The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
(EIPR) urged the Prosecutor General to enforce a new court order dated
27 February 2005 for the immediate release of
detainee Mohamad El-Derini.
The Ministry of Interior objected to a
release order issued by the Supreme Emergency State Security Court on 7
February 2005. EIPR lawyers had submitted complaint no. 1425 of 2005 and the
Court decided to hear the complaint on 27 February 2005. The Court issued
the third final order for the release of Mohamad El-Derini. The Ministry of
Interior still refuses to enforce these orders.
El-Derini told the EIPR representative in a
visit on 5 February 2005 that he finished a strike that continued for 19
days after the prison officials promised of his release, a promise that was
not fulfilled. El-Derini added that the prison administration put him in
solitary confinement and prevented him from communicating with other
detainees, reading books and newspapers, and that he was not examined by
specialized doctors to consider an operation for his neck and examine his
eye which was injured during torture in State Security Intelligence.
The EIPR knew that El-Derini’s wife was
subjected to great difficulties during her last visit to him on
20 February 2005. El-Derini’s
wife said she was threatened of beating when prison officials reject ed
allowing her to visit her husband without the presence of two security
guards who taped El-Derini’s conversation with his wife. She added that the
visit did not exceed 10 minutes and the prison administration prevented the
detainee from getting covers and medicines.
EIPR lawyers submitted two prior complaints
to the Prosecutor General and received no reply, something that drove the
EIPR to submit a complaint to the UN Working group on arbitrary detention in
Geneva, which will issue its decision after investigating the complaint.
The EIPR requested the Prosecutor General to
take the necessary legal measures especially:
1.
order the
investigation in administrative report 2864 of 2004, Kharga filed by
El-Derini on 14 December 2004 and
included El-Derini’s strike and demanding the enforcement of court orders of
his release.
2.
Order an
investigation about the violation of El-Derini’s right to contact his lawyer
without any other parties’ presence according to Article 141 of the Law of
Criminal Procedures.
3.
Order the immediate
examination of El-Derini by specialized doctors to treat his eye, ear, and
medical problems in his neck and any other health problems which was caused
by placing him in disciplinary confinement without covers, implementing
article 9 of the General Principles for Treatment of Prisoners, adopted and
passed by the UN General Assembly Resolution on
14 December 1990.
4.
Order the immediate
release of El-Derini enforcing court orders.
5.
Order taking the
necessary legal measures to investigate cases of arbitray arrest and
unlawful detention prior to the issue of an arrest warrant (two months),
torture, and refusal to enforce court orders in order to try the
perpetrators of these crimes.
The State Security Intelligence arrested
Mohamad El-Derini in his house on 22 March 2004 and placed him in Wadi
El-Natroun political prison with a number of other Eygptian citizens
detained on the basis of belonging to the Shiite sect. Mohamed El-Derini is
still in detention for over 11 months without being brought before an
investigation body or charged, despite the fact that all other detainees
were released. He was transferred recently to Abu Za’bal political prison
then to El-Wadi El-Gadid political prison on 21 November 2004.
