Two years since the removal of ousted President
Mohamed Morsi from power, Egypt has swung from "mass protest to mass
incarceration", according to a new Amnesty International report.
The report, "Generation Jail: Egypt's Youth Go from Protests to Prison",
details the country's increasingly repressive state. Its release on
Tuesday marks the second anniversary of Egypt's June 30 protests, whose
participants are now facing arbitrary arrests and prison.
"Mass protests have been replaced by
mass arrests," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of the Middle
East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International. "By
relentlessly targeting Egypt's youth activists, the authorities are
crushing an entire generation's hopes for a brighter future," Sahraoui
added.
According to the report, activists estimate that
41,000 people have been arrested, charged or indicted, often through
unfair trials where evidence consists solely of statements by security
forces.
The report's researchers emphasise that the
Egyptian society has seen its avenues for free speech and protest clang
shut as the government under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi seeks to
stifle scores of activists, politicians and youth in the name of state
security.
The report focuses on 14 young people who were among the
thousands that have been subjected to arbitrary arrests and practices
"which do not comply with international law".
The authorities' repression of dissent and
opposition originally began with the jailing of Muslim Brotherhood
leaders and their supporters. Now, however, its scope has reached
university campuses and public streets, family homes, and the offices of
human rights groups.
"Egypt today is a police state," said Nicholas
Piachaud, a researcher on the Egypt team for Amnesty International.
"People are deeply afraid of the knock on the door in the night,"
Piachaud told Al Jazeera.
For the youth in the country, who once enjoyed
global praise for being the pulsing centre of Egypt's protest movements,
the crackdown has been an overwhelming source of fear and despair.
One young man, Mohamed Ahmed Hussein, was just 18
years old when he was arrested for wearing a T-shirt with a political
slogan on it. He has now spent 500 days in prison without charge or
trial, and his family says that his body carries the marks of torture.
"The authorities have made it clear that now, what
they wish to do is tear the heart out of the protest movement,"
Piachaud said. "It's their way or prison."
Recent reports of disappearances have only added to the atmosphere of fear.
On June 9, the National Council for Human Rights, a government-run entity, received 50 complaints lodged by families who suspect their loved ones are being detained with no way of communicating with the outside.
"One family of a detained individual that we spoke with said that what they're going through is awful, but what's happening with the recent disappearances is terrifying," said Piachaud.
In line with the country's Code of Criminal
Procedures, accused persons in Egypt may be held without trial for up to
45 days, a period that courts can extend after review.
According to the report, the law has led to some suspects going without trial for over a year.
When the trial does come, it can involve unfair
practices that warp due process and subject the defence party to
incomplete evidence, sudden changes in the hearing's location and even
threats against lawyers.
One particularly "farcical" hearing, said the
report, sentenced the defender to jail in absentia and featured home
videos as evidence.
Yara Sallam, a prominent human rights defender, is
another person charged with taking part "in an unauthorised
demonstration that endangered public order".
Her lawyers say that Sallam did not participate in any such demonstration, and had been arrested while buying water at a kiosk.
On the day of Sallam's trial, officials changed the address of the hearing location without notifying the defence lawyers.
Sallam and her lawyer had to travel 25km to the
new location, where a tinted sheet of glass prevented her from
communicating with her defence counsel throughout the trial.
Though Sallam is one of the more well-known
individuals prosecuted by authorities, repression in Egypt is not
limited to only the prominent voices.
According to the report, innocuous acts by people -
such as wearing the wrong shirt, or walking down a street where a
demonstration is happening - can lead to detentions and jail time.
"Anyone who criticises the authorities and is seen to criticise the authorities is at risk," said Piachaud.
The already shrinking political space in Egypt is
subject to regulations that severely limit when and where demonstrations
may happen.
Passed in November 2013, the Protest Law
requires any public demonstration to have prior approval from the
interior ministry, and permits security forces to use excessive force in
dispersing protesters.
The government justified these restrictions by
saying that it was restoring stability to the country, invoking recent
attacks on security and police forces.
Yet, the report noted that often, if
demonstrations do see violence at the hands of one or a few protesters,
forces will indiscriminately arrest anyone in the area.
According to Piachaud, this has sucked the air out of all public dissent in society.
Meanwhile, the report highlights that Egypt's
international partners have been passive about the matter, choosing to
welcome Sisi back into the political fold instead of denouncing the
intensifying repression.
The international community, says Piachaud, was
silent when Egyptian security forces killed hundreds of protesters in
August of 2014, and that silence stretches on today.
"Egypt's partners are saying they do care about human rights, but on the other hand they're selling and transferring hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military and security equipment to Egypt's government," he said. "This is sending a very dangerous signal to the authorities."
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