24 - 30 May 2001
Issue No.535
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 24 - 30 May 2001 Issue No.535 |
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Testimonies at the bar?
The Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Bar Association Council is becoming politically active to the displeasure of its Nasserist chairman. Amira Howeidy observes
Seif El-Islam Rashwan, 48, stood in the centre of the Bar Association's conference room, its walls plastered with black and white portraits of the erstwhile chairmen of the once-formidable syndicate. Eighty years after its founding, little, if any, glory is showing at the now shabby building. Over the past three decades, the Bar Association has become a microcosm of the domestic political scene, directly reflecting the turbulent relationship between the state and the opposition. And on 16 May it was the venue of another chapter of the conflict between the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, whose members control the syndicate's council, and the government.
Rashwan was displaying to reporters red scabs on his wrists, below and behind his knees -- "evidence" of torture inflicted, he alleged, by State Security Investigations (SSI) officers.
Rashwan, who is a board member of the Commercial Professions Syndicate, added that, given his longtime activism in this syndicate, this was not the first time he was summoned by the SSI. "I know many SSI officers because they frequently ask me questions about the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood; who is doing what; who will contest this or that election. But I was never detained or tortured before," he said. The objective behind his detention, he claimed, "was to force me to testify to belonging to an underground organisation -- the Muslim Brotherhood -- and to my connections with certain people. I refused to testify."
Says Rashwan: "It's really quite outrageous that nothing is done while Egyptian law is being violated in this way." The same day he was released, 13 May, Rashwan took immediate action by contacting his lawyer. They filed a complaint the next day with the Prosecutor-General against the SSI officers who allegedly tortured him. Although he was blindfolded throughout, Rashwan believes he recognised the officers' voices. "I'm more than familiar with their voices because we spoke frequently for long hours," he claims. Indeed, he sounded so confident of this that he took the rare step of mentioning to reporters several names which, he claimed, were those of the SSI officers. Rashwan evidently has the Bar Association on his side. Its Freedoms Committee joined the legal battle by also filing a complaint with the Prosecutor-General.
According to Rashwan's lawyer, the Prosecutor is taking the matter seriously and referring Rashwan to a medical examiner.
Ahmed Goma'a, a member of the Engineers Syndicate, made similar claims, but said that "my experience was less poignant." Goma'a alleged that he was arrested by "dawn visitors" in the early hours of 6 May, blindfolded and kept at the headquarters of the SSI on Lazoghli street. "I was beaten up and abused, but what really made me suffer was how they insulted me, my wife and my mother, using extremely indecent language."
These allegations of human rights violations are not unusual. And despite efforts by Interior Minister Habib El-Adli to subject security officers accused of such violations to disciplinary action, the security machine has a long way to go, and stronger pressure is required from officials as high up as El-Adli, before the treatment of prisoners and political detainees is improved.
The government had imposed a five-year-long sequestration on the Bar Association, accusing its Brotherhood-dominated council of financial irregularities, but apparently with the intention of curbing the illegal group's influence. However, elections held last February brought in an all-Brotherhood council again plus Sameh Ashour, a Nasserist, as chairman. At the time, observers forecast a clash between the two sides because of the ideological divide. But Ashour was quick to state that he will not allow the syndicate to become a front for any political organisation. And although Ahmed El-Hamrawi, head of the Freedoms Committee which organised the 16 May event, argued that the Bar Association "will defend anyone whose basic freedoms are violated regardless of his colour, gender or political ideology," the event was interpreted as simply an exercise in public relations by the Brotherhood.
The chairman, for his part, did get the message and, consequently, he is not happy. "The Bar Association should not be a venue for settling political scores," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. He added that he was against organising such press conferences in the first place "which is why they did it so hastily." Asked if he took action to ensure that this will not be repeated in the future, Ashour replied, "I captured their attention."
It is an open question how the former parliamentarian and Nasserist chairman will manage to steer a council made up exclusively of Brotherhood members, often angry at the regular security clampdowns on their group. Observers argue that he will have to make a considerable effort.
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