A new report issued by rights watchdog Amnesty International has charged that the Egyptian government continues to use the powers granted it by the longstanding Emergency Law to detain political opponents and critics, along with those it suspects of involvement in security breaches and terrorist activities.
The report also states that Egyptian courts impose prison sentences with the use of unfair military tribunals.
The organization’s annual review of the state of human rights in Egypt, released yesterday, also pointed to the continued maltreatment of prisoners and the widespread use of torture, noting that, in most cases, perpetrators went unpunished.
The report added that the government had imposed restraints on the freedom of expression, assembly and association, pointing to the detention and prosecution of a number of bloggers and journalists. It also claimed that the government forcibly evacuated several “insecure” areas, leaving a number of people homeless while relocating others under temporary housing contracts.
Discussing the situation on the border with the Gaza Strip, the report said that Egyptian frontier guards had killed 19 people that attempted to cross the border into Israel, despite the fact that these people did not constitute any danger to Egypt.
Egypt has passed the death sentence on at least 269 people, five of whom have already been executed, the report went on to note.
Amnesty fears that a proposed law against terrorism will entrench the 29-year-old state of emergency, which has facilitated human rights violations. It noted that prison sentences handed down to a number of Muslim Brotherhood members during an unjust military tribunal in 2008 had been approved, and that all of those punished were civilians. It also said that the persecution and detention of brotherhood supporters remained commonplace.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
