BY FACSIMILE
22 October 1999
His Excellency Hosni Mubarak
President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Cairo, Egypt
Your Excellency:
Human Rights Watch is writing to express its concern about the arrest and detention of twenty leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood last week. The fact that these men were referred to state security prosecutors for questioning and investigation, with the possibility of criminal prosecution, only increases the seriousness of the situation. As occurred in the massive crackdown on the organization in 1995, among those arrested were prominent lawyers, engineers, physicians, and university professors. Many of them served as elected officers of independent professional associations.
Among those arrested are Mukhtar Nuh, a lawyer and former member of parliament; Dr. Muhamed Ali Bishr, a professor and and secretary general of the engineers syndicate; and Dr. Saad Zaghloul, a professor of medicine and secretary general of the Cairo medical association.
The official government news agency, MENA, reported on October 16 that public prosecutor Hisham Saraya of the Higher State Security Prosecution ordered the twenty men detained for fifteen days. The report said that charges against them included "spreading the group's ideas, endangering the country's security and stability, attempting to infiltrate the country's professional associations and controlling them through spreading the ideas of the group, as well as putting the country's social harmony in danger." It added that in the days prior to the arrests, "security agencies" had been "following the movements and the meetings of several Muslim Brotherhood leaders who administer the affairs of several [professional] associations," and that these security bodies "revealed that the aim of meetings was to set up a plan to infiltrate professional associations and attempt to control them prior to elections at the associations."
The Muslim Brotherhood is arguably the largest political opposition grouping in Egypt. Its members, as well as members of any other peaceful political organization in Egypt, have the right to associate. This is a fundamental right enshrined in internationally recognized human rights standards. The Muslim Brotherhood should not be banned or denied legal status and its members should be free to participate in all aspects of Egyptian political and civic life, including elections for parliament and professional associations.
These recent arrests appear to be a continuation of the pattern of state harassment of peaceful, well-known Muslim Brotherhood professionals who are deeply involved in Egyptian civic life. In addition, the continuing ban on the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been in place since 1954, is inconsistent with Egypt's obligations under international law. As a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) , Egypt is pledged to uphold the right to free association. Under article 22 of the ICCPR, the only permissible restrictions to the full enjoyment of the right to freedom of association are those "which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights of others." These exceptions are narrowly framed, and the burden of demonstrating their validity rests with the state. The internationally recognized norms of free association require that the state justify the banning of an organization by showing that this extreme measure is necessary to achieve a specific and legitimate purpose within one of the enumerated exceptions. The government has not done so each time it uses the pretext of the Muslim Brotherhood's illegality as the pretext for arresting its members, as in the massive 1995 crackdown on the Brotherhood that occurred months in advance of Egypt's November 1995 parliamentary elections.
The arrest, detention, and possible trial of prominent Muslim Brothers in the run-up to professional association and parliamentary elections in 2000 casts doubt about whether these elections will be truly free and fair. In light of the charges made public when these men were detained, Human Rights Watch believes they are being held solely for their exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and association. We therefore recommend that all those detained be released immediately and that the legal proceedings against them be dropped. It is our hope that your new cabinet will take steps to enlarge the political space in Egypt so as to include a diversity of peaceful political opinions.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter, and we look forward to a reply at Your Excellency's earliest convenience.
Sincerely,
/S/
Hanny Megally
Executive Director
Middle East and North Africa Division
Human Rights Watch
cc:
His Excellency Atef Ebeid, Prime Minister
His Excellency Gen. Habib el-Adli, Minister of Interior
His Excellency Ahmad Hassan Abu Taleb, Cabinet Secretary
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