EGYPT: Forced Kidnapping and Authority Corruption,,,

Following months of cases circulating on social media and press, a local Egyptian NGO claims to have recorded 1,250 cases of forced disappearances in the first eight months of 2015; individuals who have later resurfaced after a period of detention.

In a report entitled ‘Behind the Sun’, the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) lays out its findings on the practice, in which government security forces allegedly abduct an individual without any legal process. From a low point in January, in which 44 disappearances were recorded throughout the month, the figure peaked during May, in which the independent NGO recorded 393 cases.

The NGO also registers a further figure of 228 disappearances, aside from the 1,250, who have disappeared have yet to reappear.

Executive Director of the ECRF Ezzat Ghoneim told Daily News Egypt: “We work with activists, lawyers and legal activists to identify cases and subsequently speak to families and collect official documentation to confirm the disappearances. We then follow-up with the families to see if the individual has appeared in front of prosecution.”

“Within the 1,250 figure we had three categories of disappeared: those who appear on charges of illegal protesting or joining an outlawed group; those who are charged with violent activities and joining a terrorist group; and those who are released after their disappearance,” Ghoneim said.

Ghoneim continued that the majority of disappearances are Islamists, while there is a small number of liberal activists and those who are anti-government but are not affiliated.

However, Ghoneim also identified the weaknesses of their work: “North Sinai is a warzone and hard to establish information; that’s why we had a figure of only one disappearance there. We acknowledge there is terrorism there, so it is not clear who is disappearing and who is behind the disappearances.”

The NGO recorded 307 cases in the governorate of Gharbeya, Ghoneim said: “The high figure is strange there and we are still researching why; there is not a huge Islamist movement in that governorate compared to Giza and other areas.”

Earlier this year, local revolutionary activist network Freedom for the Brave published a figure of 163 forced disappearances in May and June that they had recorded; the individuals were mainly young people and activists.

A Ministry of Interior spokesperson previously denied that police forcibly take individuals in this manner, telling Daily News Egypt that Egypt’s police forces are not targeting young people, regardless of their political affiliations.

The ministry has said that if anyone believes they have evidence of the practice, they should file a formal complaint with them.

Mohamed Lotfy, founder of the separate group Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, told local press earlier this year that authorities have not have not responded to most complaints filed by independent groups.

“Forced disappearances have been going on since [the regime change of] 30 June, however it came to the surface in the media after March 2015 when [local newspaper] Al Masry Al Youm started reporting cases after the disappearance and death of lawyer Kareem Hamdy at a police station, and the disappearances of Esraa El-Taweel and Sohaib Saad,” said Ghoneim.

In one notable case of disappearances at the beginning of June, three young students, Esraa El-Taweel, Sohaib Saad, and Omar Ali, disappeared after dining at a Cairo restaurant, and after two weeks they appeared in different prisons.

Later, in July, the Ministry of Defence broadcast a video on television and online of individuals apparently confessing to membership of a terrorist cell and claiming responsibility for attacks on state facilities and personnel, as well as militant training in Syria. Among those appearing in the video is Sohaib Saad, 22, who tells the camera that, as part of his work, he purchased a weapon that was given to another member to assassinate a police officer involved in the dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in in August 2013.

Saad on Saturday also received a three-year prison sentence in the separate Al Jazeera case on charges of conspiring with the Qatari-network’s journalists by joining an outlawed group, obstructing governmental institutions and the law, attacking the personal liberty of citizens or other freedoms, and harming national unity and social peace.

However, after the video’s appearance in July, Saad’s brother Osama said that the testimony was produced under duress: “Sohaib was kidnapped and forcibly disappeared for two weeks. Then he appeared in Tora Prison. During the time of his forced disappearance he was hung by his wrists for three full days and electrocuted all over his body.”

He continues that his brother was released in February with two of the Al Jazeera journalists after 13 months of detention, and that he could not have plausibly committed the acts he claims in the video before his disappearance in June.

Esraa El-Taweel and Omar Ali face similar charges, including belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

A Ministry of Defence press release stated that the operation which caught those appearing in the video was “part of a strategic plan by Egypt’s security services to detect terrorist organisations that aim to destabilise the country, the economy and national security”.

Mokhtar Mounir, a lawyer at the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), previously told local independent media outlet Mada Masr that the practice of seizing individuals in this manner is unconstitutional. Article 54 of the Egyptian constitution states: “All those arrested or detained shall be informed of the reasons and of their rights in writing, and allowed to immediately contact their kin and lawyer, and be presented to the investigating authority within 24 hours of the time of arrest.”

In another notable disappearance case, student Islam Ateeto disappeared from Ain Shams University while sitting an exam. He was found dead the next day.

The Ministry of Interior later accused Ateeto of killing police officer Wael Tahoon in April, and stated that Ateeto died in a shoot-out with officers. Daily News Egypt received testimonies from eyewitnesses to his abduction and those who saw the CCTV recordings of the day in the university, who said that Ateeto was chased and forcibly arrested at the university.

Forced kidnapping is a crime

EGYPT: Military trial of disappeared individuals begins

The defense team of 15 individuals accused of membership of a terrorist cell have requested full access to the case’s papers in a Sunday session at the Hike step military court.

The defendants include individuals who were part of a wave of enforced disappearances and who later appeared in a Ministry of Defense video, appearing to confess to crimes in testimonies that family members said were produced via torture.

Lawyer with the defense team Yasmin Hossam El-Din told Daily News Egypt that the case was postponed Sunday until 17 September, as four detainees were not brought to court from detention.

“We had the chance to request a full set of the case papers, so far we have not had full access and we hope to get the papers this week,” El-Din said. “This will give us the ability to see what kind of evidence is being used to charge them.”

The accused individuals appeared in a video released by the Ministry of Defense in July and broadcast online and on television. In it, the men say they were responsible for attacks on state facilities and personnel. The men tell the cameras that they were trained abroad in Syria, on Muslim Brotherhood instruction. It also claims they have attacked state facilities, including police cars and electricity pylons in Egypt. However, relatives and activists worry their testimonies may have been elicited under duress.

One individual among those speaking in the video is 22-year-old Sohaib Saad. The student is also one of five students who faced trial in the Al Jazeera retrial (also called the “Marriot Cell” trial), and he received a three year prison sentence on 29 August for conspiring with the Qatari media network’s journalists in “spreading false news”.

However, Saad was a notable case among a wave of enforced disappearances earlier this year, and he appeared in the video appearing to give the testimony weeks afterwards, prompting concerns between observers.

“The court papers will allow us to see what evidence there is, because the video is not sufficient. They are accused of possessing weapons and bullets so the prosecution will need proof,” El-Din said. “We cannot raise the issue of his enforced disappearance; there is no such crime under Egyptian law. Rather, we may raise the disappearances as proof the accused did not commit the crimes.”

Saad says in the video that, as part of his work, he purchased a weapon that was given to another member to assassinate a police officer involved in the dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in in August 2013.

Writing on Facebook after the video’s appearance, Saad’s brother Osama said: “Sohaib was kidnapped and forcibly disappeared for two weeks. Then he appeared in Tora Prison. During the time of his forced disappearance he was hung by his wrists for three full days and electrocuted all over his body. He said that he was tortured to the extent that he lost the ability to scream or faint.”

Saad’s brother also called in to question the plausibility of the video’s claims. He wrote: “Sohaib was arrested on 2 January 2014 as part of the Marriot Cell case, and was held until his release in February 2015.  They released him on bail on the conditions of the police checking upon him daily. Sohaib was imprisoned for one year and two months… he was kidnapped on 1 July 2015 – when could he have undertaken these terrorist acts?”

The alleged local leader of the group is a 25-year-old man named Ahmed Amin Ghazali. In a statement to the camera, Ghazali says he ran the cell in Egypt and had previously undertaken attacks, including torching police cars.

At the time of the video, revolutionary and pro-democracy activist Mona Seif reported on Facebook that she understood at least six of the men featured in the video, including Ghazali and Saad, were abductees in a wave of hundreds of alleged disappearances in recent months.

Egypt’s judicial system has frequently been called into question, including over the absence of substantial supporting evidence for verdicts. In May, six men accused of being part of the militant ‘Arab Sharkas cell’ were executed. Prominent international NGO Human Rights Watch said that although there was evidence to prove that three of the defendants were in detention at the time the crimes were carried out, they were still charged and convicted.

Justice