Egypt holds 2400 persons without charge after Taba explosions
Egypt, Politics, 2/23/2005

Human Rights Watch announced on Tuesday that the Egyptian authorities are still holding 2400 citizens from the north of Sinai without addressing any accusations to them. This started since the security forces began to arrest suspected persons accused of carrying out explosions in Taba tourism resorts.

The organization which has New York as a headquarters said that many of the detainees, most of them are Islamists, suspects or relatives to Islamists, were tortured in the detention centers and the authorities refuses, as usual, to notify their families of the place where they are held and what had happened to them.

the organization said "The Egyptian authorities have identified only nine suspects as responsible for the Taba attack, but the ministry of interior continues to hold an estimated 2,400 detainees. The government has not released information on the whereabouts of these detainees either to their families or lawyers representing them, and has not indicated if any have been charged with crimes." Ê
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It added: "Egyptian security forces responded to the Taba atrocity by committing mass human rights abuses themselves," said Joe Stork, Washington director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa Division. "The Mubarak government still hasn't gotten the message that routine torture and arbitrary arrests violate the law and fail to address real security needs." Ê

Stock said that Egyptian officials justified in non official meetings the arrest of the detainees and torturing them to that the American and Israeli authorities are doing the same when it comes to matters threatening security of each of the said countries.

The organization said: On October 25, the interior ministry identified the alleged ringleader of the Taba Hilton attack, who was killed in the blast, as a petty criminal of Palestinian origin who had recently "turned to religious extremism." He staged the bombing, the ministry said in a statement, because he was upset by Israeli army actions against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Located on the Israeli-Egyptian border, the Taba Hilton is especially popular with Israeli vacationers. "If Egypt won't bring criminal charges against these detainees and give them fair trials, it must promptly release them," Stork said.

Previous Stories:
  Demonstrations in Cairo against extension for President Mubarak   (2/22/2005)
  Egyptian al-Ghad party rejects foreign intervention   (2/22/2005)
  NCHR reaffirms confidence in Egyptian judiciary over Nour case   (2/15/2005)
  Statement by the public prosecution regarding MP Ayman Nour and others   (2/14/2005)
  A demonstration in Egypt calling for the release of Ayman Nour   (2/11/2005)
  Clashes in Sinai between security forces and suspects   (2/5/2005)
  Egypt announces the killing of one of the participants in Taba attacks   (2/2/2005)
  Egypt: clashes in al-Areesh between the police and demonstrators   (1/29/2005)

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