Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF)
Continuous violation and absent justice
Forced Disappearance
A five-year report
Stop Enforced Disappearance
It is a campaign launched by ECRF on August 30, 2015 in conjunction with the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance, with the aim of spreading awareness of the seriousness of the crime of enforced disappearance in Egyptian society, and the need to stand up to the crime in light of the its expansion by Egyptian authorities, as well as providing psychological support, media and legal information for victims of enforced disappearance and their families, and the endeavor of state agencies to uncover the fate of people forcibly disappeared, prosecute the perpetrators of the crime, combat their impunity, obtain compensation and reparation for victims, and pressure decision-makers to address the legislative deficiency in Egyptian laws by issuing a law to criminalize enforced disappearance, and join the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
Contents
“Stop enforced disappearance” campaign 9
Patterns of enfored Disappearance in Egypt 10
Targeting families of the disappearedا 15
Official state discourse and the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) 18
National reparation procedures 21
The complicity of the public prosecution in the crime of FD 22
International reparation procedures 23
Conclusion and recommendations 27
Executive Summary
Forcibly disappeared persons usually appear after different periods of time in video recordings during their disappearance, under torture or intimidation, in which they make confessions of having committed certain crimes, and some of them often show signs of stress and of torture.
The crime of enforced disappearance remains at the top of the list of violations committed by the Egyptian security authority, chiefly the National Security Sector of the Ministry of Interior and the General Intelligence, against citizens and opponents of the authority in Egypt. Despite the continuous demands of the Egyptian authorities for the necessity to stop the use of enforced disappearance against citizens due to its severe negative effects on the disappeared and their families, they do not back down from expanding its use against larger segments of citizens.
During the years that followed the ousting of the late President Mohamed Morsi on July 3, 2013, and the demonstrations, sit-ins, and events that followed in Egypt, the most prominent of which was the dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adawiya and Nahda field sit-ins using excessive and lethal force, and the arrests that followed in which thousands of Morsi supporters and the Muslim Brotherhood were rounded up and subjected to unfair trials where sentences reached prison and death sentences against many. Security authorities in Egypt launched successive security campaigns to tighten their control over the Egyptian street and prevent any movement opposing the ruling regime and closed the public space, which resulted in many violations of human rights, foremost arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearance, and the lack of guarantees for a fair trial and extrajudicial killings of political opponents.
In conjunction with these events, a number of legislations were issued with the aim of restricting the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, chief among them the Demonstration Law No. 107 of 2013 and Anti-terrorism Law No. 94 of 2015, which gave the Ministry of Interior more powers and authority to use force to disperse demonstrations and gatherings, in addition to some articles that legalize the practices of enforced disappearance; thus the National Security Agency has been freed to commit violations unchecked.
These violations have escalated since March 2015, specifically with the appointment of Major General “Magdy Abdel Ghaffar” as Minister of Interior. He had held many positions within the State Security Agency, which was primarily responsible for the crimes of enforced disappearance and torture in Egypt, and whose name was changed after the January 25 revolution to the National Security Sector.
In the second half of 2015, and in conjunction with the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance, ECRF (ECRF) launched its campaign “Stop Enforced Disappearance” to combat this crime, provide psychological, media and legal support and assistance to victims of enforced disappearance and their families, pursue the perpetrators of the crime and combat their impunity, as well as obtaining reparation for the victims, and pressuring Egyptian authorities to enact legislation to combat enforced disappearance and to accede to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
Egyptian authorities have not retreated from their constant denial of the occurrence of the crime of enforced disappearance, and statements issued by officials in the security sector and concerned authorities have insisted on denying its existence in Egypt, and that the disappeared are either just absent or have joined armed groups. In light of this denial, authorities launched a major security crackdown on civil society organizations, specifically those that work to document human rights violations, which often resulted in arresting members of these organizations and preventing some of them from traveling or denying them access to their bank accounts or property.
Over the course of five years, the “Stop Enforced Disappearance” campaign has documented that 2,653 people were subjected to enforced disappearance for varying periods inside the headquarters of the National Security Sector and other official and unofficial detention facilities. The campaign also monitored the patterns of the phenomenon being practiced during this period, leaving no room for doubt that its practice is systematic and widespread.
Security authorities did not stop at violating the rights of the forcibly disappeared, but the violations extended to their families and relatives. During their journey to search for the fate of their disappeared relatives, the campaign documented that many of them were subjected to obstinacy in the implementation of legal procedures or threats of imprisonment and physical abuse. The campaign also documented the exposure of many families of the forcibly disappeared to imprisonment as well as enforced disappearance in order to meet the same fate as that of their relatives, simply because they use the peaceful and legal paths in search of them.
Due to the fact that enforced disappearance denies a person the protection of the law, it makes the forcibly disappeared person more vulnerable to other violations such as torture and ill-treatment. The “campaign” documented many testimonies of severe torture to which the disappeared are subjected that amount to extrajudicial killing. The Ministry of Interior data claim that these people were killed in an exchange of fire, but their families had submitted reports and complaints of their arrest and their forcible disappearance before receiving news that they were killed.
This report attempts to present the phenomenon of enforced disappearance in Egypt during five years by analyzing the political and social aspects of the phenomenon, and its physical, psychological and economic effects on the forcibly disappeared and their families, based on data collected by the “Stop Enforced Disappearance” campaign from the survivors and their families, as well as a review of the performance of the Egyptian security authorities and the statements of their officials that do not cease to deny the existence of enforced disappearance despite all evidence and proof provided by non-governmental organizations and statements issued by international organizations such as the United Nations.
The report also sheds light on the evolution of the patterns of the practice of enforced disappearance during the past five years, as forms of enforced disappearance varied, starting from the duration of the disappearance, places of detention at the time of disappearance and unofficial detention centers, as well as the enforced disappearance of women and children, and disappearances from inside official detention centers and ignoring judicial orders to disclose the whereabouts of the disappeared.
The report explains the domestic and international reparation procedures for victims of enforced disappearance, and the intransigence faced by the families of the disappeared while taking these measures to clarify the fate of their disappeared relatives, whether in police stations or with the prosecution. The role of the Public Prosecution and the Supreme State Security Prosecution has also evolved and was transformed from an independent judiciary to a main partner in violating the rights of victims of enforced disappearance, whether by denying them their legal rights during the investigation, and not documenting that they were subjected to violations inside the headquarters of the National Security during periods of enforced disappearance, or by threatening defendants and being directly involved in violations that sometimes amounted to torture and ill-treatment.
The report also refers to cases of extrajudicial killings committed by the Ministry of Interior since 2014, to which the forcibly disappeared persons may be subjected to as a result of torture or execution by gunfire, contrary to what the Ministry of Interior claims in its statements that they were killed in an exchange of fire with police forces. Many of these victims had been reported forcibly disappeared long before their death.
The report provides a number of recommendations to the Egyptian government on the necessity to acknowledge the security authorities’ perpetration of the crimes of enforced disappearance and torture against citizens and opponents of the authority in Egypt, to hold perpetrators accountable and combat impunity, in addition to the need to enact legislation explicitly criminalizing enforced disappearance in Egyptian law, and the need for Egypt to join the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from enforced disappearance.
Methodology
For the purpose of preparing this report, the team reviewed all the reports that the campaign has issued since its inception, in addition to all other publications related to enforced disappearance in Egypt. The campaign team has also updated the data and information of surviving victims of enforced disappearance and those who are still under disappearance who have contacted the campaign and documented the facts of their disappearance and reappearance since the launch of the campaign in August 2015.
Since its inception, the “Stop Enforced Disappearance” campaign has relied on direct documentation with primary sources by gathering information and communicating with the families of the forcibly disappeared through direct personal interviews or phone calls. The campaign has also provided legal support for the forcibly disappeared as soon as they reappear, which it adopted as one of the case sources.
The campaign also relied on an electronic form it issued as one of the sources for monitoring cases that have been subjected to enforced disappearance. The campaign team then reviews the complaints and telegrams and all legal steps taken by the families concerning the arrest and disappearance of their relatives.
The campaign team was in constant contact and follow-up with the families of the forcibly disappeared to follow up on their legal status, monitor and document their reappearance, and provide the necessary legal and informational support. The campaign achieved a number of tangible successes in terms of gaining the confidence of families and relatives of the forcibly disappeared, and the ability to help and provide the necessary support.
The campaign has also achieved great success in shedding light on the enforced disappearance practiced by security authorities in Egypt on a systematic basis, through continuous advocacy campaigns for the forcibly disappeared, and in coordination with local and international organizations, and presenting the torture and ill-treatment suffered by the forcibly disappeared inside secret detention centers in order to extract confessions, and unfair trials that followed, which concluded with a death sentence to some victims of forced disappearance.
During the course of its work, the campaign team obtained testimonies about the forms of torture that the forcibly disappeared face during their disappearance in the headquarters of the National Security and Intelligence, and the constant threats that the families of the forcibly disappeared are subjected to during their journey in search for their forcibly disappeared relatives.
The campaign faced many difficulties during its period of operation, perhaps the most prominent of which was the limitation of activities at times to monitoring, documentation and providing legal support to the forcibly disappeared and their families without the ability to publish about cases. Also, some survivors of enforced disappearance fear documenting their experience or dealing with civil society organizations for fear of security prosecution, which was an obstacle during updating the data of some survivors of enforced disappearance.
Background
On July 3, 2013, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the current president of the Arab Republic of Egypt, announced the ousting of the late President Mohamed Morsi from his post and his arrest, following a number of demonstrations rejecting his continuation and the Muslim Brotherhood at the head of power in Egypt. He also announced the suspension of the 2012 constitution, and the appointment of “Adly Mansour”, Head of the Constitutional Court, as interim president.
At the time, the interim government announced the imposition of a state of emergency for a month with the imposition of a curfew, and began a campaign of arrests against leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. The circle of arbitrary arrests and detentions expanded to reach thousands of members of the group and supporters of Mohamed Morsi. In December 2013, following the bombing incident in the vicinity of the Dakahlia Security Directorate, a government decision was issued declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group.
In their continuous attempts to impose their security grip on the Egyptian street, the Egyptian authorities have issued a number of laws that restrict the right to peaceful assembly and demonstration and all forms of opposition, perhaps the most prominent of which is Law No. 107 of 2013 known as the Demonstration Law, which was issued by interim President “Adly Mansour” in November 2013. The law grants Security Authorities broad powers to use force to disperse demonstrations, with severe penalties of up to five years for demonstrators.
The arrival of the current president in June 2014 to power in Egypt coincided with the escalation of the crackdown against supporters of Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as the arrest of many activists, lawyers and human rights defenders. In August 2015, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi issued Law 94 of 2015 “The Anti-Terrorism Law”, which restricts the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in an unprecedented way. Articles 40 and 41 were later amended to provide a legal umbrella for forced disappearance for up to 28 days before bringing the defendant to the relevant prosecution.
Since early 2015, the role of the National Security Sector has emerged once again as the main authority responsible for arrests, seizures, enforced disappearances, torture and fabrication of cases. With the appointment of Major General “Magdy Abdel Ghaffar” as Minister of Interior in March 2015, the National Security Agency was given free hand to control the fates of thousands of citizens while expanding the circle of suspicion. Thousands of forcibly disappeared persons became subject to the will of National Security officers.
The headquarters of the National Security Agency in Cairo and the various governorates, which are unofficial detention centers, had the largest share as places of enforced disappearance, in which the forcibly disappeared persons were subjected to the most horrific forms of torture and other forms of ill-treatment, in order to extract confessions of having committed many crimes of terrorism. Survivors of enforced disappearance were then taken to the prosecution to face them with charges based on the report of the National Security investigations. Those confessions were also used during the various stages of their trials.
Despite the recent circulation of the term enforced disappearance in Egypt, this does not negate the security authorities’ use of enforced disappearance against citizens and opponents of the authority for many years, and, in view of the media blackout, the difficulty of communicating and providing legal support to the disappeared and their families, without a deterrent or punishment for the perpetrators of the crime. During the Mubarak era, the State Security Investigations Service (SSI) used to forcibly arrest citizens without disclosing their places of detention in the 1990s.
In 2011, after the fall of the late President Hosni Mubarak and the storming of the headquarters of SSI in a number of governorates, and due to the accumulated public anger, a government decision was issued to dissolve the State Security Investigations Service, and change it by an unpublished ministerial decision to the “National Security Sector” (NSS). However, this new name was not accompanied by any change in the policies of the agency, which continued to practice all forms of repression and violations against citizens.
In 1997, the Human Rights Association for the Assistance of Prisoners, an Egyptian human rights organization, issued its first report on the phenomenon of enforced disappearance in Egypt, which documented the enforced disappearance of 11 individuals between 1992 and 1996. In August 1998, the same center issued another report documenting enforced disappearance in Egypt indicating the emergence of one of the disappeared persons mentioned in the previous report, but the number of forcibly disappeared persons in this later report had increased to 19 forcibly disappeared citizens.
The Stop Enforced Disappearance Campaign “The Campaign”
In conjunction with the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance in 2015, ECRF launched its campaign against the phenomenon of enforced disappearance in Egypt, solidarity with the forcibly disappeared and their families, and assistance in taking all legal measures, documenting cases to prosecute the perpetrators of the crime, and redress the victims.
Since its inception and during the period of its operation, the campaign has adopted the UN’s definition of enforced disappearance as “arrest, detention, abduction, or any form of deprivation of liberty that is carried out by state officials, or persons or a group of individuals who act with the permission or support of the state or with its consent, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of the person of his freedom or concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which deprives him of the protection of the law. “
In October 2015, the campaign issued its first monitoring report, and during August and September 2015 the campaign managed to monitor 215 cases of enforced disappearance in a number of different governorates of the republic, some of whom appeared in police stations and central security camps, and others before the prosecution offices, accused of demonstrating and joining a terrorist group.
At the end of 2015, ECRF issued its report “Forcibly Disappeared Persons Awaiting Justice”, which attempted to present the phenomenon of enforced disappearance in Egypt during the period from June 30, 2013 to the end of 2015, by conducting a number of direct interviews and documenting cases of enforced disappearance of persons inside the headquarters of the National Security and Military Intelligence, during which they talked about the forms of torture and ill-treatment they were subjected to.
The report documented the testimonies of many people who were subjected to enforced disappearance after they were arrested from different places by the National Security Apparatus, as well as those missing since the events of the Republican Guard and the Platform clashes as well as the dispersal of the Raba’a sit-in. It also documented that many of the disappeared suffered torture inside unofficial detention places including headquarters of National security affiliated to the Ministry of the Interior.
The report also documented cases of enforced disappearance inside the headquarters of the Military Intelligence, as some of the survivors of enforced disappearance in Al-Azouli prison at the headquarters of the Second Field Army confirmed that the prison includes a large number of disappeared persons, which ranges – according to their estimation – between 400 and 600 people.
In June 2017, and in conjunction with the International Day Against Torture, ECRF issued its report, “The Military Galaa Camp: The Theater of the Executioners and the Dungeon of the Forcibly Disappeared”, which presented the conditions inside the Al-Galaa Military Camp, and the crimes of torture and enforced disappearance faced by detainees at the hands of Military Intelligence. It also mentioned that at least 1,000 people were subjected to enforced disappearance and torture inside the prisons of the Al-Galaa military camp.
2015 witnessed a significant expansion in the practice of enforced disappearance against opponents of the policies of the Egyptian president, members of the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of the late President Mohamed Morsi. In its first annual report the Campaign documented 912 cases of enforced disappearance for varying periods of time between August 2015 and August 2016.
Throughout the years of its operation, the “Stop Enforced Disappearance” campaign issued four annual reports during which it documented that 1886 people have been subjected to enforced disappearance in the various governorates of Egypt, while this year the campaign documented 851 cases, bringing the total number of cases documented by the campaign since its launch to 2723 cases of enforced disappearance. Despite all calls and demands to stop using enforced disappearance against political opponents, security authorities have continued to use it on a larger scale and systematically since 2013.
Patterns of enforced Disappearance in Egypt
The journey of enforced disappearance usually begins when police forces, headed by a number of National Security Sector officers, storm the victims’ homes after midnight, and arrest them without showing any legal documents or explaining the reason for the arrest, and the victims are taken to one of the unofficial detention facilities, where the suffering begins with interrogation, forced confessions are extracted under torture, and from this moment on the fate of the disappeared person depends on the decision of the National Security Officer.
The dominant feature in the periods following the events of 2013 was the enforced disappearance for short periods, ranging from two days to a month at most, inside one of the unofficial detention centers, after which the disappeared person appeared inside a police station or in front of one of the prosecution offices or in photographed statements of the Ministry of the Interior, or was released without questioning by the prosecution, as happened in a small number of cases.
Forcibly disappeared persons face the bitterness of torture inside the headquarters of National Security. According to the testimonies of most survivors of enforced disappearance, they were subjected to all forms of physical and psychological torture to force them to confess to committing crimes, and to extract confessions under torture. Several of them had to confess to acts they did not commit, such as terrorist actions.
In the context of the National Security Sector’s targeting of a number of victims, which always drives it to circumvent the decisions of the judicial authorities to acquit or release them, many of the forcibly disappeared persons are at the disposal of the National Security Officer. On the pretext of waiting for the officer’s approval of release, individuals remain illegally detained in police stations, which in many case is only a prelude to their enforced disappearance again.
In 2015, the campaign documented that fifteen people were subjected to enforced disappearance after obtaining a release decision from the prosecution on August 15, 2015 in case 319 of 2014. However, they were not released and were disappeared again at the National Security headquarters in Lazoghly for over a month, in which they suffered the most heinous torture. They then appeared on September 22, 2015, at the Alexandria Prosecution Office, defendants in a new case 8261 of 2015.
In the fourth annual report, the campaign documented a number of cases of disappearance from inside places of detention. The victim would have received a release order from the prosecution; is then transferred to a police station or police center in the governorate of his residency to complete release procedures. However, a few days later the police station would deny that person was in their custody and then he is forcibly disappeared again until he appears before the prosecution pending a new case.
The enforced disappearance of people more than once was one of the patterns used by security authorities in their attempts to abuse victims. The campaign documented cases of several forced disappearances, amounting in some cases to five times.
Against the background of using these patterns, a number of cases came to be known in the media as the “frozen” cases or the “rotation” cases. Most of the defendants in these cases are individuals who have obtained acquittal or were released and were forcibly disappeared before the completion of the release procedures. It is worth noting that some of these persons are not subjected to enforced disappearance once, but every time they obtain a judicial decision to release them.
In a report issued by ECRF entitled “Until further notice: the rotation or methods by the authorities to circumvent the judiciary’s decisions to re-detain political prisoners” to analyze the phenomenon of detainee rotation and repeated. The report documented the cases of 40 people who were victims of rotation after periods of enforced disappearance.
Perhaps the most prominent of these cases was the case of “Khaled Yousri Zaki,” who was subjected to enforced disappearance six times in a row, where he was arrested for the first time on January 9, 2015, and obtained a release, but he was forcibly disappeared again to appear in connection with a new case with new charges. This was repeated five times, in which judicial authorities decided to release him and then he was forcibly disappeared again, until he appeared for the sixth time on September 30, 2019 in connection with Case 1413 of 2019 known as the September 20 arrests, and is still in pretrial detention until now.
The same happened to “Mohamed Mahmoud Abdel Halim Shehata,” who was subjected to enforced disappearance five times in a row, as he was arrested for the first time on February 3, 2017 and remained in enforced disappearance until he appeared pending case 3016 of 2017. He was held in pretrial detention for more than a year, until the prosecution decided to release him, but while awaiting completion of the procedures inside the Abu Kabir police station, he was forcibly disappeared again. This cycle was repeated every time the prosecution decided to release him.
Since the beginning of its operation, the campaign documented the exposure of children under the age of eighteen to enforced disappearance inside the headquarters of the National Security and the headquarters of the Military Intelligence. The first annual report documented the disappearance of 93 children, while the second annual report documented 30 cases of enforced disappearance of children, and security authorities are still practicing enforced disappearance against children, some of them newly born babies, less than one-year-old (with one or both of their parents)
Child “Abdullah Boumediene Nasr El-Din”, who was arrested at the age of 12 from his home in Al-Arish district in South Sinai governorate on December 31, 2017, remained in enforced disappearance for a full six months inside the headquarters of Military Brigade 101 until he was brought before the prosecution on June 2, 2018, on charges of joining a terrorist group and helping to plant fireworks. Boumediene remained in pretrial detention until the Abbasiya juvenile court decided to release him on December 27, 2018, and he was transferred to the Azbakeya Department and then to the second section of Arish police station to complete the procedures and to be given to his family. The police department denied to have him in their custody and he disappeared again until the time of writing this report.
to become one of the forcibly disappeared again.
Also, child “Ibrahim Mohamed Ibrahim Shaheen” was subjected to enforced disappearance at the age of 14. He was arrested with his mother after security forces stormed their house on July 26, 2018. They were taken to an unknown location. His mother was released after five days during which both were tortured, and Ibrahim is still under enforced disappearance until this moment.
On July 17, 2015, the fifteen-year-old child “Obada Guma’a” was arrested and forcibly disappeared for two days, until his appearance in front of the prosecution on July 19, pending case 31807 of 2015, on charges of manufacturing homemade firearms for the purpose of using them in demonstrations and sabotage. In September 2015 the Criminal Court decided to release him on bail of 15 thousand pounds, and despite the payment of the bail, the first police department of Nasr City did not execute the court’s decision. He was held in the Lazoghly State Security headquarters for a period of 50 days, to appear on November 10, 2015 before the Supreme State Security Prosecution, a defendant in case. 699 of 2015. Obada was subjected to enforced disappearance several times, the last of which was after he was arrested on March 9, 2018, from a street in Zahraa Madinat Nasr, and he is still under enforced disappearance until now.
Since its inception, the campaign has also documented the exposure of many women to enforced disappearance. In the first annual report, August 2016, the number of forcibly disappeared women reached 21, and the security authorities’ practice of enforced disappearance against women continued to escalate until the highest rate documented by the campaign for the disappearance of women in 2019 was 30 women.
On October 15, 2016, police forces arrested “Rabab Abdel-Mohsen Abdel-Azim Mahmoud” after storming her house in the Nasr City neighborhood. She was taken to the National Security headquarters for eight days during which she was severely tortured, until she appeared before the prosecution on October 22, 2016, pending the case 785 of 2016. She was then held in Al-Qanater women prison for a period of three years in pretrial detention in violation of the law. During those three years she suffered severe medical negligence until the Supreme State Security Prosecution decided to release her on October 15, 2019.
Sumaya Maher Hazima, who was arrested on October 17, 2017, was one of the victims of enforced disappearance. She was arrested with her mother after their house was raided by security. Her mother was later released but she remained in enforced disappearance for a period of 69 days, before she appeared in front of the Supreme State Security Prosecution. For the first time, on December 25, 2017, she was interrogated without the presence of a lawyer, in connection with state security Case 955 of 2017, known in the media as the “collaboration with Turkey” case. After the questioning, she was taken to the General Intelligence headquarters, from where she would be taken to the prosecution and then returned to the intelligence headquarters where she remained for about a year, after which she appeared in the Qanater women prison in September 2018.
On November 1, 2018, lawyer Hoda Abdel Moneim, a former member of the National Council for Human Rights, was arrested. Her house was broken into at 1 am, and she was taken blindfolded to her mother’s house, which was searched. She then forcibly disappeared inside the National Security headquarters in Abbasiya for twenty days, until she appeared in front of the State Security Prosecution on November 21, 2018, pending Supreme State Security case 1552 of 2018. She continued to be presented to the prosecution, then returned to the National Security headquarters in Abbasiya for three renewals until she was transferred to the Qanater women prison.
Enforced disappearance from Cairo International Airport was one of the patterns documented by the campaign. Despite travel bans and arbitrary arrests for alleged security reasons, the arrests were made during entry and exit flights from Egypt, as Cairo Airport turned into a place of detention and enforced disappearance. The campaign documented cases of enforced disappearance from inside the airport against a number of individuals, some of whom were subjected to interrogation and torture inside the airport itself. In some of these cases, the person was held for periods amounting to more than six months.
The campaign also documented a number of cases of enforced disappearance from the southern borders of the country. In 2017, “Ammar Mahmoud Al-Nadi” and “Abu Bakr Ali Al-Senhouti” and others were arrested by an army ambush, and communication with them was cut since December 14, 2017, until the sister of “Abu Bakr” received an anonymous call informing her that they had been arrested. But no contact was made until the family received another call on March 16, 2018 from “Abu Bakr” himself, telling them that he is still alive and with Ammar, but he does not know where they are being held. Both remain forcibly disappeared until the time of writing this report.
On September 28, 2018, dentist and former parliamentarian, Mustafa Al-Naggar, was subjected to enforced disappearance. According to his wife, communication with him was cut since the aforementioned date, when he had told her that he had arrived in Aswan. His wife received an anonymous call on October 10, 2018, informing her of the arrest of her husband. In light of the denial of state institutions, the State Information Service issued a formal statement denying his arrest and claiming that he was fleeing of a court verdict of three years in prison for insulting the judiciary.
In September 2019, Egypt witnessed the largest arrest and seizure campaign known as the “20th of September arrests” against the backdrop of the contractor Muhammad Ali’s call for Egyptians to demonstrate against the current President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. According to ECRF, this campaign resulted in the arrest of more than four thousand citizens who were brought before the prosecution on charges of participating in a terrorist group, helping it in achieving its objectives, broadcasting and disseminating false news, misusing social media, and participating in an unlicensed demonstration in connection with Case 1338 of 2019.
During the events of September 20, the “Stop Enforced Disappearance” campaign documented 459 people being subjected to enforced disappearance for short periods of time inside police stations and central security camps, during which they were subjected to torture and ill-treatment according to testimonies collected, until they were brought before the prosecution. The campaign also documented the emergence of some forcibly disappeared persons from long ago as defendants in connection with Case 1338 of 2019, perhaps the most prominent of which was the appearance of “Khaled Yousry Zaki,” who was subjected to enforced disappearance for the sixth time from inside his detention center.
The issue of the “missing” since the events of the dispersal of Rabaa al-Adawiya and al-Nahda Squares, the Republican Guard, and various other clashes, despite the passage of seven years, continues without any attempts by the Egyptian authorities to clear their fate, and to indicate whether they passed away or are still alive. In light of the emergence of a number of forcibly disappeared persons after years long periods of enforced disappearance indicates the possibility of these individuals being held inside unofficial detention facilities.
On July 24, 2020, “Ahmed Abdel-Azim Al-Damliji” appeared after an enforced disappearance of more than three years. “Al-Damliji,” who was working as an employee of the Egyptian-German Company in Sadat City in Menoufia Governorate, was arrested on April 25, 2017 from Sunsaft village of the Center of Menouf, and nothing was known about his whereabouts. The family took all legal measures to demand the relevant authorities to reveal the place of his detention, but to no avail, until the noon of July 24, 2020, when he appeared in front of the Menouf Prosecution office after a forcible disappearance of 39 months.
The campaign also documented the appearance of “Omar Hatem Sayed Ibrahim” after an enforced disappearance that lasted for more than a year and eight months when he appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution on April 16, 2020 pending case 58 of 2020, accused of belonging to a banned group and disturbing the public peace. We note that Omar and his brother “Nour El Din Hatem Sayed Ibrahim” were arrested on 18 August 2018 from their home in Giza Governorate, and they were taken to an unknown destination, and “Nour El Din Hatem” is still under enforced disappearance until now
Also, “Abdullah Al-Sayed Ahmed Mohamed” appeared for the first time after a year and a half of disappearance. “Abdullah” disappeared from his detention in the Fayoum Police Department on November 23, 2018 while awaiting the completion of his release procedures. The Fayoum Police Department denied his presence, and he remained under enforced disappearance until he appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution on April 25, 2020, as a defendant in Case 539 of 2020.
Targeting families of the forcibly disappeared
The definition of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance of the Victim was not limited to the forcibly disappeared person, but also the families of the forcibly disappeared, who were also considered victims in view of the harm that is inflicted on them. The victim was defined as the disappeared person and every natural person who suffered direct harm as a result of this enforced disappearance.
Relatives and families of the forcibly disappeared suffer the same degree of oppression that falls on the victims themselves as a result of enforced disappearance. The harm and suffering that the families of the disappeared endure is not limited to the painful search for the disappeared person and the fear and horror they feel over the fate of their relatives, and whether or not they are still alive, but rather this suffering extends most of the time to economic hardship in the family, which is greatly affected if the disappeared person is the breadwinner of the family, and as a result of the increase in the cost of living, which violates the family’s right to a decent living, in addition to the expenses that the family undertakes in its journey to search for its forcibly disappeared member.
Over the course of five years, the campaign documented various forms of targeting families, perhaps the most prominent of which was the exposure of a number of family members to enforced disappearance at the same time, for no reason other than having been present at the time of the security campaign of using arbitrary arrests and detention of people without any legal basis, regardless of their involvement in any action.
The most prominent of these cases was the arrest of “Israa al-Tawil” and “Omar Ali” accompanied by their friend “Suhaib Saad” on June 1, 2015, and they were all subjected to enforced disappearance in the midst of complete denial by Egyptian authorities that they had been arrested, until “Suhaib” and “Omar” appeared in a video of the Ministry of Interior making confessions that they joined a terrorist cell. “Israa” appeared two weeks later before the State Security Prosecution in connection with Case 485 of 2015, and continued to be held in pretrial detention until it was decided to release her with precautionary measures on December 19, 2015. “Sohaib” and “Omar” received a life sentence in Military Case 174 of 2015.
Likewise, “Islam” and “Nour Khalil”, accompanied by their father, Mr. “Khalil Mahfouz”, were arrested after the storming of their house in Al-Santa center of Al-Gharbia governorate by a force of National Security on May 24, 2015. They were then taken to the National Security headquarters in Tanta and interrogated. “Nour” was released four days later without ever seeing the prosecution. On the 6th of June 2015 the father “Mr. Mahfouz” was released, while “Islam” remained under enforced disappearance for 122 days until he appeared in the Raml prosecution in Alexandria on September 21, 2015 pending case No. 8261/2015, accused of smuggling prisoners from Borg Al Arab prison, joining a terrorist group, and rioting to overthrow the regime.
In March 2018, one0year-old “Alia”, was arrested and disappeared together with her parents “Abdullah Mudar” and “Fatima Musa” and her maternal uncle, “Omar Musa”. They were arrested while traveling from the train station in Giza to Assiut governorate on March 24, and all contact with them was cut off until “Fatima” appeared with her daughter before the Supreme State Security Prosecution on April 1, 2018, pending case 441 of 2018.
The same thing was repeated with one-year-old child “Al-Baraa Omar Abdel-Hamid Abu Al-Naja”, as he was arrested with his parents, “Omar Abdel-Hamid Abdel-Hamid Abu Al-Naja” and “Manar Adel Abdul-Hamid Abu Al-Naja” from their place of residence in Alexandria governorate, after communication with them was cut off after a family visit to the wife’s family home on March 9, 2019. The family then received an anonymous call informing them of their arrest. They have not appeared since.
The campaign also documented a number of cases of summoning the families of forcibly disappeared persons to the headquarters of the National Security in their neighborhood, and threatening them with the fate of their forcibly disappeared relatives, explicitly saying “if you don’t stop talking you will never see him again”. In some cases, family members were arrested and interrogated for hours on end, while some families were forced to change their place of residence due to the constant threats.
On her journey to search for her missing husband, Dr. “Hanan Badr El-Din”, a founding member of the Association of the Families of the Disappeared, did not spare any effort, knocking on every door. Her husband, “Khaled Ezz El-Din”, has been missing since the Manassa events in Madinet Nasr on July 27, 2013. On May 6, 2017, while she was visiting a detainee in Al-Qanater prison to obtain information about her disappeared husband, she was arrested to be investigated by the National Security and then brought before the prosecution, which ordered her imprisonment pending Case No. 5163 of 2017. She remained in pretrial detention for a period of nearly two years until the Public Prosecution decided to release her on April 15, 2019.
On his journey to search for the fate of his son who disappeared since the events of the Republican Guard on July 8, 2013, lawyer “Ibrahim Metwally”, coordinator of the Association of the Families of the Disappeared, was arrested on September 10, 2017 from Cairo Airport, while he was on his way to Switzerland upon an invitation of the United Nations Team on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances to attend Proceedings of Session No. 113 and discussion of the case of the disappearance of his son, “Amr Metwally”. “Ibrahim Metwally” was subjected to enforced disappearance until he appeared accused of communicating with foreign bodies to support him in spreading the ideas of the group he founded in contravention of the law, pending High State Security Case No. 900 of 2017. Attempts to abuse Ibrahim Metwally did not stop at this point, as he remained under pretrial detention suffering from medical neglect for more than two years until the Supreme State Security Prosecution decided to release him on October 14, 2019. However, the Ministry of Interior continued to procrastinate in implementing the decision until he was subjected to enforced disappearance again until his appearance on February 5, 2019, in front of the Supreme State Security Prosecution, accused of joining a terrorist group and committing financial crimes pending Case 1470 of 2019.
Since its inception, the campaign has documented multiple cases of security forces targeting lawyers of the forcibly disappeared, as it has documented 48 lawyers who have been subjected to enforced disappearance in connection with their work. The targeting of lawyers of the forcibly disappeared and their families continued to escalate until it reached its climax in 2018. The second half of 2019, coinciding with the events of September 20th, saw the targeting and arrest of a large number of victims’ lawyers, who were arrested from police stations or courts and prosecution offices while doing their job.
Official state discourse and the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR)
In 2015, the state’s official discourse insisted on a total denial of the enforced disappearances carried out by the Ministry of the Interior. Statements by senior officials in the Ministry of Interior repeatedly supported this state policy of denial. Minister of Interior, Maj. “Magdi Abdelghaffar” repeatedly said that “there is no systematic torture nor forced disappearance in Egypt and that many cases of disappearance are nothing but cases of youth joining terrorist elements and organizations and have not forcibly disappeared.
In 2016, the state continued to pursue a policy of denial at all political levels even after the release of the Amnesty International report, which documented cases of enforced disappearance of citizens after their arrest by police forces, and which the state’s official data described as malicious and that all the information contained therein is false information. “Tariq Mahmoud”, Secretary General of the “Long Live Egypt” Coalition, said in a statement that Egypt does not have any single case of enforced disappearance, and that all arrests and incarcerations have been based on arrest warrants and orders by the Public Prosecution, and they were found to be involved in acts of violence, riot, incitement or crimes. He pointed out that there are some Egyptian human rights organizations that receive suspicious funds, according to him, provide Amnesty International with false information and false data on the internal situation in Egypt to stir up international public opinion against Egypt in the context of the fierce war led by some countries supporting terrorism. He stressed that Egypt will not accept any external pressure exerted on it or interference in Egyptian internal affairs.
In 2017, statements of the Minister of Interior, Major General Magdy Abdel Ghaffar, continued insisting that there is no enforced disappearance in Egypt. He said, “What was raised about enforced disappearance is nothing but a term that was invented to create a wedge between the people and the security apparatus, and that there are no detainees in Egypt. All detainees are held according to the law.” The spokesman for the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Counselor,“ Ahmed Abu Zaid” – addressing the European Parliament in response to the Foreign Affairs Council’s decision issued in August 2013 regarding stopping the export of military aid to Egypt due to the deteriorating human rights situation in Egypt and the fear of using this equipment in human rights violations- said that allegations of enforced disappearance in Egypt have been answered by the relevant Egyptian authorities, and it has been proven that the vast majority of the accused are imprisoned in relation to specific and documented cases and not cases of enforced disappearance, as is claimed, and he confirmed that the Egyptian government’s commitment to the respect for human rights and freedoms is an inherent and indivisible commitment.
On March 9, 2017 in Geneva, Ambassador “Amr Ramadan”, Egypt’s permanent UN representative, commented on the phenomenon of enforced disappearance and torture in Egypt, during his speech before the United Nations Human Rights Council at its 34th session, saying that most allegations of enforced disappearance are related to persons accused in cases of breaking the law or have joined terrorist groups or are victims of illegal migration, and that allegations of enforced disappearance have been addressed by the relevant mechanisms of the National Council for Human Rights, and that Egypt continues to work to resolve cases in question, as 80% of them have been clarified.
The statements of Major General “Alaa Farouk,” Assistant Director of Criminal Investigation in the Public Security Sector were similar to the statements of the Minister of Interior that there is no enforced disappearance in Egypt. In an interview with the “Sada El Balad” TV program in August 2017, he was asked about the spread of the phenomenon of enforced disappearance in Egypt by Egyptian police forces, and his reply was that this does not happen at all and that the Ministry of Interior has no interest in forcibly hiding the accused. He said, my statement is final, there is not a single case of enforced disappearance in Egypt.” He added that even if citizens are summoned for investigation, they are not detained except by a legal or a judicial order, and no citizen is detained in the police department beyond the legally stipulated period, upon strict instructions from the Minister of Interior, “Magdi Abdel Ghaffar”.
In a press conference held by the State Information Service on Human Rights in Egypt on December 21, 2017 at the agency’s headquarters, Minister “Omar Marwan” spoke about the phenomenon of enforced disappearance, where he demanded to review the term and differentiate between the terms “enforced disappearance” and “cases of absence,” stressing that most of the cases of alleged disappearance are cases of absence, and that Egypt has no single case of a person held in prison without judicial order.
The same agency also issued a statement in 2018 about the enforced disappearance of former parliamentarian Dr. Mustafa Al-Naggar, founder of the Justice Party, saying that he has not been arrested, but is a fugitive from the execution of his 3 years’ sentence case No. 478 of 2015 known in the media as the case of “insulting the judiciary”. The agency confirmed that “the competent authorities in Egypt categorically deny that Dr. Mustafa Ahmed Muhammad Al-Naggar had been arrested by security authorities or that he had surrendered to them, and that there is absolutely no truth to any rumors about his so-called enforced disappearance, and that he is still a fugitive of his own free will”, and any other claim is nothing but baseless allegations that come in the context of his attempt to evade the implementation of the ruling issued against him. “
In 2020, a member of the National Council for Human Rights, “Hafez Abu Seda”, confirmed that the council has verified all complaints received about cases of enforced disappearance, which revealed that most of the cases are either in prison pending cases after being brought before the Public Prosecution or they joined the terrorist organization ISIS (4 Cases). He added that the council participated in the universal periodic review (UPR) on the human rights situation and achieved important results in responding to all the lies that were raised about Egypt.
The performance of the National Council for Human Rights as well was not a strong supporter of the families of the forcibly disappeared, despite the numerous correspondence with the Council as a competent authority in the attempts to reach clarification of the fate of the victims of the forcibly disappeared. The Council was rather trying in one way or another and for many considerations to whiten the face of the Ministry of Interior as the body responsible for committing crimes of enforced disappearance against citizens, which made the Council appear to many covering up for the crime and its perpetrators.
In July 2016, the National Council for Human Rights issued a report entitled “Enforced disappearance in Egypt between allegation and truth” to examine the phenomenon of enforced disappearance and its prevalence. Despite the report’s attempts to blur the reality of the phenomenon by claiming the presence of confusion and lack of clarity in the standards of the bodies working to monitor and document cases of enforced disappearance, in the forefront of which is the campaign “Stop Enforced Disappearances”, still the report implicitly acknowledged the existence of enforced disappearances in Egypt. This is not much different from the inconsistencies in the statements of Council members over the course of the reporting year and following years.
The National Council for Human Rights acknowledged in its report the deterioration of the situation of human rights in Egypt, and that it had received 266 reports of enforced disappearance during 2015, including 27 cases that the Ministry of Interior said it had released them after it was confirmed that they were not involved in acts contrary to the law. The remaining 143 are in pretrial detention pending investigation. The council’s statement quoted the Interior Ministry as saying that it is not responsible for arresting 44 people who were reported missing. They are likely to have disappeared for other reasons, including joining jihadist groups.
In 2018, members of the National Council for Human Rights stated that the human rights situation in Egypt is greatly improving, and that the reports of enforced disappearance are false. In 2019, after the universal periodic review, the Council confirmed that there are allegations of enforced disappearance before the United Nations Human Rights Council, and that these allegations are not confirmed and not true and many of them lack information. A number of members of the National Council for Human Rights stated in a number of press and television interviews that enforced disappearance is a lie by the Muslim Brotherhood to discredit Egypt’s image abroad, and that the Council is investigating all complaints received about the enforced disappearance, which revealed that most of the cases were either brought before the Public Prosecution and held in prison, or have joined “ISIS”, or migrated illegally.
National retribution procedures
Families of the forcibly disappeared use all available means in the journey to search for their relatives and access information about their places of detention, amidst constant denial by state institutions of the crime of enforced disappearance, and fears that their disappeared member may be subjected to torture or physical liquidation or are coerced into confessions of crimes they did not commit. Hence, the immediate legal procedures, like complaints and reports to relevant authorities are the only way to prove the arrest and enforced disappearance, which is always met with refusal and denial by state institutions.
After the arrest, families directly go to the police station in their place of residence to inquire about their relatives, thinking that he is inside the station, but the department’s forces and officers usually deny that the person is in their custody, and the family begins to ask about him in the neighboring police stations, but to no avail. In some cases, families resorted to waiting without taking any steps except to search for mediators who might help them reach their relatives’ detention facility.
With the increase in the numbers of forcibly disappeared individuals, some families sought the help of non-governmental organizations that work to advocate and support human rights in order to seek media and legal assistance. However, this changed as a result of the ongoing campaigns launched by the Egyptian authorities against civil society organizations, especially those that work to advocate for human rights.
Police departments always refuse to write a report of the arrest of the disappeared person and escorting him to an unknown place, and in many cases threatening the families of the victims that they may also be subjected to arrest and enforced disappearance, and that their arrested relatives are in the custody of the National Security Agency.
After refusing all attempts to report the incident of arresting the disappeared person, families of the forcibly disappeared resort to sending official reports and telegrams to the concerned authorities, so the families address each official in his capacity, starting from the President of the Republic, up to the National Council for Human Rights, the Public Prosecutor and the Attorney General of all prosecution offices within their jurisdiction.
In view of the neglect by authorities of the complaints and telegrams sent by the families, periods of enforced disappearance extended for long periods of time, and the families have no way to know the fate of their children but to resort to judicial authorities. as a lawsuit is filed before the Administrative Court, the “State Council” after a period of the arrest, and with the continuous denial by the Ministry of Interior of the victim’s existence in their custody. A warning is sent to the Minister of Interior in his official capacity to request a disclosure of the place of detention of the victim, or to present him to the prosecution if he is wanted pending any case, since it is the obligation of the Minister of Interior not to violate the provisions of the constitution and the law.
In the event that the urgent part of the lawsuit is accepted, the case will be referred to the State Commissioners Authority to decide on it within a period of time ranging from three to six months. In the event that the urgent part is not accepted, the time frame of the case may extend for years without ruling thereon. After considering the case, the State Council issues a ruling either to reject the filed suit or to accept it in form, to suspend the implementation and cancel the negative decision of the Minister of Interior to refrain from counseling about the whereabouts of the forcibly disappeared person and the consequences thereof.
The campaign documented the failure of Ministry of Interior officials to abide by the decisions of the judicial authorities of the necessity to disclose and inform of the place of detention of the forcibly disappeared. In many cases, the Ministry of Interior does not consider the judicial rulings, and many victims continue to be subjected to enforced disappearance for months or years.
Development of the role of the prosecution as an accomplice in the crime of enforced disappearance
In 2015, with the beginning of the talk about enforced disappearance and its practice as a widespread violation by security authorities, there was no unified procedure for dealing with the matter by the prosecution. In some cases, they would refuse to document the disappearance complaints, or some local prosecution offices would undertake an investigation in the case of arrest.
With the expansion of the practice of enforced disappearance, the prosecution’s treatment has become almost identical, as all local prosecutions refuse to make a report without consulting with the head of the general prosecution, the attorney general or the public prosecutor. This was common among all the representatives of the local prosecution offices. Prosecutors have shown sympathy in many cases, but they do not have the authority to file an investigation or issue a decision of release without consent from their superiors.
On July 28, 2015, “Atef Farrag” and his son “Yahya” were arrested after a raid on their house in Mansheyat Nasser, Cairo governorate, and they remained under enforced disappearance for 156 days, during which the son of the former and the brother of the latter submitted a report to the prosecution about their arrest and incommunicado detention. In a letter addressed from the police to the prosecution, the police confirmed that “Atef Farrag” and “Yahya Farrag” are in custody of the National Security Sector, but when they appeared before the prosecution on January 3, 2016, the attached investigation report from the National Security was dated January 2, i.e. 24 hours before their presentation to the prosecution. Although the police warrant was attached, no investigation was carried out into the enforced disappearance for a period of six months.
As for the Supreme State Security Prosecution, which specializes in hearing cases related to matters affecting state security and terrorism, among other things, which are the charges facing the vast majority of survivors of enforced disappearance, it appears that it provides a legal cover up to the national security sector. The treatment by representatives of the State Security Prosecution of the defendants indicates a strong coordination between it and the national security sector.
The campaign documented many cases that first appeared inside the building of the Supreme State Security Prosecution. According to testimonies, many detainees are brought to the prosecution building blindfolded, and most of the victims are investigated for the first time without allowing the presence of a lawyer, where the defendant is questioned according to the investigation report of the National Security Agency. Many victims and their lawyers stated that they were threatened by prosecutors to be returned to the National Security building if they retracted their statements confirmed in the investigation reports.
Prosecutors always neglect to establish the date of the actual arrest and the periods of enforced disappearance, as survivors of the enforced disappearance are presented for the first time before the Supreme State Security Prosecution with an arrest report dated 24 hours earlier. Despite the defendants ’statements that they were under enforced disappearance and that they were arrested several months ago, and the lawyers’ requests to prove the date of the actual arrest, according to lawyers, the prosecution adds the complaints and telegrams to the case file, but adopts the date mentioned in the arrest report.
In Western Military Felony Case 187 for the year 2017, and according to the lawyers’ statements, approximately one hundred defendants in connection with this case confessed under threat after the prosecution representative assaulted and tortured them and filmed their confessions. The same representative of the Public Prosecution also included a defense lawyer as a defendant in the case, after his insistence to attend on behalf of the accused, contrary to the wishes of the prosecutor.
Prosecutors always ignore the flagrant violations of torture and ill-treatment of the defendants before them in the headquarters of the National Security, where defendants appear before the prosecution and state that they were subjected to severe torture during the period of enforced disappearance, but the prosecutors ignore these allegations and are content to merely mention them as a note. The prosecution also refuses to question the defendants as victims of torture, as well as refusing defense requests to refer them to the Forensic Medical Authority to prove injuries.
This performance on the part of the prosecution, and specifically the Supreme State Security Prosecution, deprives it of its legal independence to become an essential partner of the national security sector in the violations it commits against the forcibly disappeared, whether by neglecting to prove these violations, investigate them and hold the perpetrators accountable, or by committing legal violations such as denying the defendant’s legal representation their questioning before the prosecution office and threatening the defendants to force them to confess.
International reparation procedures
The Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances of the United Nations Human Rights Council issues an annual report, in which it submits the cases and communications it has received, to help the families of the forcibly disappeared to know the whereabouts of their relatives, by receiving individual complaints and reports from the families of the victims or from humanitarian organizations working on their behalf and refer these complaints to governments to conduct an immediate investigation, inform the team of the results of the investigation, clarify the fate of the forcibly disappeared, and disclose their places of detention.
In its 2015 annual report, the Working Group announced that it had received reports of 79 enforced disappearances, of which it had referred 66 cases as part of the urgent procedure, and that the group was concerned about the emergence of a pattern of short-term disappearances which was the dominant feature of enforced disappearance during this period, and that it is not permissible under any circumstances to use any pretext whatsoever to justify the acts of enforced disappearance.
The number of reports received by the Working Group regarding cases of enforced disappearance witnessed a significant increase in the following years, with the continuous expression of its concern about the escalation of the use of enforced disappearance in Egypt, stressing that the responses of the Egyptian government to clear the fate of some cases sent by the team do not exempt it from its obligations to take all necessary measures to prevent occurrence of enforced disappearance.
The team expressed grave concern about the shrinking space for civil society in Egypt, and the negative impact it may have on the resolve of organizations and individuals who report cases of enforced disappearance. It also asserted that what the Egyptian government did to the lawyer and father of one of the forcibly disappeared, “Ibrahim Metwally” while he was heading to attend a meeting with the team, indicates an act of revenge against him because of his cooperation with a United Nations human rights mechanism, and an obstruction to his legitimate activity in seeking to know the fate of his son and other disappeared people in Egypt.
In 2019, the team affirmed its grave concern about reports of government reprisals, and what the families of the forcibly disappeared, human rights defenders and civil society organizations working on their behalf are subjected to, and reiterated its grave concern about receiving a large number of complaints of enforced disappearance in Egypt, in addition to the emergence of a pattern of disappearance of detained individuals from inside police stations and places of detention, despite the issuance of judicial orders for their release.
During the universal periodic review in 2014, Egypt received 4 recommendations to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and pledged on its own to sign this convention, but it did not do so for four years, and enforced disappearance of activists and political opponents did not stop. On the contrary Egypt moved towards legalizing enforced disappearance by issuing the Anti-terrorism Law No. 94 of 2015.
During the UPR in 2019, Egypt received 6 recommendations regarding enforced disappearance related to ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, establishing an independent body to investigate allegations of torture, enforced disappearance and ill-treatment, and addressing impunity by effectively investigating allegations of extrajudicial killing, torture, and enforced disappearance by security forces, publishing the results publicly, holding those responsible accountable, and reforming laws to ensure effective civilian oversight of the military and police authorities, with a special focus on protection from enforced disappearances, military trials of civilians and interference in judicial procedures.
Extra-judicial killings
Since 2014, the number of state crimes of killing outside the framework of the law has increased to at least 365 crimes, including 242 the identity of whom was not disclosed by the state. Testimonies of their families to human rights organizations reveal a pattern of arrest, and disappearance after which pictures of their corpses appear in statements by the ministry of interior or the families are contacted to collect their bodies from the morgue.
Human rights organizations documented 63 cases of enforced disappearance of persons, whose bodies later appeared in films and propaganda statements by security forces from the military or the police, or they were found in the morgue with gunshot wounds in separate parts of their bodies. According to testimonies by the families, the authorities refuse to hand over the bodies except after waiving the right to an autopsy and recording the cause of death, and require that the bodies be transferred directly from the morgue to the cemetery without even a funeral.
In February 2015, lawyer “Karim Hamdi” died two days after he was arrested and forcibly disappeared and while in custody in the Matariya police station, accused of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood and inciting violence and assaulting security forces during rallies. During his interrogation inside the station by two police officers of the National Security Agency, Karim died as a result of severe torture that he suffered over the course of two days, and the forensic report showed that there were bruises on the front of the neck, a bruise on the left side of the chest and on the penis, an old 5 cm long wound in the right gluteal region in addition to injury of the left side of the nose and neck. The report also included a midline cervical injury, an injury to the left upper side of the chest, signs of redness around his right wrist, a wound in the left hand, an injury in the middle of the back, another of the inside of left buttock, in addition to an injury in the middle of the left knee, redness and swelling in the pubic area, and pin point needle injuries in the penis and scrotum.
On January 10, 2016, citizen “Muhammad Hamdan” was subjected to enforced disappearance for a period of two weeks. From the date of his arrest, his family sent a telegram to the Public Prosecutor of Beni Suef Prosecutions concerning the arrest of their son and taking him to an unknown location. Hamdan’s body appeared on January 25, 2016 in an agricultural field and his body showed visible signs of torture. However, the Ministry of Interior announced in a statement, that he and others had been assassinated in an exchange of fire with the police.
A few days after the killing of “Muhammad Hamdan” and others, there was a new victim of extrajudicial killing. “Ahmed Jalal” was arrested on January 20, 2016, and was subjected to enforced disappearance in an unknown place. His family filed complaints and sent telegrams to prove his arrest from the first moment, until they received a phone call on January 31, 2016 that their son was in the Zenhom morgue, killed by a bullet in the head.
Likewise, Italian student and researcher “Giulio Regeni” was kidnapped on January 25, 2016, and information indicates that he was forcibly disappeared and tortured to death for nine days before his body was found dumped on the Cairo-Alexandria desert road with signs of torture. “Giulio” was doing his Ph.D. based on research on trade unions in Egypt, and despite clear signs of Giulio’s kidnapping and torture, the Ministry of the Interior denied his arrest and claimed his death was the result of a car accident. Later, the Ministry of the Interior announced that it had raided an apartment belonging to a gang specialized in kidnapping and robbing foreigners, and the police force killed all members of the gang that it said was involved in the killing of Regeni
In August 2016, a student at Minya University, “Abdul Rahman Jamal Muhammad”, was arrested by members of the National Security Sector at the Ministry of Interior and subjected to enforced disappearance. His family filed complaints and sent telegraphs to the concerned authorities asking to reveal his whereabouts. Abdel-Rahman remained under enforced disappearance for a period of 4 months, until it appeared in a statement of the Ministry of Interior that he was killed in the company of “Muhammad Sayed Hussein Zaki” and “Alaa Rajab Ahmed Awais” during a raid on a real estate in Assiut governorate.
Likewise, the case of the murder of teacher, “Muhammad Abd al-Sattar,” who was arrested on the morning of April 9, 2017 from inside his workplace at “the Azhar Institute of Abdul Sami Saluma” in Al-Behaira Governorate. A car stopped in front of the school at 10:30 in the morning, and then one of its passengers entered the school and ordered “Muhammad Abd al-Sattar” to ride the car according to the testimony of one of his colleagues. Despite complaints, legal procedures, and correspondence, which included letters from the school director to Abu al-Matamir police station stating that he was arrested from inside the school, “Abd al-Sattar” remained under forced disappearance, until the Ministry of Interior claimed in one of its statements on May 6, 2017, that is 27 days after his arrest, that he was killed with another person, “Abdullah Rajab”, during a fire exchange with police forces in the city of Tanta in Gharbia governorate.
In June 2017, the Ministry of Interior announced on its Facebook page, that three people were killed, “Abd al-Zahir Mutawa”, “Sabri Sabah” and “Ahmed Abu Rashid” in a fire exchange with security forces in the Borg al-Arab area in Alexandria. Three days later, the Ministry of Interior in a new statement announced that “Muhammad Abdel Moneim Abu Tabikh” was shot on a highway in Giza governorate after he resisted arrest. The common feature between all those victims was their accusation by the Ministry of Interior to have joined the armed group “Hasm”. It is noteworthy that all the mentioned subjects were arrested in various days throughout the month of May and that they spent about a month in forced disappearance, during which their families filed complaints and sent telegrams to all relevant authorities, without receiving any reply. Their relatives also reported that while receiving the bodies, they had scattered bruises on the head and body, burns in separate places on the body, and bullet wounds.
Since late 2017, the Ministry of Interior has announced on its Facebook page incidents of raids and extrajudicial killings, while the victims remained anonymous, which imposed a blackout on the identity of the victims and whether any of them had been reported arrested or missing, which points to an unknown fate for many of the missing and forcibly disappeared, as some bodies are silently buried in charity cemeteries.
Conclusion and Recommendations
After five years, during which the “Stop Enforced Disappearance” campaign has monitored, documented and provided support to victims of enforced disappearance and their families, the campaign confirms beyond a reasonable doubt the systematic and widespread practice of enforced disappearances by security authorities. Given the grave violations of the rights of the forcibly disappeared, individuals are entitled to the necessary legal protection, and not to be subjected to any form of torture, intimidation and any form of inhuman or degrading treatment. Enforced disappearance remains a crime that results in the violation of many rights that are not subject to restriction, as is the right to life.
The “Stop Enforced Disappearance” campaign makes the following recommendations:
- Egyptian authorities must acknowledge the perpetration of enforced disappearance crimes against citizens and opponents of authority in Egypt, and immediately announce its objection to crimes of enforced disappearance, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, disclose the places of detention of the forcibly disappeared, and pledge to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes both in the National Security and Intelligence Sectors.
- The Ministry of Interior, especially the National Security Sector, must immediately stop the practice of enforced disappearance and the detention of citizens in unofficial places, must respect the decisions of the judiciary to release citizens, disclose the places of detention of the forcibly disappeared and bring them to trial if they are accused in cases not related to the exercise of their constitutional rights. It must also cooperate with the families of the forcibly disappeared in their journey to search for their relatives, and stop obstructing them in taking the necessary measures.
- Egyptian authorities must criminalize enforced disappearance as a crime with no statute of limitation, adopt the definition of torture approved by the 1984 Convention against Torture in the Egyptian Penal Code, join the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (2006), the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, and join the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
- The Public Prosecution must consider the measures taken by the families of the forcibly disappeared, including complaints and telegrams that prove the facts of the arrest of their relatives by security authorities, conduct investigations promptly, and inform the families of the disappeared about the results of the search and investigate the disappearance of their relatives, as well as activating the role of the Public Prosecution in monitoring and supervising prisons, departments, national security headquarters, central security camps and military prisons.
- The Supreme State Security Prosecution must immediately stop violating the legal rights of defendants, nor threaten them, and force them to confess, and must investigate the incidents of enforced disappearances that people are subjected to, as well as investigate citizens’ allegations of torture and ill-treatment inside National Security headquarters during periods of disappearance, and hear them as victims, and refer them to the Forensic Medical Authority to document and report injuries.
- The Egyptian Ministry of Interior must immediately stop committing extrajudicial killings, bring citizens to the law, and stop using terrorism as an excuse to kill and commit human rights violations, as well as the need to protect the families of the forcibly disappeared and ensure that none of those participating in the investigations are subjected to threats and intimidation.
- Egyptian authorities should stop the persecution and intimidation of non-governmental organizations, especially those that work to support and advocate for human rights, and stop violations of the members of these organizations and human rights defenders and obstruct their role in supporting victims of enforced disappearance and protecting human rights.