Egypt: Thousands Still Held Incommunicado, But Only Nine Suspects Named

Thousands Still Held Incommunicado, But Only Nine Suspects Named

(Cairo, February 22, 2005) The Egyptian state security forces arbitrarily
arrested thousands of people and tortured detainees in the wake of the
Taba Hilton bombing in October, Human Rights Watch said in a report
released today. Four months later, as many as 2,400 detainees are still
being held incommunicado.

The 48 page report, ?Mass Arrests and Torture in Sinai,? documents how, in
the weeks and months after the bombing that killed 30 people in the resort
town of Taba, the State Security Investigation agency conducted mass
arrests in northern Sinai without a warrant or judicial order as required
by Egyptian law.

The Egyptian authorities have identified only nine suspects as responsible
for the Taba attack, but the ministry of interior continues to hold an
estimated 2,400 detainees. The government has not released information on
the whereabouts of these detainees either to their families or lawyers
representing them, and has not indicated if any have been charged with
crimes.

?Egyptian security forces responded to the Taba atrocity by committing
mass human rights abuses themselves,? said Joe Stork, Washington director
of Human Rights Watch?s Middle East and North Africa Division. ?The
Mubarak government still hasn?t gotten the message that routine torture
and arbitrary arrests violate the law and fail to address real security
needs.?

Human Rights Watch conducted this investigation in northern Sinai with two
Egyptian human rights organizations, the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and the
Egyptian Association against Torture.

The authorities have not contested the claims of Egyptian human rights
organizations that security forces rounded up between 2,500 and 3,000
persons following the bombing. On February 4 the interior ministry
announced the release of some 90 detainees, adding that further releases
would follow.

Released detainees and families of those detained told Human Rights Watch
that those arrested were first held and interrogated at SSI headquarters
in el-Arish. The authorities then released some but transferred most to
prisons in Cairo and the Nile Delta.

On October 25, the interior ministry identified the alleged ringleader of
the Taba Hilton attack, who was killed in the blast, as a petty criminal
of Palestinian origin who had recently ?turned to religious extremism.? He
staged the bombing, the ministry said in a statement, because he was upset
by Israeli army actions against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Located on
the Israeli-Egyptian border, the Taba Hilton is especially popular with
Israeli vacationers.

?If Egypt won?t bring criminal charges against these detainees and give
them fair trials, it must promptly release them,? Stork said.

Human Rights Watch urged the Egyptian government to conduct a thorough and
impartial inquiry into allegations of torture and arbitrary arrest,
prosecute any officials found to have violated the law, and ensure that
persons arrested illegally and subjected to torture have access to prompt
and fair compensation.

Government officials in el-Arish and Cairo were unwilling to meet to
discuss the arbitrary arrests and torture allegations while it was
conducting its investigation, Human Rights Watch said. A subsequent letter
of inquiry to Egyptian Interior Minister Habib el-Adli has also gone
unanswered.

Human Rights Watch also called on the Egyptian People?s Assembly to
conduct an impartial public inquiry into charges of widespread arbitrary
arrests and detention and allegations of torture and ill-treatment in
connection with investigations into the Taba bombing.

"Egypt: Mass Arrests and Torture in Sinai" is available in English at
http://hrw.org/reports/2005/egypt0205/

Human Rights Watch Press release