A prominent human rights watchdog issued a report on Wednesday that revealed how the Egyptian Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) illegally detained thousands of peaceful protesters and violated their right to a fair trial, and was involved in enforced disappearances, torture and other misconduct under the pretext of applying counterterrorism measures
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2019) A prominent human rights watchdog issued a report on Wednesday that revealed how the Egyptian Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) illegally detained thousands of peaceful protesters and violated their right to a fair trial, and was involved in enforced disappearances, torture and other misconduct under the pretext of applying counterterrorism measures."In Egypt today, the Supreme State Security Prosecution has stretched the definition of 'terrorism' to encompass peaceful protests, social media posts and legitimate political activities, resulting in peaceful government critics being treated as enemies of the state. The SSSP has become a central tool of repression whose Primary goal appears to be arbitrarily detaining and intimidating critics, all in the name of counter-terrorism," Amnesty International's research and advocacy director for the middle East and North Africa, Philip Luther, was quoted as saying in the report.
The watchdog's report, titled "Permanent State of Exception," documented hundreds of cases in which peaceful government critics, journalists and social activists were brought before the SSSP.
According to Amnesty International, the number of illegal prosecutions jumped from 529 in 2013 to 1,739 in 2018.
"The meteoric rise in SSSP prosecutions has enabled the authorities to detain suspects nominally in 'pre-trial detention' pending investigations, but in reality, many are detained for months and years without evidence, based on secret police investigations and without recourse to an effective remedy. This has in effect allowed the authorities to replicate the long-term administrative detention practices under the emergency law which were a hallmark of the [President Hosni] Mubarak era in Egypt until a 2013 Supreme Constitutional Court ruling found the relevant provision unconstitutional," the report read.
Mass anti-government protests erupted in Egypt on January 25, 2011, prompting Mubarak's resignation, the dissolution of parliament and the suspension of the constitution. After several years of political crisis, Egypt found relative stability when a former defense minister, Abdel Fattah Sisi, came to power in 2014. In 2018, Sisi was reelected for a second four-year presidential term.
