Egypt: Dr Abdel Ghaffar arbitrarily detained, risk of torture

Dr Ashraf Abdel Ghaffar, Deputy Secretary General of the Egyptian Medical Association, was arrested on 2 July 2009 at the Cairo airport on his way to Turkey. Since then he has been arbitrarily detained, tortured and has been unable to receive his necessary medical treatment. (عربي) (Français)

On 5 August 2009 Alkarama sent a communication to the Special Rapporteur against Torture to ask him to urgently intervene with the Egyptian authorities.

Dr Ashraf Abdel Ghaffar was born in 1956 and lives in Cairo. He is Deputy Secretary General of the Egyptian Medical Association and a Rapporteur for the Humanitarian Aid Agency, based in Cairo. He is an elected leader of one of the largest unions in the country.

Dr Ghaffar was obliged to inform the security services of any journey he might take and go to their offices before leaving. That is what he used to do, since he regularly travels to Great Britain and Turkey for professional reasons.

On 2 July 2009 at Cairo airport, where he was with his family en route to Turkey, he was arrested by the security services and held in their offices at the airport for 48 hours without judicial warrant and without being informed of the reasons for this inquiry.

He was forced to sit on a chair without being able to sleep, drink or eat for 48 hours. He was forbidden to take drugs to treat his hepatitis C and receive his daily injection, without which the pain in his legs prevents him from walking. During these two days, he had no contact with the outside world.

Then he was transferred to a detention center run by the security services where he was imprisoned incommunicado for 48 hours. During the first 3 days of his detention, Dr Ghaffar was interrogated over and over again, all the while without being informed of the reasons for his arrest. All their questions were conjecture, revolving around allegations of political activity and that Dr Ghaffar has repeatedly refuted.

After four days of detention, he was transferred to Al-Marg prison, a prison for common law prisoners and non-political. In this prison are held in individual cells of dozens of people accused of being members of the Muslim Brothers organization.

On 15 July, Dr. Abdel Ghaffar refused to sign a statement in which he confessed to being a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. The authorities then extended his detention for 15 days and banned all visits. This treatment raises concerns that if they “cooperate”,  the security services use more coercive methods.

Dr. Ghaffar has been arbitrarily detained for over a month like hundreds of other political prisoners accused of being members of the Muslim Brothers organization.

We fear that like them, he is kept in administrative detention for an indefinite period under prolonged suffering. He may finally appear before the Military Tribunal, only to be handed a heavy sentenced, which however, he may be able to appeal.

Egypt has ratified the Convention against Torture on 25 June 1986 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on 14 January 1982 and pledged to respect its principles.

We recall that Egypt will be considered under the UPR of the Human Rights Committee in early 2010. Alkarama will be presenting a report in this regard.