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III. Background

On Thursday and Friday, March 20-21, 2003, Cairo witnessed two days of massive street demonstrations. The protests were sparked by the United States air attack on Iraq that commenced in the early hours of March 20, but demonstrators also raised chants and slogans criticizing Egyptian government policies. Many participants and spectators told Human Rights Watch that these protests were easily the largest since a wave of student demonstrations rocked the country in 1972.

On Thursday, March 20, more than ten thousand protestors turned out and eventually took over al-Tahrir Square, a major Cairo downtown traffic hub flanked by Egyptian government ministries, the Arab League headquarters, the Egyptian Museum, and the American University in Cairo. One reporter characterized the demonstration as “ecumenical,” involving leftists and nationalists as well as Muslim Brothers, seasoned activists, students, and businesspeople.³

What might have been a typical demonstration involving several hundred protestors cordoned and outnumbered by riot police with shields and batons grew as groupings of other demonstrators pushed their way into the square. Chants and slogans also criticized the government of President Hosni Mubarak. Some confrontations between security forces and demonstrators occurred, particularly when police blocked efforts by some protestors to march to the nearby United States and United Kingdom embassies, but for the most part demonstrators and security forces alike reportedly behaved with restraint and acted to prevent any escalation of violent confrontation. For about twelve hours al-Tahrir Square belonged to the demonstrators.⁴

The next day, Friday, was a different story, characterized by sharp clashes between security forces and demonstrators and violent government tactics to disperse and arrest demonstrators. Activists from civil rights, Palestinian solidarity, anti-Iraq war, and anti-globalization groups had called for a march to begin at al-Azhar mosque following midday prayers and to end at al-Tahrir Square and the United States and United Kingdom embassies. The confrontations began at al-Azhar, as the security forces blocked exits out of the mosque. Eventually those inside made it out and were joined by worshippers from other mosques until a crowd of several thousand started the long walk toward downtown and al-Tahrir Square. Security forces periodically dispersed the marchers, but by around 3 p.m. several crowds reportedly totaling between ten and twenty thousand people converged on `Abd al-Mun’im Riyad Square, on the periphery of the larger al-Tahrir Square area, which was cordoned off by a large force of Central Security police. Groups of protestors pushed through the police lines into al-Tahrir Square. At one point a fire truck on hand to reload police water cannons was set ablaze, and some private automobiles were reportedly damaged.⁵ Demonstrators reportedly tore down a large poster at the nearby headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party, and burned flags lining the street in front of the Nile Hilton hotel. Over the next several hours security forces brought in substantial reinforcements and by 5 p.m. al-Tahrir Square area was cleared of demonstrators and in the full control of security forces. Hundreds of demonstrators and bystanders had been arrested. Scores were beaten by uniformed riot police or, in many cases, by plainclothes men armed with clubs and pipes. Those in plainclothes carrying out these assaults did so without interference by uniformed officers and themselves placed detainees in police vans, making it apparent that they were working for the government.

Several hours after al-Tahrir Square had been cleared, plainclothes men armed with sticks and truncheons attacked a peaceful sit-in demonstration in front of the Egyptian Bar Association building at the intersection of Ramsis Street and `Abd al-Khaliq Tharwat Street, about ten blocks from al-Tahrir Square. The demonstrators did not obstruct traffic. The plainclothes men barred the building’s only open entrance and exit, went inside, and, in the process of conducting arrests, beat several lawyers well known as the legal counsel for persons arrested on political charges and whom the authorities apparently regarded as protest leaders. Uniformed police had cordoned off the building but took no steps to halt the beatings by those in plainclothes. Two members of parliament, Hamdeen Sabahi and Muhammad Farid Hassanein, were also badly beaten on this occasion. They were arrested two days later and investigated by the State Security Prosecution office.

The authorities have not made public the number and names of those detained in connection with the March 21 demonstrations, but most accounts cited an informal estimate by Egyptian officials that the number was in the vicinity of 800.⁶ Most of those arrested were detained in a Central Security training camp and barracks at al-Darassa, north of the city, while others were held in several police stations. Most appear to have been released within twenty-four hours.

On March 21, the day the attempted demonstration in al-Tahrir Square had been disrupted violently by police, the Ministry of Interior said in an official statement that the country’s “political leadership” appreciated the “nationalist need to protect freedom of expression” and so would “allow pre-approved demonstrations to take place” but that “no other gatherings, processions, or demonstrations will be tolerated as they obstruct traffic, interfere with the well-being of the citizenry, and obstruct the conduct of government business,” adding that this “is the norm worldwide.”⁷

At least sixty-one persons arrested on March 21 were ordered held for investigation, most on charges that included destroying public property,⁸ inciting public unrest,⁹ and participating in gatherings of more than five persons when ordered to disperse.¹⁰ Three Cairo University students were arrested by SSI officers in connection with the demonstrations and were charged with forming an illegal organization. Those who were seriously injured by the police during arrest or while in custody were not provided access to adequate medical attention while in detention. Seven other persons were detained on similar charges over the following several days and interrogated in the SSI offices, including SSI headquarters in Lazoghli, in Cairo.

On March 30 the Office of the Prosecutor-General ordered the release of those still in detention in connection with the antiwar demonstrations of March 21.¹¹ Over the following days, all these individuals had been released on bail, but were still at least nominally under investigation on the charges lodged against them. According to press reports, Prosecutor-General Maher ‘Abd al-Wahed “urge[d] the public in this uncertain period to practice self-restraint and be aware of the fact that every Egyptian citizen is responsible for maintaining internal peace during this difficult time.”¹²

Several of those who alleged that they had been beaten by police during arrest or in custody filed formal complaints naming some of the officials they alleged to be responsible and requesting that the Prosecutor-General investigate the charges.

On the following Friday, March 28, the ruling National Democratic Party, in an apparently informal arrangement with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, sponsored a rally at al-Azhar mosque that was broadcast on state-run television. According to one press report, “there were no arrests, no violence, and, significantly, no whiff of domestic politics.”¹³  In the weeks after the crackdown on the Cairo protests large demonstrations occurred in Alexandria and other cities but were confined to university campuses.

The groups whose leaders had been targeted in the arrests that began on March 21 called for another demonstration for April 4 that would begin at al-Sayyida `Aisha Square and proceed to al-Tahrir Square, insisting that an administrative court ruling of February 4, 2003 affirmed the right of citizens to hold public demonstrations without permits.¹⁴ On that day police cordoned off the assembly point and arrested between fifty-five and sixty-five of the persons attempting to gather there, most as they attempted to enter the square.¹⁵ Most were released within twenty-four hours but eleven persons were ordered held for fifteen days for investigation on charges of illegal assembly aimed at damaging public property; possession and dissemination of materials aimed at disturbing public order; blocking traffic; and chanting slogans against the government.¹⁶

Egyptian security services made further arrests of alleged antiwar activists and protest organizers in mid-April 2003. On Saturday, April 12, security forces apprehended students `Amr Muhammad ‘Abd al-Latif, age 21, Mahmud Hassan, in his early twenties, and Walid ‘Abd al-Razzaq Fu’ad, also in his early twenties, as they were about to attend a demonstration at the Journalists’ Syndicate building in Cairo. Another student, Ramiz Gihad Fathi, age 25, was picked up that night from a café in the Bab al-Luq neighborhood. On Sunday, April 13, Wa’il Tawfiq, a journalist in his early thirties, went missing and was later seen in custody at SSI headquarters. Marwan Hamdi, an activist in his early thirties, and Ibrahim al-Sahari, a journalist in his mid-thirties who writes for the Egyptian daily Al-`Alam al-Yom, were taken from their homes in the early hours of April 14 to an unknown location.

Several days later, on April 17, security forces raided the home of Ashraf Ibrahim Marzuq, an engineer and political activist and confiscated a computer, video equipment, and scanner, as well as books and papers. Ibrahim, who was not home at the time, turned himself in to SSI authorities on April 19 and was held without charge for three and a half months in Tora prison before being charged, on August 7, with being on the steering committee of a “revolutionary socialist group,” “holding and possessing publications disseminating advocacy and propaganda for the group’s purposes,” and “sending false information to foreign bodies—foreign human rights organizations—which include, contrary to the truth, violations of human rights within the country, the content of which weakened the position of the state.”¹⁷  Four other individuals not in custody were also charged with holding leadership positions in the group (Nasr Faruq al-Bahiri and Yahya Fikri Amin Sahra) or joining the group (Mustafa Muhammad al-Basiuni and Remon Edward Gindi Morgan).