Between hope and despair,
questions of families of the forcibly disappeared people in Egypt swing everyday
without getting answers from the regime that basically denies the existence of
disappearance cases.
The longer the crisis continues, increasing pain and eagerness of people to
their loved ones exacerbate; wondering: “Is he still alive? Is he far north or
south? Did they bury his body or they left it in the open for dogs to tear
apart? Did he die of torture or of sadness? Will the feast pass once again
missing him among us like last year or they will grant him another chance to
live?”
In order to get answers to those questions, dozens of families of forcibly
disappeared people protested in front of the parliament building in central
Cairo on Saturday August 28th in conjunction with "World Day against the Forced
Disappearance" after failing to submit a collective complaint to the Attorney
General two weeks ago. Security forces prevented protesters from meeting the
parliamentarians to submit a collective complaint about the disappearance of
their children. They detained a number of them including women and children for
two hours before releasing them.
Ibrahim Metwally, spokesman of the "Association of Forcibly Disappeared" stated
that his son “Amr” – a final year student at the faculty of engineering – was
disappeared in July 8th, 2013 morning, where he existed by accident in
Al-Tayaran street during the events of the Republican Guard massacre. After the
search, he turned out to be detained at “Wadi Al-Natrun” prison, south-west of
the country then he was transferred to “Al-Azuli” prison east of the country,
according to a novel released person. Metwally said that his son was not
presented for the public prosecution and that he’s unaware of the charges
against his son so far, also he didn’t see “Amr” for the past three years rather
he only knows about him through intermediaries. "The family lives under severe
pressure because the unknown fate of Amr", Metwally added.
According to a report of the "Egyptian Coordination of Rights and Freedoms",
2811 people have been subjected to enforced disappearance by the security
services during the period from July 2013 until June 2016, including 1001 cases
of disappearances during the first half of this year, with an average of five
cases a day. Another report issued by the same organization also revealed the
forced disappearance of 912 between August 2015 and 2016 at a rate of three
cases per day. As for the statistics of the “National Human Rights Council”, of
which members are appointed by the government; they reported 266 cases between
April 2015 and the end of March 2016 without conviction or call for legal
actions against the responsible official authorities-namely- Ministry of
Interior.
In its report, Amnesty International stated that the national security sector in
Egypt tortures people and subjects them to forced disappearance to intimidate
opponents, pointing out that the wave of disappearances involved hundreds of
students, activists and protesters, including children.
Security authorities do not acknowledge any cases of enforced disappearance; as
for President “Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi” – during a televised interview –
anticipated that the disappeared ones have joined the organization of the
Islamic state, saying: "all actions are executed in a lawful way", he added:
“there are many people who have fled from Egypt and joined Daesh (The State
Regulation) in Syria”.
The director of “Egyptian Coordination of Rights and Freedoms” – Ezzat Ghoneim –
stated that “The security authorities resorted to forcibly hide opponents aiming
to threaten and torture a detainee to get information away from the regulatory
authorities. Detainees are severely tortured and prevented to be officially
presented for the public prosecution or contacting their families so that the
crime of torture remains unveiled, others are murdered”.
The former justice minister counselor “Ahmed Soli- man” also confirms that
Egyptian constitution prohibits the arrest of a citizen, inspection, detention
without a valid judicial order, except for cases of “flagrante delicto”. He
added, "The law provides a citizen the right to be immediately informed with the
reasons of his arrest and enables him to communicate with his family and his
lawyer immediately, and to be presented for official investigations within
twenty-four hours of the time of his arrest". But these firm legal texts – said
the counsel- or – "are not implemented".
Forced disappearances is another crime added to the shameful list of violations
committed by the regime without any respect for the constitution, as the
executive, legislative and judicial authorities humiliate the laws and
constitution without shame.