By Sarah Carr
CAIRO: The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) has filed a case with the African Commission against the Egyptian government for its administrative detention policy.
The African Commission is a quasi-judicial body charged with interpreting the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights — a charter of which Egypt is a signatory party.
The state of emergency — which has been continually in force since 1981 — was renewed last May. Government officials announced at the time of its renewal that emergency law powers would be restricted to drugs and terrorism offenses.
Rights groups say, however, that emergency law powers continue to be used against political activists.
Mohamed El-Sharqawi, now 60 years old, has been in administrative detention since May 1995 after he was extradited to Egypt from Pakistan. He has been detained pursuant to an order by the Minister of Interior ever since his arrival.
El-Sharqawi has been detained for 15 years, 14 of which stem from Egypt’s emergency law, which allow the authorities to detain individuals based on — according to critics — vaguely worded provisions on “suspected persons or those who endanger public order or security.”
Rights groups estimate that there are currently thousands of individuals who are locked up in Egyptian prisons under administrative detention orders that are renewed each time a court orders their release.
According to Amnesty International, which is campaigning for El-Sharqawi’s release, El-Sharqawi has secured more than 15 release orders by the courts, all of which have been ignored and met with a fresh detention order.
“El-Sharqawi has been tortured or otherwise ill treated at each of the different prisons in which [he] has been held, and is now in a remote prison where conditions are very harsh,” Amnesty International stated on a website about El-Sharqawi.
His mother told Daily News Egypt that El-Sharqawi, who suffers from a slipped disc, was recently transferred to a hospital after experiencing health problems. He was promptly returned to prison after receiving medical treatment.
She added that, during the Eid El-Adha celebrations in November, El-Sharqawi’s son Abdel-Rahman was not allowed to visit his father or to give him food or other supplies.
“Egypt’s emergency law has a huge human cost,” Hossam Bahgat, EIPR’s executive director, said in a statement issued Tuesday.
“El-Sharqawi’s case is one among thousands where the government has grossly abused its authority. The suffering endured by these detainees and their families is overwhelming.”
