ERC Slams US House Judiciary Committee Bill Labeling Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist

February 26,2016
Source: Ikhwanweb

The ERC issues a statement describing as absurd the US House Judiciary Committee bill that seeks to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group

The Egyptian Revolutionary Council (ERC) followed with great interest the recommendation of the US House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group. The Brotherhood is a key component of the Egyptian people, and has been the mainstay of the revolutionary movement since the beginning of the January 25, 2011 Revolution. The ERC, therefore, stresses the following important facts:

First: The 2012 elections, which impressed the whole world – including the US – as free, fair and democratic, with the participation of more than 25 million Egyptian voters, brought-in the first civilian president in Egypt's history: President Mohamed Morsi, who is now held hostage by junta authorities, and who also is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Thus, labelling the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization is not only insulting to the Muslim Brotherhood, but to the Egyptian people, who chose, with their own free will, a President from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Second: In another free and fair democratic ballot, the parliamentary elections, the Freedom and Justice Party – the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood – won parliamentary majority. Meanwhile, Dr Saad Katatni, another member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was elected as Speaker of the Egyptian parliament. Therefore, demonizing the Muslim Brotherhood and trying to designate it as a terrorist group is in fact an insult to the Egyptian people by way of punishment for choosing democracy.

Third: US human rights organizations known in the US for their impartiality and integrity talked of the extreme persecution and the horrific crimes committed by the junta and its illegitimate appointed regime against the people of Egypt and especially the Muslim Brotherhood since the July 3, 2013 coup.

Those brutal crimes by the coup regime against all opponents took many forms, from extrajudicial killings to enforced disappearances and violence against women and children, to the many heinous crimes committed by the fascist regime against the Muslim Brotherhood – its members and supporters. Absurdly, the US official position was reflected in the normalization of relations with the fascist military regime that ruled by sheer force after the July 3 coup, and providing the Generals with military and financial aid and sophisticated weapons.

Fourth: Helping the despots deepen the injustice and oppression and escalate the brutal repression and excessive use of force and violence against 100 million citizens, normalizing the relationship with the putschist criminal, and calling the victims terrorists, is undoubtedly something that may have consequences to deepen the Egyptian people's feelings of hatred towards countries that support the fascist regime in Egypt, especially the US and Western Europe.

Fifth: Such absurd US bills, recommendations, positions and decisions make Egyptian rational voices fade little by little, since they no longer have the space to spread the message of hope in the hearts of young enthusiastic Egyptians out looking for a better future to replace the painful reality they live. The situation can turn into a civil war with direct painful results in the form of more terrorism, extremism and instability in the region.

Sixth: US interests members of the Congress Judicial Committee seek to protect are thus exposed to the risks of a reckless gamble as a result of such attitudes of hostility towards the people of Egypt and their representatives, including the Muslim Brotherhood.

Seventh: In their legitimate struggle for their freedom and their inherent right to choose their leader, the Egyptian people are not hostile to anyone and do not harbor any hatred for anyone. However, they just wonder how countries that fervently preach democracy and human rights, supply the people's executioners with money and weapons with which to kill them and their children every day. Those countries maintain this fascist regime so it would not be held accountable for its crimes against the Egyptians.

The Egyptian people are not asking too much. They simply want freedom, social justice, human dignity and respect for their democratic choices.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which some are trying to designate as terrorists, won the first five elections after the January 2011 Revolution, including Egypt's President, the Speaker of Parliament, ministers and parliamentary majority; and formed the government. Now, of its members more than ten thousand have been killed, fifty thousand jailed, sixty-eight thousand injured, and tens of thousands hounded inside and outside Egypt.

The Revolution will go on until the restoration of democracy and the overthrow of the coup regime and military rule.

Egyptian Revolutionary Council

Link: http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=32456.

Egypt NGO Condemns Death Sentences Issued by Coup Military Court to Civilians

March 3,2016
Source: Ikhwanweb

In a statement Wednesday, Egyptian rights organization ECRF rejects the latest batch of death sentences from a military court as extrajudicial killings by the coup regime seeking to eliminate all opposition.

Egyptian Coordinating Committee of Rights and Freedom (ECRF) condemns the life prison terms and death sentences issued Wednesday by Alexandria military criminal court in the Kafr El-Sheikh Stadium case. The court ordered the execution of seven citizens (all civilians) and handed down life sentences to five more, 15-year sentences to two people and 3-year terms to two others.

For its part, ECRF condemns the surge in referrals of civilians to military courts where a fair trial as enshrined in international covenants and treaties as well as Egyptian constitutions and laws is not a possibility. ECRF also denounces the authorities' usurping of citizens' right to appear before their natural judge.

ECRF deems all the military sentences issued Wednesday null and void, since they fail international standards on fair trial.

Those death sentences are nothing more than state-sponsored extrajudicial killings – an integral part of a systematic campaign to execute all the regime's political opponents under the pretext of law.

ECRF urges the implementation of the principles of the Egyptian Constitution and the law, as well as established rules of international law on the right of the accused to appear before an ordinary court in a fair trial, with citizens not referred to trial before military courts ever.

ECRF calls on all local and international human rights organizations to unite and address those daily violations and crimes against the rights of Egyptian citizens, who suffer extreme humiliation and inhuman brutality.

Egyptian Coordinating Committee of Rights and Freedom (ECRF) #التنسيقية_المصرية_للحقوق_والحريات

Cairo: Wednesday - March 2, 2016

Link: http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=32462.

Political Prisoners' Families: Aqrab Prison Hunger-Strikers Protest Persistent, Escalating Violations

February 29,2016
Source: Ikhwanweb

Aqrab Detainees Families Association issues a statement detailing current hunger-strike steps and demands.

The Aqrab Detainees Families Association (ADFA) affirms that a number of detainees in Aqrab Prison started an open-ended hunger-strike to protest the jail's flaunting of relevant laws, and to demand it conforms to the Constitution like all prisons in Egypt.

The political prisoners' hunger-strike is entitled "I am a human" and demands detainees' basic rights as follows:

1. A weekly visit for detainees' families, without glass barriers, which should be one hour long, as prescribed in the Prisons Act.

2. Improving the prison's food and water so they would be fit for human consumption, in terms of quality and quantity.

3. Allowing all essential personal items brought by families in visits – the least of which is food of appropriate quantity, and toiletries, medicines, personal hygiene items, clothes, blankets and books, which should not be confiscated by prison administration after the visit.

4. Granting detainees their right to exercise out of their cells for the daily period of time set in the Prisons Act.

The strike came after two weeks of extreme humiliation, violations and assaults on detainees' families trying to visit their loved ones, especially since February 10, as follows:

January 24 to February 10: All visits to Aqrab Prison were banned, and in some wings, tiny windows in cell doors (the only 'openings' they have) were blocked with heavy metal covers.

February 10: Visits were allowed again, but for a maximum of only 20 detainees a day. This forced families to spend the night outside the prison to stand any chance of seeing their loved ones the following day. This absurd limit was raised to an arbitrary 30 detainees a day, in a prison that holds over a thousand inmates.

February 14: Prison officers assaulted 4 visiting women, brutally beating, then arresting and holding them in custody. Those were: Salma Abdel-Rauf and her mother, Yomna and Rahma Khairy (two sisters). The officers' violence happened after they pushed families out, announcing they were stopping visits for the day. Then, visiting families who had not seen their loved ones as yet protested.

February 15 and 16: Forty-three detainees' families lodged collective complaints with the National Council for Human Rights protesting the ban on visits and the assaults and abuse they had to endure (eg complaint No. 949 dated February 15 and No. 1003 dated February 16, 2016).

February 17: Mohamed Rabie Zawahiri, Ismail Abdel-Qader Ibrahim and Nabil Abdel-Moneim El-Shahat, together with a number of young detainees, began a total hunger-strike, demanding decent treatment and their visit rights.

February 18: A number of detainees' families organized a demonstration at the entrance to the Journalists' Syndicate in protest against the conditions of their incarcerated loved ones in Aqrab Prison and the humiliation they suffer during visits.

February 23: Some of the families who were allowed a visit saw two young detainees being carried out from an exercise area. A prison official told them that because of the strike, they can no longer stand, let alone walk, and added that at least two others had to be hospitalized because of their hunger-strike.

February 24: A woman visiting her husband was hit in the face by a prison officer. Another officer hit a little girl on her back. Thus, at least six members of visiting families were assaulted in less than two weeks. Also, a prison visitors' bus overturned as they entered Aqrab Prison, because prison staff forced too many people on it. This accident caused injuries to many passengers, including fractures and bruises, while the wife of Magdi Mohamed Ibrahim suffered a broken right hand, and the wife of Mohamed Abdel-Wahab Mustafa had to be admitted to hospital in a critical condition.

February 24: Essam Sultan, Gihad Haddad and Mahmoud Barbary began an open-ended hunger-strike. On the same day, prison authorities prevented 60 families from visiting their loved ones.

February 25: Dr Ahmed Abdel-Aati, Dr Osama Yassin, Amin Sayrafi, Dr Essam Haddad, and other detainees joined the hunger strike.

February 27: Seven journalists detained in Aqrab Prison joined the strike. They were: Hisham Gaafar, Ahmed Subaie, Hassan Kabany, Walid Shalaby, Ahmed Saleh, Khaled Sahloub and Mohamed Nawareg.

Families of the detainees filed a report to the Public Prosecutor to protest the deteriorating conditions in Aqrab Prison, and held a press conference at the Journalists' Syndicate.

On the same day, hunger-strikers were threatened by the prison administration with removal to remote prisons, if the strike was not called off.

ADFA will publish updated data and information on any new developments in the hunger-strike and the strikers' situation in Aqrab Prison

Link: http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=32459.

Rights Organization Urges International Bodies to Help Stop Brutal Violations in Egyptian Prisons

March 3,2016
Source: Ikhwanweb



The Arab Organization for Human Rights in Britain details coup authorities' documented violations at Aqrab Prison, and urges relevant rights bodies to visit Egyptian jails to help stop atrocities committed regularly.

A number of detainees in Aqrab high security prison (in Tora compound) are on an indefinite hunger-strike in protest at inhuman squalid conditions and the authorities' frequent campaigns of extremely humiliating treatment, systematic torture and slow death, in addition to the most degrading treatment suffered by their relatives at the hands of prison administration during visits.

On February 21, 2016 more than 150 political prisoners declared a full hunger-strike. They were soon joined by others, bringing to 253 the number of hunger-strikers.

In testimonies submitted to the Arab Organization for Human Rights in Britain (AOHR), families of Aqrab Prison detainees confirmed that political prisoners are deprived of all legal rights stipulated by Egyptian law, the Prisons Act and prison regulations.

The statements also mentioned that detainees are locked inside filthy cramped cells with no vents of any kind, no beds or blankets either, and no toilets. Inmates are also denied the right to exercise, and ill ones are not allowed to take any medicines. Moreover, prison authorities deliberately refuse to treat ill prisoners in any hospitals, and do not provide adequate food fit for human consumption, according to families of detainees. Even worse, the prison administration only offers contaminated water to political prisoners to drink.

Families of detainees said they too suffered ill-treatment at the hands of prison officers and staff. The prison administration deliberately restricted visits and made them much more complicated than they legally should. The administration is not committed to even the lowest legal standards set by Egyptian law in the regulation of visits, neither in the type and quality of the place specified for visits, nor the duration of the visits allowed for each prisoner.

Adding insult to injury, Aqrab prison administration announced only 20 prisoners can receive visits in any one day (the prison has thousands of inmates). Desperate families are forced to go to Aqrab before the date of the visit, or at least ten hours before visiting times, to take a place in the queue. Families also complained of humiliating heavy-handed personal inspections, especially girls and women.

AOHR documented frequent attacks by Aqrab Prison security personnel on the families of detainees. They brutally beat them and kick them out, arbitrarily banning their visits.

In her testimony to AOHR on February 14, Yomna, the 24-year old daughter of detainee Khairy Abdel-Aziz Mohamed, 53, held at Aqrab Prison in H4 Wing 1, said: "We were on a visit to my father after an unjustified ban on visits for more than three weeks, and were surprised by the prison management refusing to allow families in, claiming that the capacity of the prison cannot afford more than 20 families visiting on any one day.

"We were among those barred. I protested the sudden and absurd ban, and so did my younger sister Rahma (13 years old), and demanded our right to visit our dad. Then, one of the prison officers attacked us, punching me in my face, and hitting my sister in the stomach with a baton, then he threw us out altogether."

AOHR has also received a complaint from the family of one of the hunger-striking detainees, called Mohamed Farid Khalifa, 22, held in Aqrab's block H-1 Wing 4, stating: "Mohamed started his hunger-strike a week ago. He suffered medical neglect in prison. He needs to attend treatment sessions for his left foot, injured in detention. He cannot walk on it at all since he was tortured, just after his arrest on August 12, 2014.

We always suffer extremely humiliating treatment during our visits to him. We come all the way from Alexandria, a long way off, to visit. However, the prison administration does not always allow us to enter. They now only allow 20 families to visit their loved ones. Even if we are allowed to enter, the visit is no more than ten minutes, and we have to suffer a most humiliating personal inspection".

In her testimony to AOHR, Ayah Alaa Hosni, the wife of a 33-year old journalist called Hassan Mahmoud Ragab Kabany, detained in Aqrab Prison' block H2 Wing 4, said: "My husband, along with other political prisoners, started a hunger-strike since February 21, to protest the poor conditions inside the prison.

"My husband has been held in a solitary cell in inhumane conditions since his arrest on January 22, 2015. He is not allowed even to exercise, nor to keep any personal belongings inside the cell. Moreover, both he and we suffer absurd restrictions during visits, like: we are separated with glass barriers and have to talk through a microphone, and visits are limited to 15 minutes."

Six political prisoners died due to deliberate medical neglect in Aqrab Prison since the beginning of the military coup in July 2013. Dozens more of ill detainees are at risk of death within the prison.

AOHR affirms that the abuses suffered by detainees and their families in Aqrab Orison are crimes of systematic torture and a form of collective punishment practiced by the Egyptian regime through state security agencies.

AOHR calls on the UN Secretary-General to take a moral stance about the serious violations committed by the Egyptian authorities against a large segment of Egyptian citizens. The world community's long silence has already emboldened the Egyptian authorities, who persist in their crimes.

AOHR urges specialized committees for prevention of torture, degrading treatment and arbitrary detention to visit Aqrab Prison and the rest of Egyptian prisons and put pressure on the Egyptian authorities to end political detention.

Arab Organization for Human Rights in Britain

Tuesday – March 1, 2016

Link: http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=32463.

Muslim Brotherhood Leaders Refute Regime Violence Accusations

March 7,2016
Source: Ikhwanweb

The junta regime's Interior Ministry seeks to further demonize the Muslim Brotherhood, absurdly accusing it of assassinating the public prosecutor.

Dr Abdul-Mawgood Dardery, spokesman for the Freedom and Justice Party's Foreign Relations Committee, said the putschist regime's Interior Ministry is determined to continue demonizing the Muslim Brotherhood with false accusations and utter lies all the while.

"Today (Sunday), the junta-appointed regime's Ministry of Interior accused the Muslim Brotherhood of assassinating the Public Prosecutor (Hisham Barakat, who was killed on June 29, 2015). They are trying to cover up their own crimes, especially the killing of hundreds of good Egyptian youths and Italian student Giulio Regeni.

"We are committed to a totally peaceful approach. These accusations are absurd and false. We are facing a brutally repressive military coup with legitimate peaceful struggle. We simply want to reinstate the democratic process and mechanisms and safeguard freedoms and rights."

Meanwhile, Dr Gamal Heshmat, speaker of the legitimate Egyptian Parliament Abroad, said: "Press statements with neither investigation or evidence are just another episode in the series demonizing the Muslim Brotherhood by accusing it of an imaginary role in violence that, in fact, is committed and caused by the illegitimate coup regime. Their heinous maneuvers have been exposed, with their crimes escalating".

Link: http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=32467.

Rights Organization Condemns Interior Ministry Death Threats to Aqrab Prison Detainees

Tuesday, March 1,2016

Source: Ikhwanweb An Egyptian NGO urges judicial authorities to take prompt action to prevent state-sponsored killing of political prisoners threatened by Interior Ministry officials Egyptian Coordinating Committee of Rights and Freedom (ECRF) denounces Interior Ministry policies and Aqrab Prison management, which is deliberately escalating violations against detainees, instead of enforcing the law and implementing the Prisons Act. In its rights campaign entitled #اغلقوا_العقرب (Close Aqrab Prison), ECRF received a number of complaints from the families of Aqrab Prison detainees in which they affirmed that top Interior Ministry officials personally threatened hunger-striking detainees, boasting that there is no limit to the violations they can commit until the strike is called off, adding that the ministry's highest bosses had given them the green light for more atrocities and more brutal repression until the striking detainees end their hunger-strike. The detainees said they have been threatened with transfers to remote prisons with the promise of more brutal violations and abuse, such as Al-Wadi Al-Gadid Prison, and also with harassment of and assault on visiting families, complete bans of visits, and direct death threats. ECRF affirms that all the above only mean that the Interior Ministry is deliberately escalating the crisis, instead of enforcing the law and the Constitution. Now, urgent intervention by judicial authorities is required to save the lives of Aqrab prisoners, and to stop the fierce campaign of repression and violations against them. Prompt and decisive action is urgently required before the Interior Ministry commits new crimes against political prisoners. Egyptian Coordinating Committee of Rights and Freedom (ECRF) #التنسيقية_المصرية_للحقوق_والحريات Cairo: Sunday – February 28, 2016 Link: http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=32460.

Worse Than Tiananmen? 1st Anniversary of Egyptian Army Killings of 800+ ...

Anti-Coup Alliance Denounces Political Executions

April 4,2015

Source: Ikhwanweb

Egypt's pro-democracy national coalition condemns the illegitimate coup's intensely politicized mass death sentences and hails the martyrs' children as the pride of the homeland.

The non-violent anti-coup revolutionary movement in Egypt is escalating steadily as the military coup regime persists in its bloody and brutal practices against the patriotic Egyptian people, including extra-judicial killings, political executions in the guise of judicial rulings (by orders from the Generals), and arbitrary arrests of protesters. However, mistaken are those who believe these criminal practices will intimidate or impact the determination of Egypt's heroes, the revolutionaries.

The thundering masses – from across the social and political spectrums of the Egyptian people – that turned out today in response to the Anti-Coup Pro-Legitimacy National Alliance's call carried a message to the whole world rejecting the execution of innocent people of this homeland, vowing that the Revolution will not kneel or be cowered, that retribution will be achieved soon, and that no criminal will escape punishment.

The military junta that executed the treasonous coup d'état in Egypt, trampling democratic legitimacy and popular will in Egypt by force of arms, bears full responsibility for damaging Egypt's national security, and especially for threatening the Sinai's security.

The National Alliance condemns the crimes committed by the traitor Al-Sisi against the people of Sinai, and denounces the clumsy terror operations directed against unarmed and innocent citizens – crimes with which the junta aims to evacuate the Sinai in favor of the Zionist enemy, taken by the traitor Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi as a close and intimate friend.

The Alliance solemnly salutes the revolutionaries' resilience, selfless devotion and determination to complete the journey of the January 25 Revolution despite the junta's brutal repression.

On the World Orphan Day, the Alliance hails the martyrs' children with this modest message: "You are the pride of the nation, the joy of this homeland, the hope of the Revolution, and Egypt's bright future. Retribution will be achieved soon. We are as committed as ever to the worthy pledge we made to your fathers, and to the path of the Revolution. We will not accept no compromises with your rights. We will reclaim for you your full rights, so you can enjoy freedom in the sovereign democratic homeland your fathers wanted and sacrificed their lives for".

Victory for the Revolution

Down with the rule of murderers

The Anti-Coup Pro-Democracy National Alliance

Thursday – April 3, 2015

Link: .ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=32079.

Freedom and Justice Party Awaits Release of Funds, Personal Property

December 18,2014
Source:Ikhwanweb

An Egyptian court stops implementation of 17 earlier court decisions to seize funds, property, schools, companies belonging to people said to be members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Mahmoud Abul-Enein, Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) lawyer, said the FJP awaits enforcement of a Tuesday court ruling that overturns 17 earlier court orders to seize funds and property of people the coup government accused of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood in order to confiscate their property. The junta government may challenge the latest ruling.

"Even if challenged by the government, the court ruling is still enforceable. Any challenge will in fact be rejected, especially since the government's decision (expressed through 17 court orders) had no legal basis whatsoever."

According to a judicial source, the State Council's Administrative Court, presided over by Judge Yahya Dakroury, ruled in 17 lawsuits where earlier court orders had been issued to seize funds, schools, companies and personal property of people said to be members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Administrative court declared that those orders were in fact null and void.

"The court has established its ruling on the fact that the decisions to seize assets should have been issued via legitimate means and legal due process that do not ignore the provisions of the Constitution and the law, on the grounds that the Criminal Court is the competent authority to seize funds and property and to prevent the owners from the disposition of property. This cannot be achieved with an administrative decision.

"The same reasoning explained that 'terrorism poses a threat to society which competent authorities should handle... Dealing with terrorism and every departure from the law must be itself legitimate, through means and procedures that do not ignore the provisions of the Constitution and the law... The dangers of tyranny on the society are by no means less significant than the threat of terrorism."

 

 Link: http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=31940.

Egypt: Surge of Military Trials

DECEMBER 18, 2014
Source: Human Rights Watch

Curtailing the use of military courts to try civilians was one of the few tangible gains of the 2011 revolution, but that’s out the window now. Al-Sisi’s administration is methodically reversing the reforms achieved in 2011, while the United States and other governments resume arming the government as if none of it matters.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director

(New York) – Egyptian authorities have referred hundreds of civilians to military courts based on an October 2014 decree by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. At least 820 civilians have been referred to military prosecutors in the past six weeks based on the unprecedented extension of military court authority, according to news reports compiled by Human Rights Watch.

Civil prosecutors have used the October decree retroactively, referring cases of civilians already under investigation or facing trial in civilian courts to military jurisdiction. Some had been released on bail by civilian courts.

“Curtailing the use of military courts to try civilians was one of the few tangible gains of the 2011 revolution, but that’s out the window now,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director. “Al-Sisi’s administration is methodically reversing the reforms achieved in 2011, while the United States and other governments resume arming the government as if none of it matters.”

Egypt’s military courts operate under the authority of the Defense Ministry, not the civilian judicial authorities. The judges are serving military officers. Military court proceedings typically do not protect basic due process rights or satisfy the requirements of independence and impartiality of courts of law. Children can fall under the jurisdiction of military courts, which Human Rights Watch opposes under any circumstances.

On December 15, 2014, the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, and other top leaders of the group, including Mohamed el-Beltagy, Essam el-Erian, and Safwat Hegazy, were among 310 defendants whose cases were transferred by the general prosecutor in the city of Ismailia. They had been on trial for rioting and inciting violence leading to the torching of the Ismailia Courts Complex in August 2013. The Egyptian authorities labeled the opposition Brotherhood a terrorist group in December 2013.

On the same day, prosecutors referred another 40 alleged supporters of the Brotherhood, to the Ismailia military court. They face charges arising from their alleged role in protests, inciting violence, and blocking roads. Eight of nine women and girls among the defendants are secondary school or university students who have been free on bail for several months. They now face possible re-arrest. Human Rights Watch could not confirm the ages of all defendants, but military courts in Egypt, unlike civilian courts, do not differentiate in their treatment ofchildren and adults.

On December 13, 2014, Egypt’s prosecutor general referred 439 people for trial by a military court on charges linked to their alleged participation in deadly violence that broke out after the military’s removal of former president Mohamed Morsy in 2013. Of the 439, 139 had been facing trial before an ordinary criminal court in the Minya governorate, while the others were being tried by an ordinary court in Beheira governorate. On December 4, 2014, the chief prosecutor of Menoufia governorate referred 26 men, including six students, to military prosecutors. They face charges of rioting and belonging to a banned organization – the Muslim Brotherhood.

In November, a Cairo criminal court judge referred five al-Azhar University students for trial by a military court because, he said, President al-Sisi’s decree meant that his court “lacked jurisdiction” to try the students who were accused of torching the university's control room in January. Another 11 alleged Brotherhood supporters in the Kafr al-Sheikh governorate were referred to military court trials on charges that relate to events in August. Six of them were accused of disrupting railway tracks, and the other five were accused of planting a bomb in a court.

President al-Sisi issued the October decree, Law 136 of 2014, in the absence of an elected parliament. The decree places all “public and vital facilities” under military jurisdiction for the next two years. Article 2, which officials are using to give the law retroactive effect, requires state prosecutors to refer any crimes committed at those venues to their military counterparts.

The Egyptian Observatory for Rights and Freedoms, a local-based activist group, on December 16 made public photocopies of a November 11 decision allegedly by Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat requiring prosecutors throughout the country to “compile and send any cases related to aforementioned crimes, at any stage (of investigations), to military prosecutors whenever asked to do so.” Article 95 of the Egyptian Constitution stipulates that penalties may “only be imposed for acts committed after the effective date of the law imposing it.”

“Militarizing the trials of civilians, including children, is taking Egypt in the wrong direction, and doing so retroactively compounds the abuse,” Whitson said.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, in interpreting the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (to which Egypt is a state party), has said that military courts “should not, in any circumstances whatsoever, have jurisdiction over civilians.”

According to article 93 of the Egyptian Constitution, the international human rights agreements, covenants, and conventions to which Egypt is a state party have the force of law.

Ahmed Helmy, a lawyer who has represented defendants before military courts in multiple cases, told Human Rights Watch that he believes that the authorities are acting unconstitutionally by retroactively applying the decree.

“President al-Sisi should repeal his October decree before more damage is done if he has any concern for preserving Egypt’s reputation and the new constitution he has sworn to protect,” Whitson said. “He should also annul all verdicts against civilians that military courts have handed down since his government took power and order their retrial before civil judges.”

Link: http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/12/18/egypt-surge-military-trials.