Rights group slams continued abuses in Egypt

Human Rights Watch on Saturday called on the Egyptian government to release two activists detained for criticising torture in the country’s prisons and promoting the rights of Egypt’s Shi‘ite minority.

The two men were charged with “promoting extreme Shi‘ite beliefs” and “spreading false rumours” about the country’s prison system, and are being held in solitary confinement in a prison outside Cairo, the watchdog group said in a statement on Saturday.

The charges can result in prison sentences of up to five and three years, respectively, if convicted.

“The charges equate defending Shi‘itism with an attack on Islam, which is a blatant affront to the basic right of freedom of religion,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

“And by jailing peaceful activists who criticise its torture and detention practices, the government only gives credence to their complaint,” she added.

Mohammed Al-Dereini, head of the Supreme Council for the Care of the Prophet’s Family, was detained on Monday, a month after officials arrested Ahmad Sobh, who runs the Imam Ali Center for Human Rights.

Human Rights Watch called the detention and prosecution of Al-Dereini and Sobh part of a “broad crackdown on Egyptian rights activists, journalists and other government critics”.

The arrests are just the latest in Egypt’s attack on freedom of speech in the media and by human rights organisations.

Egyptian human rights law group the Association for Human Rights Legal Aid, which was battling in court over accusations of torture in the country's notorious jails, was also shut down by the state last month.

And a court sentenced four editors of independent newspapers to prison on September 13 and fined them for publishing what the government called “false news, statements or rumors likely to disturb public order”.

Sobh and Al-Dereini have both been detained in the past, according to the group.

In 2005, authorities released Sobh after a 15-year detainment without trial for alleged membership in an armed Islamic group. Al-Dereini was held for 15 months without charge in 2004/05.

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