Egyptian judicial organization accuses the government of violating the rights of the Shiite
Egypt, Politics, 9/1/2004

The "Egyptian Initiative for personal rights " has accused the Egyptian authorities of committing violations against the Shiite rights in Egypt including acts of detention and torture.

The organization express great concern over the successive campaigns of arrest against the Shiite of the people of Raas Ghareb on the Red Sea governorate and what it implies of assaulting the right of the freedom of religion and an illegal intervention from the side of the state in citizens beliefs.

The organization demanded the Egyptian authorities to immediately release the detainees who stayed for three months in custody without being brought to any judicial authority.

The organization also called on the state to shoulder its legal responsibility towards honoring, protecting and strengthening the right to the freedom of religion and investigating officials over holding citizens and punishing every and each official that proves to be responsible for this violation.

In a press statement the chairman of the organization Husam Bahjat stressed that violations of the Shiite rights is not special cases, rather continued campaign, adding that the campaigns of arrest covered 124 Shiite and took place in the years 1988, 1989, 1996, 2003, the end of 2003 and the beginning of 2004.

He added that the Egyptian security forces refused to release Muhammad al-Dreini who is considered the first Shiite figure in Egypt, since he was detained in his house in Cairo in March without a permission from the attorney general.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian activist in the field of human rights Abdu al-Bernawi said in a similar statement that detention of any persons without a reason constitutes a clear violation of human rights, noting that the Shiite sect is recognized and is studied in al-Azhar. He ruled out that the reason of detention is religious.

Al-Bernawi related between the Egyptian- Iranian relations and the freedom of the Shiite in Egypt. He expressed his conviction that detentions acts in the lines of the Shiite minority recently were for pleasing the USA because of its tension relations with Iran.

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