The first of these papers, published today in Arabic (translation forthcoming), documents the most egregious and disproportionate of these measures which has become a routine practice (in particular circumstances) for the police: forced searches of personal mobile phones during arbitrary stop and search operations. This measure has no legal basis at all in Egyptian law, not even in the context of declared emergency. The paper provides a brief narrative of how this practice has evolved from October 2019 and until the end of January 2020.
Files: Judiciary affairs
13 Feb 2020
what happened between 20 September and late October 2019 was an unprecedented development as far as police practice in Egypt and in terms of the magnitude of violation of citizens’ privacy. It seems to have been occasioned by the temporary spread of the videos and live feeds of contractor and actor Mohammed Ali before the demonstrations of 20 September.
We stress on that the source of this serious issue is the absence of a legislation that activates the constitutional article, without disruption to the rest of the constitutional articles that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex and guarantee freedom of belief for all without discrimination, as well as the vagueness of the current legal system which opens the door to a such serious violation.
EIPR stresses the important role judicial institutions could play in punishing the wrongful use of force by police and law enforcement officers. Such actions are vital to stop the rampant cases of death in custody due to beatings and torture. This is especially true given the lack of effective oversight over these facilities by either independent state bodies or the judicial bodies tasked with inspecting them under Article 55 of the constitution and laws regulating the judiciary, prisons, and criminal procedure.
The undersigned organizations fear that today’s final judgment forcing 32 judges into retirement, especially after a similar ruling was issued last week against 15 other judges (Judges for Egypt), will establish a new restriction on judges’ right to express their opinions, especially those that do not support the state administration.
The Court of Administrative Justice has affirmed the right of Yara Sallam, a staff member at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, to exercise her political rights and be included on the voters' lists.
The undersigned organizations believe that these charges are aimed at harassing independent judges who support legislative reforms to improve the human rights situation
The undersigned organizations reiterate that the objective of the judges’ forced retirement is first and foremost to send a message to judges, telling them to withhold their opinions except when expressing approval of the current political administration
The latest changes to the Code of Criminal Procedures in Egypt passed into law by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in November offer incremental improvements, but no magic bullet to fix Egypt's deeply flawed criminal justice system.
Justice was dealt another severe blow, said the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) following today's ruling by the Cairo Criminal Court dismissing the case against Mubarak and acquitting former interior minister Habib el-Adly and six o
