Press Release from the International Councel about MB in military court

Press Release from the International Councel about MB in military court

 


“It is a cruel decision and it is a political one.”


“This type of exceptional decision gives foreign observators of human rights a sense that there is a lack of stability in Egypt.


 


Human rights organizations expressed their complete rejection to referring Khairat Al Shater and other Opposition leaders in Egypt to the military courts and considered this as a serious violation to the right of having a fair trial which is guaranteed by the constitution and international human rights covenants.


Organizations for Human Rights demand that Al Shater and other MB leaders appear before a civil court, and that the emergency laws be repealed. We are noting that the military courts violate many guarantees which are necessary for having a fair trial like: violating the defendant’s right to prepare his defense, violating the defense right in knowing the case files and meeting clients privately, and not excluding methods of torturing the defendants; add to this that the military courts are exceptional courts for civilians, because their rulings can’t be challenged before any other court, and their rulings aren’t supervised by any higher Court to ascertain the right application of law; these rulings are only ratified by the president who is also the supreme commander of the armed forces or of any authorized military officer.


 


We are encouraging the regime in Egypt also to repeal the state of emergency which is imposed since 1981, according to which the rights and public freedoms guaranteed by the constitution and international human rights covenants are violated, and specially the right to appear before a fair court of law. The statement demands also includes the various political powers in the fabric of the Egyptian society to allow them to participate in the political process, and allowing political powers to form parties regardless of their intellectual affiliations and allowing them to have a space in the political landscape.


 


 


We appeal for an immediate intervention to release civilian political opposition detainees in Egypt, and all prisoners of conscience because they didn’t commit anything against interests of the country. They are actually great nationalists charged by adopting ideas that lead to improving their country. Everyone knows well that these men are clean-handed, honest and good-mannered. We also asking order security services to return everything they confiscated from these detainees, including money and devices seized in their houses and businesses, and to reopen companies shut down by the security because these actions are actually making investments flee Egypt and are showing the country as a police state where there is no respect to law.


We hope that Moubarak’s era sees a state of accord that allows all national movements to freely work in the Egyptian political system and we hope to witness an end to the policy of exclusion that caused a brain drain of the best and highly experienced manpower which the country badly needs. 


 


Dr. Hakan Larsson  



 Sweden 10-01-2008


       Chairman