prohibit spreading
false or tendentious information in time of war that could
damage war preparations or operations, provoke panic or alarm
among people, or put public security or the public interest at
risk.)
</p>
<p>-- On January 30, Adel Hussein, editor-in-chief of al-Sha'b,
and Huda Makkawi, one of the newspaper's journalists, were
arrested on the charge of insulting the Egyptian armed forces
and revealing military secrets. They allegedly wrote articles
urging an Egyptian disengagement from the multinational forces
in Saudi Arabia which disclosed U.S. use of Egyptian airfields
without prior military approval. Hussein and Makkawi faced a
military tribunal on February 6, but were acquitted and released
on February 14.
</p>
<p>-- On February 8, the Cairo-based Egyptian Organization for
Human Rights (EOHR) reported a series of early-morning arrests
of some twenty-two student leaders. In addition to the
students, the government arrested computer scientist Adel
el-Mashad, general secretary of the Committee for Defense of
National Culture (CDNC). The CNDC is an intellectual forum that
produced, under Mashad, an "alternative" to the semi-official
press version of the war. ("Cairo Cracks Down on Anti-War
Activists," Mideast Mirror, February 7, 1991.) Mashad was
charged with incitement of hatred for the Egyptian system of
government and shedding doubt on the Egyptian armed forces at
the front. The charges were reportedly based on a CDNC printed
statement about the Gulf war and a handwritten draft of an
appeal to world intellectuals that the CDNC was planning to
issue. CDNC had sponsored an anti-war conference on February 1
at Cairo University and had been subjected to a raid of its
indoor, peaceful, regular meeting of February 3. ("Mubarak
Confident Calls for 'War Footing' as Opposition Organizes,"
Mideast Mirror, February 4, 1991.)
</p>
<p> On February 9, in a clear warning to student activists,
Interior Minister Abdel Halim Moussa said: "Universities are a
place for science and learning and not for political activity.
We will take action strongly and firmly against anyone who
tries to cause unrest or block the learning process." Midterm
university holidays were extended for two weeks, in an apparent
attempt to thwart anti-war protests. Nevertheless, protests
broke out at several universities when classes resumed.
</p>
<p> After the beginning of the ground war in Iraq on February
24, Cairo police used tear gas to disperse peaceful anti-war
protesters at Cairo U