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| Watchdog backs Egypt torture claims |
| 2005-04-10 |
| The Egyptian Supreme Council for Human Rights (ESCHR), a state-backed organisation set up last year, gave credence in its first annual report to widespread allegations of torture by Egyptian police and security forces. Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib claims officials, including Australian representatives, watched him being tortured in Pakistan and Egypt. Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says no Australian officials reported seeing any abuse but he admits he cannot vouch for what happened when they were not looking. Mr Habib, who was born in Egypt, was arrested in Pakistan in October 2001 and then transferred to a jail in Egypt before being held in Afghanistan. It is not known if the ESCHR addressed Mr Habib's claims. The ESCHR called for an end to the state of emergency, which has been in force since 1981, saying it provided a loophole by which the authorities prevent some Egyptians enjoying their right to personal security. The report, obtained by Reuters on Sunday, was tougher than expected for a council set up and financed by the government. But the human rights activists on the council have argued that anything less would damage the council's credibility. The council was not able to carry out investigations of its own but by repeating allegations made by citizens in an official forum it implied it found many of them credible. Some parts of the report allege torture in general, without citing sources. The 358-page report describes in detail the deaths in detention of nine Egyptians during the year and calls them "regrettable violations of the right to life". It also corroborated reports the authorities detained large numbers of people in north Sinai, and tortured many of them, after bombings in Sinai resorts last October. Human rights groups say some 2,500 people were arrested and that more than 2,000 of them remain in detention without charge. The council is chaired by Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former United Nations secretary-general and a former Egyptian deputy prime minister. Hafez Abu Seada, secretary-general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) and a member of the council, said members close to the Government had objected to the language in the report but eventually yielded. "We tried to write a report that is a real reflection of the human rights situation in Egypt," he told Reuters. The report says that up to thousands of members of Islamist groups have been in jail since the 1990s, even after they complete their sentences. It added some detained without charge are not released after the maximum period of detention. |
| Posted by:God Save The World |