THE trial of 49 trade unionists before an emergency court, for alleged involvement in the violent protests of 6 April 2008 in the Egyptian city of Mahalla against rising prices, has just resumed.
Amnesty International has repeatedly called on the Egyptian authorities to stop trying individuals before special emergency courts that flout basic guarantees for a fair trial.
On 5th April 2008, the government banned all demonstrations in advance of a general strike planned for 6th April in support of industrial action by textile workers in the city of Mahalla north of Cairo.
Thousands of members of the police and security forces were deployed in Mahalla, Cairo and other cities.
The industrial action was called off after negotiations with officials and under pressure from the government, but violent protests broke out in Malhalla against the rise in the cost of living.
At least two people, including schoolboy Ahmed Ali Mubarak, died after being shot by the security forces and dozens were wounded due to excessive use of force.
Around 258 people were arrested during the clashes and later released without charge.
The 49 defendants are being tried for a wide range of charges, including: assembly of more than five people with the aim of disturbing public order and security; deliberate destruction of public and private property; ransacking and theft; violent resistance and assault on police officers during the exercise of their duties; and illegal possession of firearms.
If convicted they face up to 15 years’ imprisonment.
The defendants are the first to be tried by an emergency court following the Egyptian authorities’ renewal of the state of emergency in May 2008.
Emergency courts regularly use evidence obtained under torture and other ill-treatment to secure convictions, and their procedures routinely fall short of the basic guarantees for a fair trial.
Judgments by emergency courts cannot be appealed against and become final after ratification by the President.
The trial, which started on 9th August before the Emergency Supreme State Security Court in the city of Tanta, north of Cairo, has been postponed upon the request of the defence lawyers in order to allow them to review the case files.
The court also agreed to order expert examination of the damage to property allegedly caused by the defendants, and ordered the arrest of those defendants previously released on bail by the public prosecutor.
However, when police officers later proceeded with the arrests, they also arrested relatives of those defendants who were not at home, and took them into custody as ‘hostages’ so as to force those wanted to surrender.
The 49 people who are facing trial were arrested after the clashes, between 13 and 18 April 2008.
After their arrest they were blindfolded for up to nine days.
Many of them said that while they were being held at the State Security Investigations offices in Mahalla and later in Cairo they were beaten, tortured with electric shocks and threatened with the sexual abuse of their female relatives.
When they were brought before the Public Prosecutor on 21, 22 and 23 April, their lawyers complained about the torture and other ill-treatment inflicted on their clients.
No independent investigation is known to have been opened as a result. The main evidence used against the defendants are the confessions, allegedly extracted under torture, that they had thrown stones at the police, as well as the testimonies of members of the security forces and government officials.
Some of the defendants stated that they had not even participated in the protests, this being confirmed by witnesses.
These witness statements were dismissed by the Public Prosecutor.
All the defendants remained in detention until 2nd June when the Public Prosecutor ordered the release on bail of 20 of them, including a 58-year old woman.
Nine of those released were immediately rearrested under emergency legislation by orders of the Minister of Interior.
All those in custody are currently held in Borj al-Arab Prison, near Alexandria. On 6th June, the Public Prosecutor referred their case for trial before the emergency court in Tanta.
Amnesty International is urging the Egyptian authorities to:
• rescind the decision to refer the defendants to the emergency court and order a retrial before an ordinary court and ensure they receive a fair trial.
• release immediately and unconditionally those protestors found not to have used violence; the others must be given a fair trial in accordance with Egypt’s obligations under international human rights law and standards.
• open a full, independent and impartial investigation into the killings of the three people in Mahalla. In particular the investigation should focus on the circumstances in which police used lethal fire, and ensure that any officers or other officials responsible for using or ordering excessive force should be brought to justice.
Immediately after the April clashes and protest demonstrations, Kefaya movement leaders George Ishak and Fathi al-Hefnawy were arrested.
The government then clamped down on the main opposition Muslim Brotherhood in the run up to the municipal elections, arresting hundreds and preventing all but a handful of Muslim Brotherhood candidates from standing.
It then tried to pin the blame for the protests on the Kefaya movement.
The government also banned all demonstrations on 5th April – three days before the elections and in advance of a general strike planned for 6th April in support of industrial action by textile workers in Mahalla.
Thousands of police and security forces were deployed in Mahalla, Cairo and other cities. But this failed to prevent protests in Mahalla, which became violent as police clashed with people protesting against rising living costs. Protests also quickly spread to other cities.
The two people who were killed in Mahalla, apparently by police gunfire, were schoolboy Ahmed Ali Mubarak, 15, who is reported to have been hit by two bullets while watching the clashes from the balcony of his home in the city on 8th April, and 20-year-old Ahmed El-Sayyed Abdelqader who died as a result of wounds he sustained when police dispersed demonstrators two days earlier.
In all, more than 100 people are reported to have been injured in the Mahalla protests, including members of the security forces.
The two leading members of the opposition Kefaya movement, George Ishak and Fathi al-Hefnawy, were arrested at their homes on 9th April and charged by the Emergency State Security Prosecution with inciting others to demonstrate, commit assaults on people and property and use violence with the aim of affecting public authorities.
It was the Kefaya movement, along with other opposition groups, that called for a general strike on 6th April in support of the textile workers in Mahalla.
