In October 12, 2017, 299 defendants – 203 detainees and 96 fugitives – were referred- by the Northern Military Prosecution in Cairo in case No. 64 of 2017, known as the Assistant Attorney General or the Case of Hasm Movement (HM) to- the Cairo Military Criminal Court. According to the indictment, the prosecution charged 34 charges, most of which are distributed between murder, attempted murder, complicity and incitement, between 2014-2015, in six different governorates.
The unwarranted congestion of facts, in one case over a long period of time (two years), the events took place in different geographic locations. Not just that, but the dates of birth of the accused in the case showed that 25 among them were children.
A large number of accused in the case faced several violations of their rights guaranteed by the amended Constitution 2014, where many of them were subjected to enforced disappearance for long periods in the headquarters of the National Security Service, where they suffered various kinds of physical and moral coercion. In addition, the Public Prosecutor’s Office did not allow a large number of accused to use the services of a private lawyer, nor did they transfer a large number of defendants immediately to the Department of forensic medicine after being alleged to have been subjected to torture in order to ascertain the accuracy of their statements. The case also included the lack of investigations and the reliance on anonymous information, in addition to the exposure of a number of children to violations in violation of international conventions and the Egyptian law of the child.
Therefore; We recommend the judicial bodies and concerned parties to:
- We demand that the court considering the case issue a decision to re-investigate the case because it contains several violations that interfere with the conduct of investigations, and the adoption of minutes of investigations on purely information from anonymous sources, which raises doubts about its validity.
- We recommend that the judicial bodies start a special investigation into practices that question the neutrality and independence of the prosecution and to encroach it as an indictment rather than an investigative authority. And to hold accountable those responsible for the enforced disappearances of the accused at the security headquarters and to force them to confess their convictions.
- We appeal to the prosecution to intervene quickly to force the administration of the high-security prison to improve the treatment of the accused in this case and other cases, open the visit to them and allow them to exercise.
- We call upon the Egyptian Parliament to amend the arbitrary legislation issued after July 2013, which violated the guarantees of the fair trial of the accused and to criminalize the enforced disappearance in a clear and explicit text in the Egyptian Penal Code as an imprescriptible crime. And the signing of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance of 2006. 5.We call on the National Council for Human Rights and the National Council for Motherhood and Childhood to declare their rejection of violations of the rights of the accused in this case and violations of the rights of children in this case and to protect these children from wasting their future.