Hasty indictment
Are anti-war activists paying a heavy price for their stand during the invasion of Iraq? Amira Howeidy reports on the referral of five activists to an emergency court
Frustrated by his detention for 100 days without trial, anti-war activist Ashraf Ibrahim went on a hunger strike on 30 July in a bid to force prosecutors to either release him or press charges against him. Almost a week later, the 34-year old activist's efforts yielded results, albeit not in the direction he certainly would have preferred. On Saturday 10 August, prosecutors issued a decision referring Ibrahim and four others to an Emergency State Security Court for allegedly forming a clandestine communist organisation that aimed at overthrowing the government and replacing it with a "hard-line communist" regime.
The prosecutor's referral warrant accused Ibrahim of leading the alleged Revolutionary Socialists Organisation, possessing documents that propagate the organisation's objectives, disseminating false information, and contacting foreign human rights organisations and providing them with reports of human rights violations in the country. All these matters, the warrant said, had the effect of "undermining Egypt's status and position".
The prosecutor's unexpected decision surprised not only Ibrahim, who has been in detention since 19 April, but also came as a shock to the four other defendants named by the case. Their shock emanates from the fact that they were never summoned for interrogation, nor had prosecutors ordered their arrest in the over three months that Ibrahim has been in jail.
The four other defendants -- Nasser El-Beheiri, a researcher at the Land Centre for Human Rights, Yehia Fekri Amin, an engineer, Mustafa Mohamed El-Bassuini, an activist, and Reymon Edward Guindy, a student -- are currently at large.
According to Ahmed Seif El-Islam, director of the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre (HMLC) which is handling the case, the defendants face a maximum prison sentence of 15 years if found guilty.
An Emergency State Security Court, he said, is strict by default. It doesn't accept appeals and only the president can order a clemency plea on its decisions. Seif El-Islam said that these courts -- established by the Emergency Law that has been in force since the assassination of former President Anwar El-Sadat in 1981 -- "clearly violate the Egyptian constitution. They're illegal because the executive power replaces the rule of law." Actually, the HMLC filed a lawsuit contesting the constitutionality of the Emergency Law last November.
The Ashraf Ibrahim case has sent shock waves across the political spectrum and especially within civil society. A statement signed by 21 rights organisations and research centres on Saturday argued that the case is politically motivated and aims at "terrorising" political activists, with emphasis on the members of the Egyptian Popular Committee in Solidarity with the Palestinian Intifada (EPCSPI) and the anti-war movement.
"This escalation [of Ibrahim's case] is part of the government's efforts to impede civic activity in Egypt and demonstrates the government's intention to use the Emergency Law in the terrorising of political and rights activists," the statement said.
The prosecutor who referred the case to the Emergency State Security Court, Osama Abdel-Moneim, was not available for comment.
"Despite this escalation," said Seif El- Islam, "the case itself is very weak and doesn't stand on its own. It was obviously done in haste, and hence is full of loopholes." He argued that the four defendants who were added to the case "could be acquitted quite easily because they were never summoned for interrogation at all. A defendant accused of a felony can't be referred to such a court without interrogation -- it's illegal."
The accusation of "disseminating false information is similarly easy to refute", he said. Seif El-Islam indicated that the recent high-profile acquittal of sociologist Saadeddin Ibrahim -- who was found innocent of several charges including that one -- would provide a powerful precedent which would help weaken the charges against Ibrahim.
As for contacting human rights organisations, Seif El-Islam said that "is obviously not a crime and there is no law that criminalises such a thing".
The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) also took issue with the charges, expressing its "extreme concern" over the "continuous use of the Emergency Law against political dissent". By doing so, an EOHR statement argued, the government is contradicting itself when it claims that the Emergency Law is only used to fight "terrorism".
A systematic clampdown on activists involved in anti-US and anti-Israel demonstrations over the past three years escalated this spring. More than 800 demonstrators, including students, journalists and MPs, were arrested following violent clashes with the police in March.
Ibrahim's lawyers said their client had never been confronted with the accusation of forming a communist group in the over three months since his detention. "Ibrahim appeared before the prosecutor nine times so that his detention period could be renewed, and not once did they bring up the communist group allegation, which is a serious crime that certainly requires interrogation. Why didn't they ask him one question in that regard?" asked Seif El- Islam.
Ibrahim had, in fact, been confronted with such "charges" as posting information on the government clampdown on the anti-war demonstrations, surfing the Al-Jazeera Web site, and contacting human rights groups. Police raided his home in the early hours of 17 April while he was out of town and seized his computer, scanner, digital camera and papers. His wife said the police force that searched her house that day failed to present a search warrant. His lawyers say the same police force issued a search warrant on 18 April, which claimed that the raid took place that day, and not the day before. "This is another glaring legal violation added to the long list of breaches in this case," said Seif El-Islam. "From a legal perspective, there is no case."
The political implications, however, are a different story altogether.
