{"id":2658,"date":"2024-03-30T01:19:54","date_gmt":"2024-03-30T01:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egyptianforum.org\/?p=2658"},"modified":"2024-03-30T01:19:54","modified_gmt":"2024-03-30T01:19:54","slug":"joint-statement-egypt-must-immediately-and-unconditionally-release-anti-torture-protester-mahmoud-hussein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egyptianforum.org\/en\/joint-statement-egypt-must-immediately-and-unconditionally-release-anti-torture-protester-mahmoud-hussein\/","title":{"rendered":"Joint statement: Egypt must immediately and unconditionally release anti-torture protester Mahmoud Hussein"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Egyptian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Mahmoud Hussein who is facing 25 years in prison simply for wearing a T-shirt with an anti-torture slogan, 15 Egyptian and international human rights organizations said today.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mahmoud Hussein has been arbitrarily detained since August 2023. Since then, his mental and physical health has seriously deteriorated. This is the second time he has been unjustly detained since 2014.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2014, <\/span>Mahmoud Hussein<\/span><\/a> was arrested in the aftermath of peaceful protests\u202fmarking the third anniversary of the 25 January 2011 Revolution for wearing a T-shirt with the slogan \u201cA Nation without Torture\u201d and a scarf with the \u201c25 January Revolution\u201d logo. He then spent two years in arbitrary pretrial detention before being released on bail in 2016, following global campaigning for his release. In 2018 however, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in his absence.\u202f\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Security forces rearrested Mahmoud Hussein at a checkpoint on 30 August 2023 and subjected him to enforced disappearance for five days, holding him at various facilities controlled by the National Security Agency (NSA). During this time, he was interrogated while blindfolded without a lawyer<\/span>. <\/span><\/b>He was subsequently moved to Badr Prison 1, notorious for its inhuman detention conditions and for denial of adequate healthcare to prisoners. Since then, he has been held in pretrial detention. The prison authorities have been withholding his prescribed medication for post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from his first detention in 2014.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Because he was tried in his absence, Mahmoud Hussein is now facing a retrial on bogus charges of membership of a \u201cterrorist\u201d group and involvement in violence, stemming from the exercise of his rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly which led to his first arrest in January 2014.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is outrageous that Mahmoud Hussein is once again being tried for the simple act of wearing an anti-torture T-shirt. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison, which would be a gross injustice and is an indication of how low the Egyptian authorities will stoop to crush any and every notion of dissent,\u201d said Philip Luther, Amnesty International\u2019s Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mahmoud Hussein\u2019s retrial is once again being held in front of the Emergency State Security Court (ESSC). ESSC\u2019s proceedings are inherently unfair, including because their verdicts are not subject to appeal, only ratification by the President. His next hearing is scheduled for 23 April.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

TORTURED AND DREAMS KILLED<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When Mahmoud Hussein was first arrested at the age of 18 in 2014, NSA agents\u202fsubjected him to torture and other ill-treatment in detention through beatings and electric shocks to his hands, back and testicles to force him to sign a \u201cconfession\u201d. As a result, he has suffered from chronic health conditions requiring two hip replacement surgeries and dependency on crutches.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In November 2023, he underwent an anal fistula surgery at prison hospital, but his family fear that he is not receiving the adequate follow-up care he needs.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A relative of Mahmoud Hussein has described the devastating impact of his renewed detention: \u201cMahmoud\u2019s return to prison is a nightmare that the family is currently living. He has returned to the place where dreams are killed once again, at a time when he was trying to survive from the effects of his initial imprisonment and look towards his future. This time, he faces even greater health challenges. Please do not forget about him there.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMahmoud Hussein\u2019s life has been upended twice solely for dreaming of a nation without torture. Instead of investigating his complaints of torture and other ill treatment and providing him with adequate reparations for the harm suffered during his first unjust detention, the Egyptian authorities are doubling down in their absurd injustice. They must immediately and unconditionally release him and drop all charges against him as they solely stem from the exercise of his human rights,\u201d said Mohamed Abdel Salam, AFTE\u2019S executive director.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Background<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mahmoud Hussein is among thousands of individuals who continue to be arbitrarily detained in Egypt solely for exercising their human rights or following proceedings violating fair trial rights or without legal basis. Those held include human rights defenders, political activists, members of opposition parties, trade unionists, workers, peaceful protesters, journalists, lawyers, social media influencers, members of religious minorities, and medical professionals.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The UN Committee against Torture reached <\/span>\u201cthe inescapable conclusion\u201d<\/span><\/a> in 2017 that \u201ctorture is a systematic practice in Egypt\u201d. The Egyptian government has <\/span>not taken<\/span><\/a> any serious steps to address the issue. Most recently, in its 2023 <\/span>concluding observations<\/span><\/a>, the Committee highlighted the \u201cnumerous and consistent allegations of systematic use of torture and ill-treatment\u201d by Egyptian authorities, emphasising the deeply concerning lack of accountability contributing to a climate of impunity. The Committee further underscored that various human rights violations in Egypt are \u201cwidespread\u201d including prolonged pretrial detention.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In October 2023, a coalition of national and international NGOs, namely<\/span>REDRESS , the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), Dignity, the Committee for Justice (CFJ) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ),<\/span> concluded that that the Egyptian\u2019s authorities\u2019 use of torture is so widespread and systematic\u202fas to amount to a <\/span>crime against humanity<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In March 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee <\/span>called<\/span><\/a> on Egypt to \u201censure that statutory limits to the duration of pretrial detention are enforced, including by putting an end to the involvement of security agencies in the decision-making process on the release of detainees and the practice of \u201crotation\u201d under which detainees are added to new cases on similar charges\u201d. <\/span>According to<\/span><\/a> human rights organizations (the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Committee for Justice, El Nadeem Center, the Egyptian Front for Human Rights, the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights), at least 251 defendants were rotated to new cases in 2023, and another 620 defendants in 2022, <\/span>demonstrating<\/span><\/a> the continued involvement of the judicial authorities in violations of the right to fair trial.\u202f\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The UN Human Rights Committee as well as Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council have repeatedly raised concerns about systematic violations of fair trial rights and called <\/span>repeatedly<\/span><\/a> raised concerns about systematic <\/span>violations<\/span><\/a> of fair trial rights and called on Egypt to ensure that proceedings, including in terrorism cases, are in line with international law and standards.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Signatories:<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n