AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

PRESS RELEASE

AI Index: MDE 12/003/2004 (Public)

News Service No: 069

25 March 2004

Egypt: 26 new prisoners of conscience

Amnesty International has today adopted as prisoners of conscience the 3 British and 23 Egyptian men sentenced to between one and five years' imprisonment in connection with their alleged affiliation with the Islamic Liberation Party (Hizb al-Tahrir al-Islami).

The organization is calling for their immediate and unconditional release, believing that they have been convicted solely for their peacefully held views.

Twelve of the defendants - including the three British men Maajid Nawaz, Ian Malcolm Nisbett, Reza Pankhurst - received sentences of five years' imprisonment.

Amnesty International is also renewing its call for long-standing torture allegations to be investigated.

The trial of the 26 men was heard by the (Emergency) Supreme State Security Court in Cairo, an exceptional court that violates international fair trial standards. This court denies defendants the right to appeal against a verdict.

The three British men and a number of the Egyptians were held for weeks in incommunicado detention at premises of the State Security Intelligence, after their arrest in Cairo in April and May 2002.

Amnesty International has received information that several of them were subjected to electric shocks and other forms of torture and ill-treatment. Along with a fourth Briton - Hassan Rizfi - who was later released, the British men allege that they were tortured at the headquarters of the State Security Intelligence (SSI) in Cairo, where torture is systematically practised.

During their detention the three British men wrote direct appeals from their prison cells to Prime Minister Tony Blair repeating their allegations that torture was used to force ‘confessions’ from them. They urged Mr Blair to intervene on their behalf. Their case was reportedly raised with the Egyptian authorities by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw during a visit to the country.

Background Information

The UN Committee against Torture examined Egypt's report to the committee in 2002 and expressed particular concern at widespread evidence of torture at the premises of the State Security Intelligence (SSI). In addition to long-standing concerns over the systematic practice of torture in Egypt, there are currently several thousand prisoners held in Egyptian prisons without charge or trial, or following unfair trials.

Public Document

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