Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Esraa El-Taweel and Friends are found ..unofficially

At last after more than 16 days people know where photographer Esraa El-Taweel and her friends Sohip and Omar are..unofficially. Several eye witnesses from detainees and inmates at Tora farm prison confirmed that Sohip and Omar arrived and are currently detained by security forces there.
Now early Tuesday a friend of Esraa visiting Kanater women prison found her.

Zeinab Mohamed said on her Facebook account that she had seen her at the prison wearing the same clothes she wore when she disappeared according to her family. This means that Esraa has been only transferred on Tuesday unofficially to that prison which follows the ministry of interior.

لما شوفت اسراء الطويل شوفتها بهدومها ال بقالها ١٦ يوم لابساها من يوم اختفائها لما شوفت اسراء شوفتها في سجن النساء ال...
Posted by Zeinab Mohamed on Tuesday, June 16, 2015
It is worth to mention Egypt’s ministry of interior, Public Prosecution and prisons authorities deny till this moment that Esraa and her friends are detained in the first.
Needless to say despite it is still detention, many of Esraa’s friends are glad that she is found. Yeah, the ceiling is lower than we have thought in Egypt now !!
By the way, the 2014 Constitution has specific articles related to detention I hope that the government and the ministry of interior remember very well. Specifically the articles 54, 55 and 56 if I am correct especially article (54). Article (54) stipulates the following:

Personal freedom is a natural right, shall be protected and may not be infringed upon. Except for the case of being caught in "seflagrante delicto", it is not permissible to arrest, search, detain, or restrict the freedom of anyone in any way except by virtue of a reasoned judicial order that was required in the context of an investigation.
Every person whose freedom is restricted shall be immediately notified of the reasons therefore; shall be informed of his/her rights in writing; shall be immediately enabled to contact his/her relatives and lawyer; and shall be brought before the investigation authority within twenty four (24) hours as of the time of restricting his/her freedom. Investigation may not start with the person unless his/her lawyer is present.
A lawyer shall be seconded for persons who do not have one.
Necessary assistance shall be rendered to people with disability according to procedures prescribed by Law. Every person whose freedom is restricted, as well as others, shall have the right to file grievance before the court against this action. A decision shall be made on such grievance within one (1) week as of the date of action; otherwise, the person must be immediately released.
The Law shall regulate the provisions, duration, and causes of temporary detention, as well as the cases in which damages are due on the state to compensate a person for such temporary detention or for serving punishment thereafter cancelled pursuant to a final judgment reversing the judgment by virtue of which such punishment was imposed.
In all events, it is not permissible to present an accused for trial in crimes that may be punishable by imprisonment unless a lawyer is present by virtue of a power of attorney from the accused or by secondment by the court.
I believe we could have if we are not already having a huge violation of constitution here because we are speaking about forcible disappearance turned into arbitrary detention.

2 comments:

  1. It's encouraging that she was seen (unofficially). It may also be encouraging that the govt pretends not to hold them! It suggests that they don't want to be seen as violating the Constitution, since holding them as they do is a prima facie violation of articles including the one you quote. In other words, it's discouraging that the govt violates the Const, but it's encouraging that they fear the Const.

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