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State of Emergency

The declared state of emergency that had been in place since 1981 was repealed on 31 May 2012. Since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Egypt had almost continuously been under a State of Emergency. The State of Emergency allowed for the application of the Emergency Law of 1958, which grants the government broad powers to restrict civil liberties by acting outside the civil and criminal codes. Article 3 of the Emergency Law allowed the president to order "placing restrictions on personal freedom of assembly, movement, residence, traffic in specific areas at specific times," and "the arrest of suspects or individuals threatening public security and order," and arrests and searches without implementation of the law of criminal procedures..." In practice, the Interior Ministry carrieed out "the order" of the President either orally or in writing. Article 3 also authorizeed surveillance of personal messages and confiscation of publications.

Article 3 of the law stipulateed that detainees can appeal an arrest order after six months in a state security court, and that the court's decision was subject to approval by the president. In practice, after 30 days in prison, detainees can demand court hearings to challenge detention orders. Detainees can re-submit demands for hearings every 30 days; however, a judge can uphold a detention order indefinitely. The Emergency Law did not mandate a maximum detention period, and therefore allowed the government, subject to the approval of a State Security court and the president, to detain individuals indefinitely without charge.

Article 7 of the law createed state security courts. Three civilian judges preside over the courts, two of whom may be replaced by military judges appointed by the president. The law also established state security prosecutors who review cases and refer them to the state security courts. Per article 7, judges' verdicts in state security courts were final; there was no appeal process. Article 6 also stipulated that all state security court verdicts were subject to the review of the president, and Article 14 allows the president to modify sentences handed down by state security court judges.

Per para 2, the Emergency Law gives the president power to place "restrictions on personal freedom of assembly." Separately, in the penal code, law 10 of 1914 criminalizes the "assembly of five or more people in a gathering that could threaten public order or security." The law of meetings and demonstrations, law 14 of 1923 requires citizens to notify police prior to holding a gathering, and allows police to prevent a gathering from taking place and to dissolve a gathering once it is convened.

During the 1990's when Islamist terror organizations such as The Islamic Group and Al-Jihad carried out a series of attacks, the government arrested and detained thousands of Islamists under the Emergency Law. Contacts estimate that about 4,000 to 5,000 of these detainees remain in prison. Under the Emergency Law, security forces detained groups of Bedouin in the Sinai in connection with investigations into terror attacks there in 2004, 2005 and in April 2006.

In late 2008, the government used the Emergency Law to arrest 26 members of a Hizballah cell, 18 of whom are Egyptian. The cell was allegedly working to target U.S. and Israeli ships transiting the Suez Canal. The case is now before a state security court. In July 2009, the government used the Emergency Law to arrest and detain a group of 25 Egyptians and one Palestinian. The group allegedly aided Hamas, assisted in the February 2009 bombing at the Khan Al-Khalili market in Cairo, and robbed a Cairo jewelry store owned by Copts. According to press reports, on January 4 a state security prosecutor transferred the case to a state security emergency court.

The government has also used the Emergency Law in cases not related to terrorism. The Government of Egypt jailed blogger Hany Nazir under the Emergency Law in October 2008 following posts deemed offensive to Christianity and Islam. The Government of Egypt has also imprisoned activist and blogger Musad Abu Fagr since December 2007 under the Emergency Law following posts about difficulties faced by Sinai Bedouin. In 2008, the government arrested a blogger from the heterodox Islamic Quranic sect under the Emergency Law, and detained him for approximately 90 days.

In recent years, the government has used the Emergency Law to arrest large numbers of Muslim Brotherhood (MB) members without charge in the run-up to the 2005 parliamentary elections, the 2008 local council elections and the 2010 parliamentary elections. The government released most of the detainees after holding them from periods ranging from a few days to several months.

The government used the Emergency Law to arrest and prosecute 49 individuals in connection to clashes that broke out between workers and police during an April 2008 labor strike in the Delta town of Mahalla. In December 2008, a state security court convicted 22 people on charges of assaulting police officers, robbery, and possession of unlicensed weapons. In 2004, a state security court convicted 26 men linked to the banned Islamic Liberation Party for belonging to a banned organization. Several defendants alleged the government tortured them to obtain confessions.

Article 42 of the constitution prohibits the infliction of "physical or moral harm" upon persons who have been arrested or detained; however, the law fails to account for mental or psychological abuse, abuse against persons who have not been formally accused, or abuse occurring for reasons other than securing a confession. Police, security personnel, and prison guards often tortured and abused prisoners and detainees, sometimes in cases of detentions under the Emergency Law, which authorizes incommunicado detention indefinitely, subject to a judge's ruling. The government rarely held security officials accountable, and officials often operated with impunity.

Human rights lawyers believe police brutality continues to be a pervasive, daily occurrence in prisons, police stations and Interior Ministry State Security (SSIS) headquarters. The lawyers assert that the police and SSIS have adapted to increased media and blogger focus on police brutality by hiding the abuse and pressuring victims not to bring cases. The Government of Egypt and its supporters claim that police brutality is unusual, and is committed by a small minority of officers. Human rights lawyers believe the Government of Egypt should reduce pressure on officers to solve cases immediately, allow suspects to be accompanied by an attorney during questioning in police detention, and amend the laws to increase the penalties for brutality. We are working to resume USG-funded human rights-oriented police training.

Human rights lawyers believe police brutality continues unabated, or is increasing. Attorneys who specialize in brutality cases assert that officers abuse detainees in "every police station in Egypt." The lack of press and blogger reports and court cases is misleading, and only reflects MOI success in avoiding detection and pressuring victims not to bring cases. Statistics appear to support the contention of increased brutality.

Police brutality incidents decreased slightly in 2007 due to the sentencing that year of two police officers to three years in prison for assaulting and sodomizing bus driver Imad El-Kebir. Prominent blogger Wael Abbas posted a cell phone video of the assault on his blog, and the case set off unprecedented media and blogger attention on police brutality. Since the El-Kebir case, courts have sentenced other officers to prison time for brutality. Most recently, on 07 November 2009 a court sentenced an officer to five years in prison for beating a disabled man in 2008. Although the police initially reacted to the El-Kebir conviction by decreasing their abuse of detainees, the MOI subsequently decided on a strategy of hiding abuse from the public.

The MOI's strategy stems from its belief that officers need to rely on brutality to extract confessions and solve crimes quickly. Egyptian law requires the police to either release a suspect after 24 hours of initial detention, or transfer the suspect to the Public Prosecutor's Office for investigation. Officers face pressure from supervisors to extract a confession within this 24 hour period. In 2008 the MOI issued informal orders that resulted in officers abusing prisoners between the hours of 3 AM and 6 AM so that members of the public would be less likely to witness or hear the abuse.

The police threaten their victims with increased detention to dissuade them from filing cases. Many victims have been involved in criminal activity, and the police can easily keep them in detention. An example of the police successfully using this tactic is a February 2009 case of video-recorded police sodomy in Cairo, which Wael Abbas posted on his blog. The victim signed a statement that the recording was fabricated in exchange for his release. The MOI began a campaign of engaging with the press to convince journalists not to publish stories alleging police brutality. MOI officers offer to be sources on non-brutality related stories if newspapers agree not to publish brutality allegations.

Police offices in smaller cities or villages believe they have more power and less accountability, and therefore abuse suspects more. Abuse is especially pronounced in rural villages where police victimize the poor who have little access to legal representation. Police brutality is worse in Alexandria than in Cairo because officers are less worried about detection in the relatively lax media environment. In a July 2009 case, officers intervened on behalf of a "politically-connected" landowner to arrest and abuse the guards of his rival in a real estate dispute.

Government of Egypt officials claim that police brutality is unusual, and is committed by a small number of young officers who are immediately punished. In March 2009, the Interior Minister told the US Ambassador that police brutality only occurs in "isolated incidents." He also disputed the EOHR's claim of 13 deaths in police stations over the previous 8 months, saying that the deaths resulted from natural causes. In October, MFA Deputy Director for Human Rights Omar Shalaby repeated the same position that there is no pattern of police brutality. Government of Egypt supporters also promote this position.

The UN Development Program's (UNDP) human rights training program includes lectures for police officers on the illegality of abuse, but human rights contacts assess that these efforts are not effective. The Al-Naqib Center NGO, whose director is believed to be close to SSIS, issued a Freedom House-funded report in September 2009 on police brutality in three governorates, claiming the project had "halted torture" in one Delta Governorate. Freedom House used USAID grant money to fund the report, but selected and ran the project independently of the USG. The report concludes by questioning whether torture in police stations "still exists." Human rights activists criticized the report as completely inaccurate.

There are several ways the Government of Egypt could combat police brutality. The MOI could reduce pressure on officers to extract quick confessions. The police could allow detained suspects to have a lawyer present during questioning. Egyptian law does not require that suspects detained at police stations be accompanied by a lawyer during questioning, and contacts assert that attorneys currently have "no access" to suspects while they are in police detention. The law does not delineate a suspect's specific rights during police detention, and activists believe the Government of Egypt should enact amendments guaranteeing the right to remain silent. Legislative changes could expand the definition of torture (the law defines torture only in the context of extracting confessions) and increase the penalties, reforms which the National Council for Human Rights recommended in May 2009. US-funded human rights-oriented police training was planned to focus on interrogation skills, international standards and using moderate force. Although planned USG-funded training would be a step forward, the overall scope of police brutality will probably not change until the Government of Egypt undertakes significant procedural and possibly legislative reforms.

On 01 February 2010, the U.S.-funded, human rights-oriented police training program resumed, following its suspension in July 2008 pending bilateral negotiations related to the change in funding from ESF to INCLE. The February 1-3 three-day course focused on "Data-based Decision Making" to train officers to make decisions based on relevant information, as opposed to instinct. The course also emphasized the importance of engagement with local communities to gain their trust, with the goal of better serving the public and gathering crime data more effectively. The next training course was planned for March 23-25, and would focus on conforming to international policing standards. Subsequent courses were planned for May on interview and interrogation skills, July on appropriate use of force, and September on community policing.

At the start of the course February 1, Interior Ministry State Security General Amr Al-Asr addressed the 24 assembled police officers, stressing the training's importance and encouraging the officers to interact with the program instructors. General Amr thanked the Embassy and the State Department, and underlined to the officers the importance of the U.S.-Egyptian strategic relationship. Officers participating in the training course are majors and lieutenant colonels, and are from the Interior Ministry (MOI) State Security Investigative Service, MOI public security, MOI anti-narcotics department, and MOI traffic department.