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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 February 2000 Issue No. 469 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 February 2000 Issue No. 469
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Focus Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Old cheque bounces back
By Amira Howeidy
The State Security Prosecutor (SSP) this week revived a two-year old case against the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) when he decided to refer the organisation's secretary-general, Hafez Abu Se'eda, to the Supreme State Security Court under powers enshrined in the 1981 Emergency Laws. The Prosecutor's surprise decision came while the EOHR was preparing to release its fact finding mission report on the violence that took place in the southern village of Al-Kosheh last month.
Abu Se'eda is accused of violating Article 1, item 6 of the military order which prohibits collecting, receiving, declaring or asking for donations to deal the effects of disasters, accidents or any other purpose without acquiring the permission of the Ministry of Social Affairs. If found guilty, he could face up to seven years imprisonment.
The unlawful donation in question is a cheque for $25,000 made by the British Embassy in Cairo to the EOHR in 1998. At the time, Mustafa Bakri, the chief editor of the weekly Al-Isbou' launched a campaign against the human rights group accusing it of subverting national security in the interest of Western agencies and governments which were providing it with funding.
As evidence of his charges, Bakri published a photocopy of the British Embassy cheque, which he claimed had been paid to EOHR in return for its December 1998 report on incidents in the predominantly Coptic Upper Egyptian village of Al-Kosheh.
The report accused police of arresting and torturing dozens of the village's Coptic residents while investigating a murder. The report was widely quoted in the Western media who cited the Al-Kosheh incident as evidence of persecution of Copts in Egypt.
Acting on information provided by Bakri, the police arrested Abu Se'eda and detained him for several days. He then faced three charges ó receiving money from a foreign country with the aim of causing harm to Egypt; disseminating false reports abroad for the purpose of undermining Egyptian state interests; and receiving donations from abroad without proper authorisation.
Both the British Embassy and Abu Se'eda totally denied that the cheque had any connection with the EOHR's report on Al-Kosheh, providing evidence that it had been made to support an EOHR programme to provide human rights legal aid for women. Abu Se'eda was later released without being charged.
In a press conference held at the EOHR's headquarters last Tuesday, Abu Se'eda, in Paris to attend a meeting of the World Federation of Human Rights, addressed participants by telephone and expressed his "shock" at the unexpected escalation of events. "The prosecutor should be putting those who violated human rights [in Al-Kosheh] on trial, not those who defend them," Abu Se'eda said, adding that he intends to return next Monday or Tuesday to face the charges.
On Monday a number of international human rights organisations issued a joint statement condemning the action taken against Abu Se'eda. The Egyptian authorities "are trying to muzzle human rights in Egypt" read the statement.
Abu Se'eda attributed the SSP's decision to put him on trial to the EOHR's report on the events in Al-Kosheh that began on New Year's Eve and lasted till 5 January, leaving 22 Copts dead, another 24 injured, and many shops and kiosks destroyed.
During the press conference the EOHR distributed two statements on Al-Kosheh, the 'Preliminary Report', issued on 6 January, which described the event as an act of sectarian strife and a second report, following its fact finding mission, which appears to reverse that view.
Mahmoud Qandeel, head of the organisation's fieldwork unit, reported "the events were sectarian in the demographic sense because of the Coptic majority of the village." Abu Se'eda, though, sounded a sharper note. "The issue is not that of sectarian strife... there is a strong feeling of oppression, the Copts have problems and the concept of citizenship needs to be addressed. All citizens should be treated equally and fairly regardless of their religion."
The government, argued Abu Se'eda, "has run out of patience with human rights groups precisely because of their credibility."
EOHR's credibility, though, had come under fire following its watering down of the strong statements included in the preliminary report and its subsequent adoption of "a mild tone", interpreted by many as an attempt to save Abu Se'eda from prosecution. Abdel-Aziz Mohamed, EOHR's chairman, who had earlier described events in Al-Kosheh as "ordinary", suggesting that they "could happen anywhere" -- described such accusations as "unfair and unacceptable." The EOHR "is stating facts and will not provide the answers you want to hear," Mohamed told one reporter.
