Human rights center hails Egyptian security policies

"Behind the wall of forgetfulness" is the title of an important report issued by the Center for Human Rights on helping prisoners tackling long-term detention and its effects on the detainees, their families, and Egyptian society.

The report said the Ministry of Interior Affairs under the leadership of General Habib El-Adli has pursued a new security policy including measures which are aimed at reconciling the positions of moderates and granting freedom to prisoners who are not dangerous to national security if is proved that they will not be involved in illegal operations in the future.

Within these measures, about 6,000 members of the extremist Islamic Group or those or suspected of belonging to it were released as they were detained during the last eight years according to the emergency law N 162 for 1958.

The report praised the new policies of the ministry, regarding them as a positive measure enhancing the atmosphere of peace and ending violence and terrorism as well as supporting the chances of success for the initiative to halt the violence announced by El-Gamaa El-Islamia (the Islamic Group) in March 1999, and calling for the release of about 15,000 members of El-Gamaa El-Islamia.