IHT/DSE: Case against Interior Minister postponed

By Pakinam Amer
First Published: June 14, 2006

Right-to-protest lawsuit delayed

CAIRO: A Cairo court postponed a verdict in a case brought by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) against the interior minister for a decision the latter had made banning protests and public gatherings, declaring them illegal and grounds for arrest.
The committee of state commissioners decided it needed to file a report in the next two weeks before a final verdict can made; especially since in Tuesday’s court session a group of small business and store owners filed a petition supporting the minister’s decision. The 35 citizens, who are now represented by a lawyer, presented their complaint for the first time Tuesday, saying that street demonstrations threaten their businesses, scare them and promise to wreck their shops if any violence breaks out due to public gatherings.
“This is certainly a move by the government to tilt the case in their direction and ban protests,” said Hafez Abu Saada, lawyer and chairman of the EOHR. “Their complaint is meaningless. The right to demonstrate is constitutional and it’s the people’s right.”
On May 10, after a series of protests in support of two prosecuted judges and condemnation of violence against journalists and arbitrary arrest of pro-reform activists, the interior minister banned any peaceful assembly or demonstration without prior permission from state security. The minister said that any assembly would be considered a crime and all involved would be subject to punishment, arrest and prosecution.
Hundreds of activists were rounded up during demonstrations; gathering without permission was one of the charges raised against them. Pre-trial detainees in Tora Mazraa Prison have had their custody renewed several times for this and charges including hampering traffic as a result of protesting.
In their lawsuit, the EOHR said that the minister’s decision is based on an assembly law that has “an exceptional nature to it, due to certain historical circumstances during the time when it was first issued.”
“It was issued to encounter the conditions associated with World War I,” read the EOHR report. The law that this decision was based on is “an exceptional law close to martial laws. As evidence to its exceptional nature; this law was presented to the People’s Assembly on December 27th, 1927 and with a majority of votes, [it] was canceled, but this decision never passed due to the dissolution of the parliament at that time.”
According to the EOHR, the decision also contradicts the constitution, which in articles 47 and 54 gives citizens the right to freely express their opinions; also giving them the right to peaceful assembly. International human rights laws and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, “ratified by Egypt and binding to the Egyptian Government according to Article 151 of the Egyptian Constitution,” guarantees the rights of citizens to express their opinions “with all means without interference.”
EOHR’s cause is also supported by the National Council for Human Rights, founded in 2004, which has expressed their grave alarm concerning those arrested as they practiced their right of freedom of expression. Considered to be Egypt's official human rights center, the government-financed organization has declared that squashing opposition voices through police and security violence and banning demonstrations violates human rights laws. In its latest statement on July 5, it condemned the “harsh and cruel” security measures that the Egyptian police have taken against pro-democracy activists.

Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1893