Wayzata World Factbook 1996/The World Factbook - 1996 Edition - Wayzata Technology (3079) (1996).iso/mac/TEXT/HUMANrts/EGYPT.TXU

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TITLE: EGYPT HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1994
AUTHOR: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DATE: FEBRUARY 1995




However, the military courts do not guarantee the defendants
due process before an independent tribunal.  Both judges and
prosecutors are part of the State's executive authority.  The
charge of membership in a broadly defined terrorist group is
frequently vague.  Defense attorneys have complained that they
have not been given sufficient time to prepare defenses.
Judges tend to rush cases with many defendants, so that most
trials are completed within 6 weeks or less.  Moreover,
military judges do not appear skilled in the rules of evidence;
they have refused to hear witnesses or admit evidence deemed
unimportant, and they do not treat torture complaints with
sufficient seriousness.  Defendants have no right of appeal;
their sentences are reviewed by the President of the Republic.

There are no reliable statistics on the number of political
prisoners.

     f.  Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
         Correspondence

In 1994 there continued to be substantial abridgment, under the
Emergency Law, of constitutional provisions regarding the right
to privacy.  Under the Constitution, homes, correspondence,
telephone calls, and other means of communication "shall have
their own sanctity, and their secrecy shall be guaranteed."
Police must obtain warrants before undertaking searches and
wiretaps.  Courts have dismissed cases in which warrants were
issued without sufficient cause.  Police officials who conduct
searches without proper warrants are subject to criminal
penalties, although these are seldom imposed.

The Emergency Law empowers the State to search persons or
places without warrants.  Security agencies frequently place
political activists, suspected subversives, journalists, and
writers under surveillance, screen their correspondence
(especially international mail), search them and their homes,
and confiscate personal property.

Section 2  Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:

     a.  Freedom of Speech and Press

The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and the press.
Egyptians openly express their views on a wide range of
political and social issues, including vigorous criticism of
the Government, without fear of retribution.  Nonetheless,
there are substantial limitations on the freedom of the press.
The Prime Minister and the Cabinet are often targets of
criticism, but the press law stipulates fines or imprisonment
for criticism of the President or a foreign head of state.
However, in recent years, opposition journalists have, within
limits, criticized the President without harassment, although
he may not be satirized in cartoons.

The Government owns most major dailies, and the President
appoints their editors in chief.  These newspapers generally
follow the government line.  Nevertheless, criticisms of
government policies are frequently found in the
government-owned press.

The opposition newspapers are associated with political
parties.  Most are weeklies, except the centrist daily Al-Wafd
and the smaller Islamist semiweekly Al-Shaab.  All have small
circulations.  Opposition newspapers frequently publish tough
criticisms of the Government, inspiring rejoinders from the
government-owned press.  They also give greater prominence to
human rights abuses than the state-run newspapers.  Most of the
opposition press receives foreign funding as well as government
subsidies and is printed and distributed by a government-owned
publishing house.

The Government restricts the press in a number of ways.  It
controls the right to publish through its power to license
newspapers.  The Higher Press Council, chaired by the Speaker
of the Shura Council, has the power to approve applications for
new publications.  Most members of the Higher Press Council are
close to the ruling National Democratic Party and are inclined
to follow the government line.  In a potentially serious move
against the freedom of the press, the Higher Press Council in
September issued new regulations for licensing new newspapers,
requiring applicants to provide detailed information on sources
of financing, editorial structure, and, in the case of a
political party paper, the party's ideology and platform.  The
regulations may be applied retroactively to existing newspapers
and represent a significant tightening of the Government's
control over the opposition press.

Opposition party papers may be called to account for publishing
articles deemed inconsistent with their official ideologies.
In the past, the Government has refused to license new parties
whose stated platforms "duplicate" those of existing parties
(see Section 3).

As in past years, the Government continued to interfere with
freedom of expression, arresting and harassing Egyptian and
foreign journalists, and confiscating printed material from the
marketplace.  In general, the Government harassed some
journalists who wrote stories about corruption, portrayed Egypt
in an unfavorable light, explored human rights and military
issues, or who were associated with Islamist opposition
elements.  The Government has used such harassment to indicate
that there are limits to criticism of the Government.

In March state security officials interrogated journalist
Moustafa Bakry for his article in Al-Shaab newspaper in which
he critized the security forces' use of violence against
demonstrators protesting the massacre at the Hebron mosque in
February.  Also interrogated were Adel Hussein, the Chairman of
the Socialist Labor Party (SLP), and Magdy Hussein, Al-Shaab's
editor in chief.  The three reported they had been accused of
publishing articles that threatened state security, social
order, and national unity.  The Government did not file charges.

In the spring, state prosecutors repeatedly interrogated Magdy
Hussein and the leadership of the SLP in connection with libel
suits filed against them by senior government officials for
articles on official corruption.  As of late September, two of
the four cases had been dropped against them.

In April a court sentenced another reporter for Al-Shaab, Abdel
Sattar Abu Hussein, to 1 year in prison for publishing state
secrets in an article on U.S.-Egyptian military exercises.  Abu
Hussein claimed his article was derived from open sources.  He
also claimed that after he was arrested, he was held
incommunicado for 3 days and questioned about another one of
his stories on alleged corruption in the military industry.  In
July the Minister of Defense commuted Abu Hussein's sentence to
3 months, after Al-Shaab retracted Abu Hussein's stories.

Also in April, Mohammed Zaky of Al-Wafd newspaper was detained
for questioning about the source of an article he wrote on a
reported police success in uncovering a new terrorist group.

In June the authorities detained Magdy Hussein and confiscated
his notes after he returned from a visit to Yemen.  In
September security officials again interrogated Mustafa Bakry
about foreign funding of Al-Shaab and his articles in another
newspaper, Al-Ahrar, in which he detailed dissident activity in
Saudi Arabia, repeated rumors about King Fahd's health
problems, criticized the Egyptian Government for hosting the
U.N. International Conference on Population and Development,
and reported Iraqi press attacks on President Mubarak.

In December the State Security Prosecutor General remanded Adel
Hussein to 15 days' custody for interrogation into his
purported links with the Islamic Group, a terrorist
organization.  Members of the press syndicate staged a hunger
strike in protest, and local human rights monitors and
opposition leaders condemned the arrest and held a series of
rallies.

In 1994 state prosecutors summoned several foreign journalists
for questioning because they believed their reporting on
internal events had damaged Egypt's international reputation.

The Government restricts news coverage on television and radio
more tightly than newspaper coverage.  Criticisms of government
policies and reporting on government corruption and human
rights abuses are almost never broadcast on radio and
television.  Political parties do not have access to broadcast
facilities, even during election campaigns.

Various ministries are authorized to ban or confiscate books
and other works of art upon obtaining a court order.  The
Ministry of Interior regularly confiscates leaflets and other
works by Islamists.  In 1994 the Ministry prevented the public
sale of audio cassette tapes by Islamic preachers whose
preachings were considered to foment sectarian strife.

The Ministry of Defense may ban works about sensitive security
issues, and plays and films must pass Ministry of Culture
censorship tests as scripts and as final productions.  The
Ministry of Culture also censors foreign films but is more
lenient when these are in video format.  In 1994 government
censors banned the showing of the U.S. film, "Schindler's
List," on the grounds of explicit violence, nudity, and sex.
Government censors ensure that foreign films made in Egypt
portray Egypt in a favorable light.  Censors review scripts
before filming, are present during filming, and have the right
to review the film before it is sent out of Egypt.

The Ministry of Information censors television productions and
foreign news publications.  On occasion in 1994, the Ministry
impounded some foreign news publications before they were
released.  The Ministry does not usually inform the management
of foreign publications of the reasons for impoundments.  In
1994 the Ministry banned or delayed the distribution of nine
issues of the English-language weekly, The Middle East Times.
Those issues carried stories on government corruption, human
rights violations, and the Government's security campaign
against extremists.

The Islamic Research Institute at Al-Azhar University has legal
authority to censor, but not to confiscate, all publications
dealing with the Koran and Islamic scriptural texts.  In recent
years, however, the Institute has passed judgment on the
suitability of nonreligious books and artistic productions.  In
February an advisory council in the judiciary issued an opinion
expanding Al-Azhar's censorship to include visual and audio
artistic works.  In response, the Minister of Culture issued a
statement describing the court's decision as advisory and not
binding upon the Government.  In the past, President Mubarak
has publicly approved Al-Azhar's censorship role, but in 1994
he stated that the Government would not allow confiscation of
books from the market without a court order.

As in recent years, moderate Muslims and secularist writers
have found themselves under attack by extremists.  In October
suspected extremists attempted to assassinate Nagib Mahfouz,
Nobel Laureate and antifundamentalist critic, whose novel, "The
Children of the Gebelawi," has been banned from public sale by
Al-Azhar since 1959 because it is considered blasphemous.
Following the murder attempt, the press published the novel in
a show of solidarity with Mahfouz and secular intellectuals
(see Section 1.a.).

The Government does not generally restrict academic freedom at
universities.  However, in May the People's Assembly amended
the Education Law to authorize university presidents to appoint
deans of faculties.  Under the previous law, faculty deans were
elected by their peers.  The Government justified the measure
as a means to combat Islamist influence in the school system.

In January a court ruled against Islamist lawyers who had
petitioned the court to divorce Nasr Abu Zeid, an Arabic
language professor at Cairo University, from his wife on
grounds that Abu Zeid's writings on the Koran were heretical.
The petitioners argued that, as a heretic, Abu Zeid should not
be allowed to remain married to a Muslim woman in a Muslim
country.  The court found the petitioners had no standing to
file a divorce suit.  The case was in appeal at year's end.

     b.  Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

There continue to be substantial restrictions on this freedom.
Under a 1923 law, citizens must obtain approval from the
Ministry of Interior before holding public meetings, rallies,
and protest marches.  Permits are generally granted for rallies
held indoors or on university campuses.

In May security forces broke up a demonstration of lawyers
protesting the death in police custody of Abdel Hareth Madani
(see Section 1.a.).  When the demonstrating lawyers attempted
to enter the street, the police moved in with tear gas and
clubs.  The Government had denied the Bar Association's request
for a permit for a protest march, and thus termed the
demonstration illegal.

Under Law 32 of 1964, the Ministry of Social Affairs has
sweeping authority over all Egyptian "private organizations,"
including the right to license and dissolve them, confiscate
their properties, appoint members to their boards, and
interfere in other internal administrative matters.  Licenses
may be revoked if such organizations engage in political or
religious activities.  The law authorizes the Ministry to
"merge two or more associations to achieve a similar function,"
a provision that can be used to merge an undesirable
organization out of existence.

In 1994 the Ministry dissolved a nongovernmental organization
which had received unauthorized funds from a Kuwaiti group, the
Society for the Revival of the Islamic Heritage.  The
Government expelled several Kuwaiti citizens associated with
the organization, asserting that the organization had
distributed funds to extremists.  In August the Ministry
announced that all organizations receiving charitable funds
from abroad would be obliged to transfer the funds to the
Ministry for distribution.

Since 1985, the Government has refused under Law 32 to license
the EOHR and the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) on
grounds that they are political organizations.  Both continue
to operate openly (see Section 4).  Similarly, the request by
Amnesty International (AI) for legal status for its local
chapter has been pending with the Government for 4 years.
Until recently, the Government allowed AI to operate freely,
but in October it informed AI's local chapter that it would no
longer be allowed to hold meetings, pending a decision on its
request for legal status.  The Government says it is still
studying that request.

Under 1993 legislation on professional associations, an
association must elect its governing board by at least 50
percent of its general membership.  Failing a quorum, a second
election must be held in which at least 33 per cent of the
membership votes in the board.  If such a quorum is impossible,
the judiciary may appoint a caretaker board until new elections
can be set.  The law was adopted to prevent further gains in
the professional syndicates by Islamist candidates.

     c.  Freedom of Religion

The Constitution provides freedom of belief and the practice of
religious rites.  However, there are important limitations.
Islam is the state religion.  Most Egyptians are Muslim, but
approximately 10 per cent of the population, 5 million people,
belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, the largest Christian
minority in the Middle East.  There are other small Christian
denominations.  The small Jewish community practices its
religion without harassment.  Members of recognized religions
maintain links with coreligionists abroad.  The foreign clergy
pursue their ministries without harassment, but the law
effectively bars non-Muslims from proselytizing.

Islam accepts Christian and other converts, but Muslims face
legal problems if they convert to another faith.  There is no
clear legal prohibition against conversion or proselytizing,
but Article 98f of the Penal Code prohibits any person from
"degrading or disdaining any of the holy religions or any of
its religious sects" with "the intention of harming national
unity and social peace."  This is interpreted as forbidding the
conversion of Muslims by non-Muslims.  Conviction is punishable
by 6 months' to 5 years' imprisonment.  In 1993 the authorities
twice arrested an Egyptian lay missionary for preparing
Christian missionary literature for publication.  A court
ordered his release from detention in March.

In July the Minister of Education issued a decree prohibiting
local school officials from requiring schoolgirls to wear the
hegab (head scarf) without parental consent on school grounds.
A group of lawyers and parents, who favored the hegab,
challenged the decree.  An administrative court ruled against
the Minister, but his decree was later upheld by an appelate
court.

The courts have upheld the principle that Muslims cannot change
their identity papers to reflect their conversion to a new
religion.  As a consequence, married male converts from Islam
must register their children as Muslims, as the law considers
them to be Muslims.

In the past, state security forces have harassed and detained
for prolonged periods Egyptian Christians accused of
proselytizing Muslims.  In November 1993, security forces
arrested six Coptic Christians who had sought to dissuade
another Coptic Christian, who was also arrested, from
converting to Islam.  All seven persons were held in detention
without formal charge.  The Supreme State Security Court
ordered their release in May.

An 1856 Ottoman decree still in force requires non-Muslims to
obtain what is now a presidential decree to build or repair a
place of worship.  Coptic Christians maintain they are
frequently unable to obtain such authorization or are blocked
by the security forces from using the authorizations that have
been issued.  As a result, some communities use private
buildings and apartments for religious services.  From 1992 to
1994, the Government increased the number of building permits
issued to Christian communities to an average of more than 20 a
year, compared to the average of 5 permits issued annually in
the 1980's.  Most permits appear to be for the repair of
existing structures and not for new construction of churches.
Christian and Muslim reformers urge the abolition of the
Ottoman decree, but Islamists defend the building restrictions.

According to human rights and legal sources, the Government in
June closed two buildings in an unzoned area near Alexandria
which had been used by Coptic Evangelical Christians since 1990
for church activities.  Church lawyers are pursuing a legal
suit against the closures.  The lawyers maintain that the
closures violate previous court rulings upholding the right to
conduct religious services in private buildings without prior
government approval.  They also point out that the closed
buildings are located in an area were unlicensed buildings are
common.  In July security forces arrested a Coptic Christian
who protested the closures in letters published in newspapers.
The police released the individual after 10 days' detention
after he signed a statement binding him not to discuss the
closures in public.

In theory, mosques must also be licensed by the Government, but
the Government reports approximately half of the estimated
70,000 mosques in Egypt are unlicensed.  The Penal Code
prohibits using a place of worship for antigovernment speeches,
and the Ministry of Religious Affairs proposes themes and
monitors sermons.  In practice, the Government cannot control
all sermons, especially at "unauthorized" mosques where sermons
may invoke antigovernment, anti-Christian, and anti-Western
themes.  In 1994 the Government increased efforts to bring
private mosques under its administrative control as a means to
counter Islamic extremism.

     d.  Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign
         Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation

Egyptians and foreigners are free to travel within Egypt except
in certain military areas.  Males who have not completed
compulsory military service may not travel abroad or emigrate,
although this restriction can be circumvented.  Unmarried women
under 21 must have permission from their fathers to obtain
passports and travel; married women require the same permission
from their husbands.  Citizens who leave the country have the
right to return.

In recent years, the Government has denied permission to
Christian converts from Islam to travel abroad.  The
deportation of citizens and aliens granted political asylum is
prohibited and not practiced.

Egypt is host to thousands of refugees, but only a few are
granted the right to resettle in Egypt.  In the past, some
Ethiopians and other Africans, who seek documentation as
refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
have been detained by the police and then transported to areas
near the Libyan or Sudanese borders where they are released.
Some have returned to their countries; others have found their
way back to Egyptian cities.

Section 3  Respect for Political Rights:  The Right of Citizens
           to Change Their Government

The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) dominates the
454-seat People's Assembly, the Shura Council, local
governments, the mass media, labor, the large public sector,
and the licensing of new political parties, newspapers, and
private organizations to such an extent that, as a practical
matter, Egyptians do not have a meaningful ability to change
the national government.

In 1993 President Hosni Mubarak was elected unopposed to a
third 6-year term by the People's Assembly.  In October of that
year, his reelection was approved by 96 percent of the voters
in a national referendum.  The Government claimed that 86 per
cent of the electorate went to the polls although observers
judged that the actual figure was much lower.  The electorate
was not presented with a choice among competing presidential
candidates; it was offered the opportunity only to vote for or
against Mubarak's reelection.  Two opposition parties, the Wafd
and the Islamist-affiliated Socialist Labor Party, urged the
public to boycott the referendum, and two other parties, the
leftist Tagammu and the Nasserist Party, urged the public to
vote against President Mubarak.  The other opposition parties
endorsed Mubarak's candidacy.

In June the Government convened a "national dialog" conference
of figures in politics, labor, the media, and intellectuals to
discuss the country's future priorities.  Although the
Government had stated that the dialog would be open to various
views, it strictly controlled the agenda and the selection of
the delegates, who were overwhelmingly drawn from NDP members
and sympathizers.  The Government invited the opposition
parties to send three representatives each.  Two parties
boycotted the conference.  At the conference, the Government
disallowed any discussion of constitutional reform, nor did it
address such topics as human rights.

Acting on recommendations from the dialog, President Mubarak in
October issued edicts amending or abolishing several old laws
on political party registration, candidates for public office,
and elections.  However, at year's end, he has not indicated
how or when the more substantial political reforms recommended
by the dialog might be implemented.

In the 1990 People's Assembly election, NDP candidates won 383
seats of 444 elected, independents won 55, and a leftist party
won 6.  Seven opposition parties boycotted the election.  The
Constitution reserves 10 Assembly seats for presidential
appointees, assuring some representation for Coptic Christians
and women.  Women were granted suffrage in 1956.  Ten women
hold Assembly seats:  7 elected and 3 appointed.  One Copt is
in the Cabinet and five Copts sit in the Assembly:  one elected
and four appointed.

The Assembly debates government proposals, and members exercise
their authority to call cabinet ministers to explain policy,
but it does not have sufficient authority to challenge or
restrain the executive in the areas of security or foreign
policy.  The Assembly can exercise significant influence over
economic policies, primarily by blocking governmental
initiatives.  The executive initiates almost all legislation;
the Assembly may not modify the budget except with the
Government's approval, and there is little oversight of the
Interior Ministry's use of Emergency Law powers.  Many
executive branch initiatives and policies are carried out by
ministerial decree without significant legislative oversight.
The military budget is prepared by the executive and not
debated publicly.  Presidential appointees do not require
legislative approval.  Roll-call votes in the Assembly are
rare.  Votes are generally reported in aggregate terms of yeas
and nays, and thus constituents have no independent method of
checking a member's voting record.

There are 12 recognized opposition parties.  The law empowers
the Government to bring felony charges against those who form a
party without a license.  New parties must be approved by the
Parties Committee, a semiofficial body dominated by the ruling
National Democratic Party.  Since the late 1970's, the
Committee has granted a license to only one opposition
party--the Wafd Party.  Other parties have been granted
licenses by presidential decrees or by court orders.  The sole
application to form a new party in 1994, from the Egyptian
Popular Democratic Party, was pending at year's end.

In January the Political Parties Court rejected the 1993
application of the Social Justice Party.  In February the
Higher Administrative Court upheld a lower court ruling which
disapproved the establishment of the Peace Party.

The law prohibits political parties based on religion.
Nevertheless, Muslim Brotherhood partisans are publicly known
and openly speak their views.  Some have served in the Assembly
as independents or members of other recognized parties.