III. Prosecutions and Other Security Interventions

19. In the first half of January during the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, several press outlets reported that the security apparatus had imposed severe restrictions on large mosques with the goal of preventing worshipers from using them to demonstrate against the war. Reports also discussed the intervention of security to prevent special prayers being conducted for the victims of the war in Gaza. These measures reportedly targeted the Azhar Mosque and the Fath Mosque in Cairo in particular, where police searched everyone who entered on Friday 9 January, checking identification and preventing all journalists from entering either mosque.

20. On 22 January 2009, the Ministry of Interior released Qur'anist blogger Reda Abd al-Rahman after 88 days in administrative detention under Emergency Law because of his religious beliefs. The Emergency Supreme State Security Court  issued a ruling on 6 January 2009, ending Abd al-Rahman’s detention, thus upholding a previous ruling issued by the same court on 14 December 2008. On 8 January 2009, Abd al-Rahman was brought before the State Security Prosecution, which ordered his release, although the blogger remained arbitrarily detained for another 14 days in the State Security headquarters in al-Zaqaziq before he was ultimately released.

State Security forces in the governorate of Sharqiya arrested Abd al-Rahman at dawn on 27 October 2008, after raiding his home in Abu Hereiz, located in the Kafr Saqr district of Sharqiya. He was arrested for holding Qur'anist beliefs and expressing them on his blog, titled Justice, Freedom, Peace. Abd al-Rahman was questioned by a State Security prosecutor during his administrative detention on charges of “showing contempt for Islam” after the prosecutor asked him about his beliefs and opinions on religious matters, including his faith in the Prophetic Sunna and his manner of praying (see paragraph 22 of the Fourth Quarterly Report, 2008).

In a press release issued on 25 January 2009, the EIPR asked the Public Prosecutor’s Office to issue an order to end the investigation and drop the charge of showing contempt for Islam, as well as investigate those responsible for his arbitrary arrest and illegal detention. The EIPR further called for an end to the State Security policy of arresting people because they exercise their rights to freedom of expression and belief.

21. The Northern Cairo Appellate Court of Misdemeanors ordered the release of Martha Samuel, George Hanna Morqos and Masoud Girgis Masoud on 22 January 2009. The three were arrested on 13 December 2008, on charges of forging an identity card for Martha Samuel showing that she had converted to Christianity, as well as helping her marry a Christian man and obtaining a passport with the same false information (see paragraph 23 of the Fourth Quarterly Report, 2008). The Public Prosecutor’s Office contested the release order, but a Cairo criminal court rejected the appeal and upheld the release order on 24 January. State Security in Alexandria released the detainees on 29 January 2009.

22. On 1 February 2009, the police arrested Mina Adel Shawqi and Essam Qiddis Nasif at the Cairo International Book Fair, accusing them of distributing copies of the Bible to fair-goers with the goal of proselytizing Christianity. According to information obtained by EIPR researchers, upon arresting the two young men, the police took them to the Nasr City police station (station no. 2), where they spent two days in a cramped cell. On 3 February they were taken to the State Security headquarters in Assyout. According to information obtained by the EIPR, when they arrived at 8 pm policemen blindfolded and tortured them, beating them on the back, side, neck and face; police also employed electroshocks on their wrists, head and chins. During the torture, the two men denied involvement in proselytizing, saying that they worked with a Christian association in Dayrut, located in Assyout, and that they had visited the book fair to buy copies of the Bible at a reduced cost. They were released at dawn on 5 February 2009, after being moved to the State Security headquarters in Dayrut; they were never brought before any judicial body.

23. On 23 February 2009, the Minister of Interior issued a new administrative detention order under the Emergency Law for Rifaat Fawzi Abduh and his brother Ibrahim Fawzi Abduh, who are suspected of involvement in the murder of a Muslim farmer that took place during an attack on the Abu Fana monastery in Minya in May 2008 (see paragraph 10 of the Second Quarterly Report, 2008). In November 2008, a Minya criminal court ordered their release on bail of LE3,000 each pending an investigation into the incident, but the Minister of Interior issued a detention order for them immediately afterwards. Although the detainees received another court order for their release in January, the Ministry of Interior moved them from the New Valley prison to the Minya security directorate where they were kept for several days until a new administrative detention order could be issued.

Zakhari Kamal, the detainees’ lawyer, told EIPR researchers that he strongly suspects the Ministry of Interior is using the arrest of the two brothers to pressure the Coptic church to withdraw its complaints and reconcile with those accused of attacking the monastery. On 31 May 2008, the St. Abu Fana monastery, located in the Mallawi district of Minya, came under armed attack by some 60 Bedouins from the village of Qasr Hur, which is adjacent to the monastery. The attack left one Muslim farmer dead and seven monks injured, including three monks who were abducted and tortured by the Bedouin before being released a few hours later. The small church located on the monastery’s farm was also destroyed and its contents vandalized; several monks’ cells were torched and items were stolen from the monastery and its farm. The Public Prosecutor’s Office has referred none of those accused of these crimes to court in the intervening year.

24. On 4 March 2009, the Supreme Emergency State Security Court  rejected a petition filed by the Minister of Interior challenging a previous order by the same court to release Coptic blogger Hani Nazir Aziz, issued on 7 February 2009 (complaint no. 423 / 2009). Nevertheless, the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, which is representing the detained blogger, stated that after the court order was issued, the Ministry of Interior moved the blogger from the Borg al-Arab prison in Alexandria to the Qena district security directorate, where he was detained for several days until a new administrative detention order could be issued under the Emergency Law.

On 3 October 2008, Hani Nazir turned himself over to the Abu Tisht police in the governorate of Qena after the police detained his brother for three days as a hostage. Rumors had spread in the al-Eila village, where he resides, that he had published material defaming Islam on his blog (see paragraph 20 of the Fourth Quarterly Report, 2008).