Human rights organisations in Egypt have condemned the Egyptian government for two fatal rail accidents and have continued with campaigns for the release from prison of prominent Muslim Brotherhood members.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, poor prison conditions have been highlighted in Jordan and rights groups continued to condemn Syria despite the country signing the Arab Charter for Human Rights.
Following Egypt's worst rail accident in four years, activists condemned what they termed as carelessness on the part of the public transport authorities. The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) demanded an immediate investigation into what occurred, insisted that the government lays down basic safety precautions and that parliament establishes a council for crisis-management.
"This accident comes as a result of the spreading carelessness in the Association of Public Transport in general, and the Railroads Association in particular," said an EOHR statement.
The rail accident occurred on 21 August near the Nile Delta town of Qaliub, 20km north of Cairo, when two trains travelling on the same track crashed. According to the health ministry, 58 people were killed and 143 injured.
The following day, another train crashed into a tractor in Beni Suef, 100km south of Cairo.
Meanwhile, campaigns to release prominent Muslim Brotherhood members Essam al-Eryan and Mohammed Morsi continued, after a decision on 14 August to release them was then overturned following intervention by the state prosecution. They were arrested in April during a wave of demonstrations in support of judges campaigning for judicial independence.
"It's time for some people to stop… neglecting the issue of prisoners of conscience in Egypt, because of their being members of the Muslim Brotherhood," said Gamal Eid, director of Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. The government regularly cites security and public order concerns as well as membership of a banned organisation when detaining Brotherhood activists.
Poor living conditions and abusive practises in Jordan’s prisons continued to be in the media spotlight last week. A group of 42 Islamist inmates of Swaqa Yale, around 120km south of Amman, went on a hunger strike on 25 August as a protest against alleged torture, ill-treatment and the general inhuman conditions they live in.
“The government is going to kill us slowly by putting us in isolated rooms of two by three metres to be shared by four people,” reads a letter signed by the inmates and sent to the Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR) in Amman.
“The prison authorities keep promising changes but nothing has so far been done,” said Abdul Karim Shreideh, Chairman of the Prisons and Arrested Persons Committee of the AOHR.
International and local rights watchdogs have condemned the alleged widespread abuse of inmates and poor living conditions in Jordanian prisons. The National Centre for Human Rights has said that the Swaqa Correctional and Rehabililation Centre must improve the prisoners’ health and social conditions.
However, officials from the Police Security Department (PSD) have denied the alleged violations. The PDS issued a statement on 26 August defending its policy of prisoner segregation, saying that it conforms to the law governing the country’s prisons. The prisoners had demanded to be allowed to mix with other prisoners and wanted their cell doors to remain open during the night.
“The Department of Correctional and Rehabilitation Centres will not allow prisoners of different types of crimes to mix freely,” said PSD spokesperson Major Basheer Daaja.
The Syrian Organisation for Human Rights (SOHR) said on 24 August that the trial of Dr Kamal Labwani, a human rights activist who was arrested last November upon his return from the United States, has been postponed to 19 September pending further investigations. Labwani has been charged with contacting a foreign country to instigate it to launch aggression against Syria. If found guilty, he could be given a life sentence with hard labour.
Anwar al-Bunni, Syria’s leading human rights lawyer, is still being held by the authorities. Khalil Maatouk, lawyer and human rights activist, said that he saw Al-Bunni on 24 August at Adra Prison [a civilian prison north of Damascus] and that he was “in good health”.
Al-Bunni was detained on 17 May along with nine other activists, including prominent writer Michel Kilo. According to a 31 May statement by Amnesty International, the 10 men were charged with weakening nationalist sentiment and inciting sectarian strife, charges which carry maximum jail terms of three years.
On 17 August, Syria signed the Arab Charter for Human Rights, which was approved by the Arab League in 2004. However, human rights activists in the country stressed that what really mattered was the "commitment" to the charter, not just its signing.
"The Charter doesn't meet international standards although it is a positive step forward,“ said Mohannad Al-Hosni of the SOHR.
Since coming to power in 2000, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has freed more than 800 political prisoners and passed laws aimed at liberalising the state-controlled economy. However, he has also clamped down on political activists, jailed pro-democracy advocates and cracked down on government critics, showing there is limit to the amount of dissent the state is prepared to tolerate.
SA+SM+MF+AO/AR/ED
Elsewhere in the Middle East, poor prison conditions have been highlighted in Jordan and rights groups continued to condemn Syria despite the country signing the Arab Charter for Human Rights.
Following Egypt's worst rail accident in four years, activists condemned what they termed as carelessness on the part of the public transport authorities. The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) demanded an immediate investigation into what occurred, insisted that the government lays down basic safety precautions and that parliament establishes a council for crisis-management.
"This accident comes as a result of the spreading carelessness in the Association of Public Transport in general, and the Railroads Association in particular," said an EOHR statement.
The rail accident occurred on 21 August near the Nile Delta town of Qaliub, 20km north of Cairo, when two trains travelling on the same track crashed. According to the health ministry, 58 people were killed and 143 injured.
The following day, another train crashed into a tractor in Beni Suef, 100km south of Cairo.
Meanwhile, campaigns to release prominent Muslim Brotherhood members Essam al-Eryan and Mohammed Morsi continued, after a decision on 14 August to release them was then overturned following intervention by the state prosecution. They were arrested in April during a wave of demonstrations in support of judges campaigning for judicial independence.
"It's time for some people to stop… neglecting the issue of prisoners of conscience in Egypt, because of their being members of the Muslim Brotherhood," said Gamal Eid, director of Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. The government regularly cites security and public order concerns as well as membership of a banned organisation when detaining Brotherhood activists.
Poor living conditions and abusive practises in Jordan’s prisons continued to be in the media spotlight last week. A group of 42 Islamist inmates of Swaqa Yale, around 120km south of Amman, went on a hunger strike on 25 August as a protest against alleged torture, ill-treatment and the general inhuman conditions they live in.
“The government is going to kill us slowly by putting us in isolated rooms of two by three metres to be shared by four people,” reads a letter signed by the inmates and sent to the Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR) in Amman.
“The prison authorities keep promising changes but nothing has so far been done,” said Abdul Karim Shreideh, Chairman of the Prisons and Arrested Persons Committee of the AOHR.
International and local rights watchdogs have condemned the alleged widespread abuse of inmates and poor living conditions in Jordanian prisons. The National Centre for Human Rights has said that the Swaqa Correctional and Rehabililation Centre must improve the prisoners’ health and social conditions.
However, officials from the Police Security Department (PSD) have denied the alleged violations. The PDS issued a statement on 26 August defending its policy of prisoner segregation, saying that it conforms to the law governing the country’s prisons. The prisoners had demanded to be allowed to mix with other prisoners and wanted their cell doors to remain open during the night.
“The Department of Correctional and Rehabilitation Centres will not allow prisoners of different types of crimes to mix freely,” said PSD spokesperson Major Basheer Daaja.
The Syrian Organisation for Human Rights (SOHR) said on 24 August that the trial of Dr Kamal Labwani, a human rights activist who was arrested last November upon his return from the United States, has been postponed to 19 September pending further investigations. Labwani has been charged with contacting a foreign country to instigate it to launch aggression against Syria. If found guilty, he could be given a life sentence with hard labour.
Anwar al-Bunni, Syria’s leading human rights lawyer, is still being held by the authorities. Khalil Maatouk, lawyer and human rights activist, said that he saw Al-Bunni on 24 August at Adra Prison [a civilian prison north of Damascus] and that he was “in good health”.
Al-Bunni was detained on 17 May along with nine other activists, including prominent writer Michel Kilo. According to a 31 May statement by Amnesty International, the 10 men were charged with weakening nationalist sentiment and inciting sectarian strife, charges which carry maximum jail terms of three years.
On 17 August, Syria signed the Arab Charter for Human Rights, which was approved by the Arab League in 2004. However, human rights activists in the country stressed that what really mattered was the "commitment" to the charter, not just its signing.
"The Charter doesn't meet international standards although it is a positive step forward,“ said Mohannad Al-Hosni of the SOHR.
Since coming to power in 2000, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has freed more than 800 political prisoners and passed laws aimed at liberalising the state-controlled economy. However, he has also clamped down on political activists, jailed pro-democracy advocates and cracked down on government critics, showing there is limit to the amount of dissent the state is prepared to tolerate.
SA+SM+MF+AO/AR/ED
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
Share this article
