Tens of thousands of Egyptians held without charges

Wednesday, June 23, 1999

CAIRO [MENL] -- A former Egyptian security official says tens of thousands of Egyptians are languishing in jail without having been convicted of any crimes.

Colonel Mohammed Ghanem, former chairman of the administration of legal research at the Interior Ministry and a professor of criminal law at the Police Academy, said the number of whom he termed administrative detainees has reached dangerous and unprecedented proportions. He said most of the time the courts are unaware of the detentions.

"The tragedy of administrative detention in Egypt has reached dangerous proportions which the judiciary can no longer ignore or keep silent about," Ghanem wrote in an article banned by the Egyptian censor for an unnamed newspaper. "The number of people detained has increased considerably and in a way that has never happened before in ancient or modern history of Egypt or even under foreign occupation of the country."

Last week, Amnesty International said thousands of people are held without charge in Egypt. The report said torture was commonplace in prisons and that two detainees died in 1998.

Ghanem said most of those detained are never told of the charges. Instead, these people are arrested on rumor or randomly. Once in jail, he said, the detainees are rarely ever freed.

Egypt has been under a formal state of emergency since 1981. The emergency regime allows the government broad powers of detention.

"Today Egypt's detention centers are filling up at an alarming and unreasonable rate that can neither be understood nor justified," Ghanem said. "There are two possible explanations for this sudden increase in the number of detainees: the state's policy of random arrests and the policy of permanent detention."

Ghanem said many of the detainees are ordered arrested by the Interior Ministry according to emergency rule regulations. The detainees are suspected of being close opponents of the regime and the ministry ignores court orders for their release.

The former ministry official said detainees have been languishing in jail for up to nine years. "Considering that detention is an exceptional procedure, should we tolerate that anyone, whether detained under the law or under other temporary detention measures, can be deprived of their freedom for nine years when the period of punishment should not exceed one year or three to five years on average?" Ghanem wrote.

"Administrative detention in Egypt has become a punishment that deprives people of their freedom for long periods and is a flagrant violation of the clearest principles of law and basic human rights."

Ghanem called on international organizations and Western countries to press the government in Cairo to stop the detentions. This weekend, President Hosni Mubarak begins a visit to the United States.