Cairo, 20-08-2008
The Egyptian human rights organizations
express their deep concern over the ruling rendered recently by “Al
Khalifa Misdemeanor Court” –in absentia- against Dr. Saad El Din
Ibrahim, an outstanding defender of human rights and democratic
freedoms, professor of sociology, and Director of Ibn Khaldun Center for
Developmental Studies. The Court punished Ibrahim with two-year
imprisonment sentence with labor and an 10 thousand LE fine to suspend
the sentence enforcement. He was condemned of outraging Egypt’s
reputation and prestige and of harming national interests. The
“whereases” of the ruling were based on a report prepared by the
Egyptian Foreign Ministry, which referred to his articles regarding the
domestic situation in Egypt, published in several prominent American and
international newspapers. Those writings requested the American
Administration to link the US AID programs granted to the Egyptian
government with progress achieved on the track of democratic reform.
The undersigned organizations maintained that punishing Dr. Saad El Din
Ibrahim for his opinions represents a notorious feature of a trend
aiming at undermining the margin of freedoms and the manifestations of
political and societal mobility having been experienced in Egypt for two
years now. This state of affairs is quite noticeable in particular in
the tendency once again to refer civilians to military courts, besieging
journalists and threatening a number of editor-in-chiefs and managing
directors of partisan and independent newspapers with prison terms, on
top of whom Ibrahim Issa, Wael Al Ibrashi and Adel Hammouda. The latter
were accused of similar charges as those pressed against Saad El Din
Ibrahim. The last couple of years also witnessed the harassment of human
rights organizations, the closure of two such organizations, abusing
exceptional competencies by virtue of the Emergency Law to pursue and
arrest Internet activists, bloggers and advocates of the 6th of April
2008 strike, in addition to the more stringent trends targeting freedom
of satellite broadcast, which were expressed in the harsh restrictions
adopted by the League of Arab States in the recent document on the
principles and ethics of satellite broadcast, drafted upon an Egyptian
government initiative. Those restrictions were exhibited in withdrawing
the license granted to a number of satellite channels and the draft law
adopted by the Egyptian Ministry of Information, which aims at
tightening its grip over the audio-visual broadcast media, including
e-broadcast through the Internet.
The undersigned Egyptian organization consider Saad El Din Ibrahim’s
trial as an evident proof to the risks of abusing legal provisions
inimical to human rights, which the Penal Code is replete with and which
are invoked whenever necessary to quell opponents to the ruling regime,
opposition to government policies and advocates of human rights and
democracy.
Egyptian organizations warn that invoking Article 80 of the Penal Code –
which punishes with prison sentences anyone who wantonly broadcasts
abroad any false news or information regarding the domestic situation of
the country, which would weaken financial trust in the State or its
prestige or standing, or anyone practicing in whichever way any activity
that might harm the national interests of the State- not only violates
freedom of expression and opinion promulgated in the Constitution and
Egypt’s obligations ensuing from the Egyptian Government’s ratification
of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, but also
entails a serious threat to all personnel working in the field of
opinion-expression and information, including electronic media or human
rights. This is emphatically true if we took into consideration the huge
leap forward in communication and information technology, which has
practically put an end to the artificial restrictions on ideas, opinions
and information inside and outside the countries. Furthermore, the
development of the international human rights law guarantees the right
of both individuals and non-governmental organizations to criticize
practices of their respective governments in various international
forums.
The undersigned organizations stress their full solidarity with Dr. Saad
EL Din Ibrahim against arbitrary procedures aiming at penalizing him for
his opinions regarding the nature of the Egyptian political regime, its
practices which are hostile to political and democratic reform,
expressed internally and abroad. Meanwhile, they condemn attempts by
some – either voluntarily or under government and NDP incitement- to
abuse the legitimate right to litigation to file cases of political
liability, which have been quite en vogue recently, to crush opponents
and sequestrate freedom of opinion, by virtue of penal provisions, which
the Egyptian authorities are adamant about, to silence and terrorize
their opponents, even though such provisions run counter to their
obligations by virtue of international conventions Egypt has ratified.
The Egyptian human rights organizations call upon various forces and
movements aspiring for democracy and championing freedom of expression,
to withstand this ferocious attack aiming at preventing Egyptians from
enjoying universally acknowledged rights. They also advocate in
particular concerted efforts by democratic forces within the Egyptian
society to seriously undertake a legislative review in order to put an
end to penalties against freedom in cases of opinion and publication and
to reconsider different penal provisions which are beyond legal checks
and which primarily aim at immunizing the ruling regime, its policies
and practices inimical to human rights against criticism and disclosure,
either under allegations relevant to national security, or public
interests, or under the pretext of preserving state prestige and
reputation. Those provisions, which continue to be in force, are an
affront to the dignity of all Egyptians.
Organizations signing the statement
• Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
• Land Center for Human Rights
• Al Nadeem Center for the remedy and psychological Rehabilitation of
Victims of Torture
• Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies
• Hesham Mubarak Law Center
• Arab Organization for Penal Reform Organization.
• The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
• Democracy Development Foundation
• The Association for Human Rights Legal Aid
• The Egyptian Association for Community Participation Development
• Justice Advocates for Human Rights Association
• Human Rights Center for the Assistance of Prisoners
• Center for Trade Union and Workers Service
• Arab Network for Human Rights Information
• The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
(Translation from
Arabic by CIHRS)
