Cablegate: Egypt: Human Rights Issues Update

VZCZCXRO1693
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHEG #7109/01 3451258
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 111258Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2879
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 CAIRO 007109

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

NSC STAFF FOR WATERS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KDEM KIRF EG
SUBJECT: EGYPT: HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES UPDATE

REF: A. CAIRO 6953
B. CAIRO 6171
C. CAIRO 5709

Sensitive but unclassified. Please protect accordingly.

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Summary
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1. (SBU) International Human Rights Day passed with little
notice in Egypt, but human rights continue to generate public
debate and controversy. Government progress on some human
rights issues has been notable, but civil society critics of
the GOE--bolstered by an increasingly assertive media--charge
that the key GOE power brokers, particularly the Ministry of
Interior, remain uncommitted to implementing a comprehensive
program to protect and expand human rights. This message
highlights GOE progress on human rights as well as a number
of current human rights issues that are generating public
debate and discussion. End summary.

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Notable Progress: NCHR
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2. (SBU) The GOE's most significant human rights
achievement in recent years has been the creation of the
National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), formally
established in 2003 and made operational in 2004. NCHR
issued annual reports on the state of human rights in Egypt
in 2005 and again in 2006. In addition, NCHR has issued a
variety of studies keyed to particular issues, including the
2005 presidential and parliamentary elections. Most
recently, NCHR has conducted public seminars on a number of
controversial current issues including civil rights for
Baha'is, the GOE's regulation of NGOs, and constitutional
amendments.

3. (SBU) NCHR reports have tended to occupy a middle ground
between the sometimes strident reporting of the professional
human rights community and the reflexive apologetics that
often characterize GOE reaction to charges of human rights
abuses. Although many human rights activists have
characterized NCHR reporting as "watered down" and calculated
to minimize offense to the GOE, other observers suggest that
GOE discomfort with some of the more critical NCHR reporting
will lead to a major turn-over on the NCHR board in early
2007, when the three-year term of the board's original
members expires. The press has speculated that NCHR
president Boutros Boutros-Ghali (the former UNSYG, who now
spends most of his time in Paris) and NCHR Vice President
Kamal Aboul Magd will be replaced by personages less likely
to criticize the GOE, such as long-time presidential advisor
Osama El-Baz.

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GOE's Human Rights Training for Police, Prosecutors
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4. (SBU) Working with the UNDP, and supported by the EU and
the Danish Development Agency (DANIDA), the GOE has continued
to provide human rights training for thousands of judicial
and law enforcement officials. The current phase of the
project, running 2006-2009, aims to train 1200 judges, 700
prosecutors, 3000 police officers, 1800 media figures, and
750 lawyers "to familiarize Egyptians ... with international
standards of human rights ... as well as Egypt's treaty
commitments."

5. (SBU) Speaking to reporters ahead of International Human
Rights Day, Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit said, "Egypt firmly
believes in the importance of protecting human rights and
civil liberties worldwide." He placed particular emphasis on
Egypt's support for human rights in international fora,
including the new U.N. Human Rights Council, and within the
African Union, including the Egypt's role in drafting the
African Human Rights Charter. According to Aboul Gheit,
Egypt's National Councils (for Human Rights, Women, and
Motherhood and Childhood) have played a significant role in
strengthening human rights in Egypt. Finally, he warned
against the application of "selectivity and double standards"
in human rights matters.

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Concerns About Bloggers, Baha'is, and Police Brutality
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6. (SBU) Notwithstanding these positive developments,

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recent months have witnessed several human rights problems
that have led critics to question the GOE's commitment to
addressing outstanding human rights problems. For example,
Alexandria blogger Abdel Karim Amer, whose blog entries have
contained critiques of Islam and Al-Azhar Sunni Muslim
orthodoxy, has been detained without formal charges under a
series of renewed detention orders since late October.
Although some observers note that his blog entries may open
him to prosecution under the GOE's blasphemy laws, human
rights activists have condemned the GOE's apparent reluctance
to file formal charges against him. In early November, the
media freedom group, Reporters without Borders (RSF), charged
that Egypt was violating internet freedom by its actions
against bloggers such as Amer.

7. (SBU) The Ministry of Interior's appeal of an
administrative court ruling in April, which had affirmed
civil rights for Egypt's small community of Baha'is, has set
the stage for a decision by the Supreme Administrative Court
on December 16 (Ref A). At issue is whether Egypt's Baha'is,
who were formally disestablished by Nasser in 1960, have the
right to obtain GOE identity documents. GOE administrative
practice, which appears to conflict with constitutional
guarantees of freedom of religion, requires identity card
applicants to self-identify as Jew, Christian, or Muslim.
Most Baha'is, who are considered apostates by mainstream
Islam, have been unwilling to lie about their religion. As a
result, they face great difficulties in conducting civil
transactions, including registering births, marriages and
deaths, obtaining passports, enrolling children in school,
and obtaining bank accounts and driver's licenses.

8. (SBU) In recent months, a spate of video clips of
apparent police brutality against detainees has led to debate
in the blogosphere and in the independent press. Of the half
dozen videos in circulation, most document non-lethal
brutality apparently aimed at humiliating or scaring
detainees, but one clip, which has sparked the most comment,
purportedly documents a violent sexual assault by police on a
male detainee. Journalist Wael Abdel Fattah of the
independent weekly Al-Fagr recently published an article
which identified the rape victim, Emad Ali Mohamed Kabir, as
a taxi driver from Giza who said that the rape occurred in
January 2006, and that he had declined to press charges due
to fear of police retaliation. According to recent press
coverage of the "torture video" phenomenon, the Ministry of
Interior is conducting an internal investigation process to
identify the officers portrayed in the videos. In response
to a request by the respected Arab Center for the
Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, the
Public Prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into
the videos.

9. (SBU) In another case involving attacks by ruling party
supporters against opposition demonstrators during the May
2005 referendum, the Egyptian Initiative for Human Rights
(EIPR), supported by about a dozen other human rights NGOs,
secured a ruling in late November from the African Commission
for Human and People's Rights (ACHPR), an African Union
entity based in the Gambia, to hear a case against the GOE.
(The GOE's own investigation into the referendum assaults was
closed after the GOE said that it was not possible to
identity the perpetrators, many of whom were documented on
video as they beat and sexually assaulted opposition
demonstrators and journalists.) The ACHPR inquiry against
the GOE will commence in May 2007 and could ultimately lead
to a formal ACHPR rebuke of the GOE.

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Ayman Nour's Health
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10. (SBU) The ongoing incarceration of Ayman Nour (Ref B),
the ailing head of the Ghad Party, who was convicted in a
controversial trial of forging his party's registration
documents, continues to stir debate. Nour, who is diabetic
and has heart trouble, has been jailed since his December
2005 conviction, shortly after he finished a distant second
to President Mubarak in the 2005 presidential election and
then lost his parliamentary seat. Recently, Nour's family
and supporters have reported that his heart condition is
worsening and have urged the GOE to release him under a
health-based parole. Even popular television host Amr Adib,
who is known for his close contacts with the government, has
called for the GOE to provide prompt and complete treatment
for Nour, saying, "I do not want my country to look like a
country in which there was a presidential candidate who died
inside prison."

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Death Sentences, Without Appeal, for Convicted Terrorists
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11. (SBU) The September conviction of the 2004 Taba terror
bombing suspects in a State Security Court trial in Ismailia,
followed by the passing of death sentences against the three
main suspects in early December, has focused attention on the
fact that convicts and their lawyers allege that they were
tortured in detention and complain that they have no right to
appeal the death sentences. Only President Mubarak has the
right to commute death sentences imposed by the State
Security Court system.

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Detained Christian Convert
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12. (SBU) Muslim-born convert to Christianity Bahaa
Al-Accad has been imprisoned without charge since April 2005.
Al-Accad's family and lawyers, who believe that his
conversion to Christianity is the reason for his detention,
report that his health is failing. International Christian
advocacy groups are planning to adopt Al-Accad as prisoner of
conscience. Emboffs have raised Al-Accad's case on several
occasions with the GOE, but he remains in detention.

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Muslim Brotherhood Detentions
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13. (SBU) As documented by Human Rights Watch and other
independent advocacy groups, and reported Ref C, 2006 has
witnessed detentions without charge or trial of hundreds of
opposition activists associated with the banned Muslim
Brotherhood (MB), including senior MB leaders Essam El-Erian
and Mohamed Morsi, who were detained May-early December as a
result of their involvement in demonstrations in support of
judicial independence. The precise number of MB activists
currently still in detention is unknown. With the exception
of El-Erian and Morsi, the GOE has typically detained MB
members for relatively brief periods ranging from several
weeks to several months.

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Comment
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14. (SBU) Although the GOE clearly appreciates the need for
high-level engagement on human rights issues, its critics
charge that much of this engagement is cosmetic. Police and
security officials often appear to act with impunity. The
independent press and the alternative media, especially
blogs, have played a key role in highlighting recent human
rights abuses, but it is not yet clear if these watchdog
efforts will lead to more robust GOE support of human rights.

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