SAMEH Ashour, the head of Egypt’s Lawyers Syndicate, has called a lawyers strike against the Ministry of Interior after the disappearance of lawyer Ibrahim Abo Gamos in the governorate of Sharqeya.
Prompted by what the syndicate contends is the enforced disappearance of Abo Gamos, Ashour called on Sunday for a strike in governorate courts. Under the terms of the strike lawyers would abstain from attending any court sessions, with the exception of those cases where defendants have been detained pending trial. The measures will escalate contingent on the Ministry of Interior’s compliance with the syndicate’s demands.
Last summer, lawyers held several strikes to protest against police brutality, ill-treatment, and violations against lawyers ‘as they practice their professions’. A group of lawyers in Sharqeya claimed that a police conscript ‘kidnapped’ their colleague Abo Gamos citing a video that was widely circulated on Friday evening.
The video, which appears to be from a surveillance camera positioned above a supermarket, shows a civilian in plain clothes following a man who is speaking on the phone, who is believed to be Abo Gamos, into the supermarket. The video concludes with Abo Gamos and the man exiting the market together.
The lawyer’s daughter, Hadeer Abo Gamos, identified the first man in the video as her father in an interview with Dream TV channel. ‘As you can see, he is speaking on the phone. He was talking to me, asking if we needed anything at home, and, indeed, we asked him for a few things to buy from the supermarket,’ she said.
When Abo Gamos did not return from the supermarket, his daughter and family tried to locate him. ”My father’s phone remained busy for a long time before it was shut off at midnight. My family and I went to the supermarket but did not find him, so we asked around in hospitals and police stations. The police denied having arrested somebody under that name,’ Hadeer said.
The Ministry of Interior issued a short statement on Saturday denying ‘hiding’ Abo Gamos and impugned media sources that claimed the lawyer was enforcedly disappeared. The ministry also denied claims made by Abo Gamos’s brother, in which he accused a police officer of jeopardising the lawyer’s life.
‘The lawyer in question was arrested based on a warrant issued by the National Security high prosecution authorities on charges of belonging to an armed group affiliated to the banned organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood,’ the Ministry of Interior statement read.
Lawyers syndicate head Ashour said: ‘We have asked the ministry for clarification regarding the legal status of Abo Gamos, and inquired into the location of his detention. We were provided little information through the phone and have demanded official explanations.’
In a case similar to Abo Gamos’s that occurred in August, the family of lawyer Abdel Aziz Youssef claimed that police raided their house in the city of Belbees in Sharqeya and that they were not informed of his whereabouts, speaking of possible ‘enforced disappearance’.
Lawyers are not the only category of citizens facing police abuse and threats, according to member of the Freedoms’ Committee at the Lawyers Syndicate Sayeda Kandil, who believes the ongoing conflict with the Doctors Syndicate reflects the complexity and expansion of police violations.
Since the beginning of 2015, lawyers have faced difficulties in police stations, security facilities, detention places, and courts. They have faced insults, physical assaults, and death.
Last December, two police officers from the National Security Apparatus at the Interior Ministry were sentenced to five years in prison in one of the most debated cases of human rights violations in Egypt.
Lawyer Kareem Hamdy died after sustaining severe physical trauma after being tortured while detained in Matariya police station on 24 February 2015. In June, lawyers leader Sameh Ashour led a general strike across all governorates.
Due to the attention brought to the issue by the strike, a police officer – who had injured lawyer Emad Fahmy by throwing a shoe at him in Farscur police station in Damietta – was ordered to pay an EGP 3,000 fine and was imprisoned for three months.
In July, the Syndicate held a second strike to protest at the shooting of lawyer Mohamed Al-Gamal by a police officer in a Cairo court in Nasr City. In protest at the violation, the syndicate decided to temporarily suspend work in courts in Nasr City and Al-Gamal’s hometown, Abu Hammad in the Sharqeya governorate.
• In contrast with statements from the Ministry of Health, the Doctors’ Syndicate on Sunday disclosed the participation rates of hospitals on the first day of implementing its decision to provide medical treatment free of charge.
The decision was initiated by the syndicate’s mass general assembly in mid-February, which was triggered by an attack on two doctors at Al-Matariya hospital. The decision came into effect on Saturday but the Ministry of Health denied its implementation in any hospitals.
The syndicate listed 11 hospitals that implemented the decision including Shubra, Dar El-Salam, Imbaba, along with other hospitals across all governorates. The participation rates were also listed at 80% in Damietta, 75% in Luxor, 80% in Sohag, 80% in Menufiya, 50% in Daqahleya, 40% in Sharqeya, and 60% in Assiut.
The syndicate voted on the decision amid claims that doctors are willing to strike and not provide medical treatment for underprivileged patients. However the reasoning behind their intended strike was to stand by their assaulted colleagues from Al-Matariya hospital.
According to syndicate secretary general Mona Mina, the decision does not include the cost of a check-up; the additional money doctors require from patients in cases of emergency is often upwards of EGP 5,000. The normal cost of a check-up at public hospitals is just EGP 5.
The health ministry warns against doctors who provide medical treatment free of charge, that the decision is unconstitutional. However the ministry was referring to the normal price of check-ups and not the exorbitant cost that many doctors charge patients in several hospitals.
• The ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) has called on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to ensure a full investigation into the murder of Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni in Cairo.
Twenty-eight-year-old Regeni, a student at Cambridge University who was researching Egypt’s independent trade union movement, was brutally tortured and murdered on 25th January.
Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary, said: ‘This atrocity, against an innocent young researcher, must be fully investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice. The heavy-handed tactics of Egypt’s police, the string of disappearances in recent months and the mounting repression of civil society show that President Sisi’s government is heading in the wrong direction.
‘The prospects for fundamental democratic rights and freedoms, including the right to freedom of association for the country’s workers, are receding by the day.
‘We call upon the government to change course, to support and protect human rights and avoid yet more bloodshed and the possibility of further mass unrest.’
