Let Christians adopt, Egypt baby trial lawyer says
March 19, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
A lawyer for a U.S. couple jailed in Egypt in an adoption case said Egypt should pass a law allowing Christian families to adopt, because a legal gap that disallows the practice is pushing them to do so in secret.
The lawyer, whose clients are in jail on fraud charges as their trial proceeds, also said he believed Egyptian authorities were seeking to warn the country’s Christian minority that they could not adopt in Egypt, even through informal channels.
“I think that the first criminal in this case is the state,” lawyer Nagiub Gobraiel told Reuters in an interview.
He said Islamic restrictions on adoption were preventing Christians from adopting children born to Christian parents in Egypt, and urged authorities to put a law in place “for Christians to adopt.”
“The wife is Christian, the husband is Christian and the child or the children are Christians,” he said. “I think that the state is pushing us to commit a crime.”
There is no legal mechanism for families — Christian or Muslim — to adopt children in Egypt, and Egyptians rarely gain legal guardianship of children not born to their families because of social, religious and legal strictures.
Islamic law restricts adoption, barring families from giving their name to children they take into their homes. Egyptian law allows fostering but it is generally not culturally acceptable for families to take in unrelated children.
MORE SERIOUS CHARGES
Gobraiel’s clients, Egyptian Medhat Besada and his American wife Susan Haglof, are charged with fraud over accusations they obtained a birth certificate and passport for a child who was not born to them, listing them as his biological parents.
Two other couples are also facing trial in the same case on more serious charges of buying babies for illegal adoption, highlighting a practice which experts say can easily go undetected in Egypt.
Besada and Haglof were arrested after they tried to get a U.S. visa for the child, and the embassy requested genetic testing to confirm the baby’s parentage, Gobraiel said. He said the embassy turned them in when they did not comply. U.S. officials could not be reached for comment.
Two of the couples pleaded not guilty at the start of the trial Saturday, while the third is being tried in absentia.
“When I was in the court, I said to the judge … Susan is Christian, Medhat is Christian, Mark (the child) is Christian, and their religion allows adopting. Why are you obliged to follow the Islamic law?” Gobraiel said.
Gobraiel said he did not believe his clients, who have been denied bail, could get a fair trial. Egypt says its courts are impartial and independent.
“The government is afraid of some child, who may be Muslim, (being) given to a Christian family and after that may be Christian in the future. I think this is the strong motive for the government to make this case,” Gobraiel said.
Reporters Without Borders name Egypt internet censor
March 16, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
Egypt was named one of the world’s “enemies of the Internet” by a media rights watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in a report published Thursday.
The media rights watchdog said they were concerned with internet censorship and other threats globally to freedom of online expression.
The “Enemies of the Internet” report listed 12 nations that RSF said had systematically restricted their people from accessing online news and information that t he governments deem “undesirable”.
Also on the list with Egypt are China, Burma, North Korea, Vietnam, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Cuba and Tunisia.
According to the report, RSF argues that these nations not only “restrict access to Web sites, but also persecute computer users for what they post online”.
In Egypt, this has been seen in the crackdown of bloggers recently in connection with criticisms over how Cairo handled Israel’s 23-day war on Gaza earlier this year.
A number of bloggers were arrested over their writings and some remain behind bars weeks after their arrest.
The US State Department has also expressed concern about Internet freedom and in recent years began assessing internet censorship and harassment of online dissidents.
U.S. couples accused of buying babies plead not guilty
March 16, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
Two U.S. couples pleaded not guilty on Saturday to charges of buying babies in Egypt for illegal adoption, a lawyer and judicial sources said.
“They all said they are not guilty,” said Sameh Ahmed Saleh, a lawyer for Louis Andros and Iris Botros, one of the couples. The judge ordered the trial to begin on May 16, he said.
Egyptian prosecutors in January charged 11 people in the suspected scheme, including a third U.S. couple believed to be in the United States with the baby they obtained in Egypt.
The two couples are in custody in Egypt and were among those accused of taking part in purchasing children for sums of up to 20,000 Egyptian pounds (2,579 pounds) for a girl and 25,000 pounds for a boy.
The third couple and an Egyptian doctor were charged in absentia, the judicial sources said.
The others charged in the case, including doctors, nurses, and a tourist guide, also denied the charges against them, the judicial sources said.
Egypt does not generally allow its children to be adopted by foreign nationals, and it is also rare for Egyptians to gain permanent legal guardianship of children not born to their families due to social, religious and legal strictures.
The case, which involves four infants, came to light after an Egyptian and her American husband approached the U.S. embassy in Cairo to arrange to take two of the babies out of Egypt.
Claims of British collusion in torture spread to Egypt
March 16, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
Allegations of British collusion in torture have widened to Egypt, where a young British man says he suffered appalling mistreatment during a week of illegal detention while being interrogated on the basis of information that he says can only have come from the UK.
The development comes after the Conservative leader, David Cameron, said there needed to be a full inquiry, not just to discover whether crimes had been committed by British officials but to establish whether the government’s “moral authority” has been maintained.
Azhar Khan, a 26-year-old who has seen a number of friends jailed for terrorist offences, says Egyptian intelligence officers who detained him when he flew into the country last July forced him to stand on the same spot for five days, with little rest, while beating him and subjecting him to electric shocks. Throughout this time, he says, he was asked detailed questions about his friends and associates in the UK.
The Foreign Office has confirmed that Khan was detained in Egypt for a week last July and, after being pressed repeatedly, admitted that it knew that Khan had subsequently complained that he had been tortured. The Guardian understands that Khan’s allegations of mistreatment are supported by medical evidence.
Khan says he was handcuffed and his feet shackled throughout the five days he was tortured, and that he was naked but for a hood kept over his head. He also says he could hear other detainees being tortured in the same large room, including one man with a British accent. The Guardian has learned from a reliable source that MI5 had an interest in another person who was in detention in Egypt at the same time as Khan, and that the security service knew that there was every possibility that this individual would be tortured.
The allegations will fuel calls for an independent inquiry into the conduct of Britain’s security and intelligence officers in the so-called war on terror.
Gordon Brown is resisting an inquiry, saying that the attorney general will decide whether the police should be asked to investigate.
In addition to Cameron’s calls for an inquiry, however, Lord Carlile of Berriew, the government’s independent assessor of counter-terrorism legislation, said this month that a judicial inquiry was needed to examine Britain’s role in the US policy of rendering suspects to foreign prisons where they can be tortured.
Andrew Dismore, the MP who chairs parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights, says an independent inquiry may need to be held to examine MI5′s role in the torture of British terrorism suspects after the foreign secretary, David Miliband, and the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, refused to appear before his committee to answer questions.
Professor Manfred Nowak, the United Nation’s special rapporteur on torture says he has “been in regular contact with the British government” to raise his concerns about the role of British intelligence officers in the interrogation of terrorism suspects who have previously been tortured.
Last week a highly critical UN report condemned Britain for breaching basic human rights and “trying to conceal illegal acts” during counter-terrorism operations.
A policy governing the interrogation of terrorism suspects in Pakistan that led to British citizens and residents being tortured was devised by MI5 lawyers and figures in government, according to evidence heard in court during a hearing brought on behalf of Binyam Mohamed, the British resident freed from Guantánamo last month.
Since Mohamed’s detention in Pakistan in 2002 a number of British terrorism suspects have been tortured there, both before and after interrogation by MI5 officers; and they and their lawyers say there is clear evidence that British officials have been aiding and abetting their mistreatment. However, Khan, from Slough, Berkshire, is the first British national to allege British collusion in torture in Egypt.
Khan is the former brother-in-law of a convicted terrorist, Omar Khyam, and was an associate of other members of a group led by Khyam who are serving life sentences in the UK after being convicted of plotting to blow up targets including the Ministry of Sound nightclub in London and the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent. He was arrested at the same time as Khyam in March 2004, but released a few days later without charge.
He and a friend flew to Cairo on 9 July last year having told friends that they planned to have a short holiday in Egypt. Khan was detained immediately on his arrival, but no attempt was made to detain his travelling companion, who says he left the airport and alerted the British embassy. Khan says he was held in a room at the airport for about 24 hours before agreeing to sign a document in Arabic, having been told by uniformed police that it would lead to the return of his passport.
He says he was then hooded and handcuffed and bundled into the back of a vehicle between two men, one of whom apologised to him in English and said: “This is our job, this is what we have to do.”
In an account of his subsequent mistreatment given to his solicitor as well as to relatives and close friends, Khan says he was driven for a short distance and taken into a building where the hood was removed. He could see that he was in some sort of prison with barred windows. He was stripped naked, handcuffed and his feet shackled and the hood placed over his head once more.
Khan says he was led along a corridor into a room where a number of people were being tortured from time to time. He says he was beaten around the body with sticks and subjected to occasional, unexpected electric shocks. His captors shouted at him and beat him if he tried to sit or lie down, he says, although he was occasionally allowed to rest. He says he received little food or drink.
Around him, he says, were a number of other people who were also being beaten and tortured, including one man who spoke English with a British accent and prayed during beatings. From other cells within the prison he could hear screaming from both men and women throughout the day and night.
During interrogations, which took place twice a day, he says he was asked in English about his friends and associates in Slough, Berkshire, in Crawley, West Sussex, and in east London.
He was asked about the bomb plot and about the bomb itself. However, the questions concerned not only the men convicted of conspiring to cause explosions but others whose names had never entered the public domain. His torturers, Khan says, even knew the name of the sister who married Khyam.
Khan says he was also asked about discrepancies between a statement that he had given to British police at the time of his 2004 arrest and later comments that he made while visiting friends in jail. During other sessions he was asked about his childhood, faith and mosques he had attended, in a series of questions similar to those put to his friends four years earlier.
He says that after five days of torture he was taken out of the room, his shackles removed and his clothes returned. He says he was then put into the back of a vehicle, driven across the city and thrown out of the car with a hood still over his head. When it was removed he found himself in a public place with a uniformed police officer standing next to him. He was taken to a police station and a statement was taken from him.
He says he met a number of British consular officials and told them that he had been tortured. The following day he flew to Heathrow, where he was detained for questioning under counter-terrorism legislation. He told the officers what had happened to him and was released without charge.
Khan remains deeply traumatised by his experience and has been receiving a range of medical and professional care, including treatment for internal bleeding that persists eight months after his release.
The torture of detainees in Egypt has been well-documented over many years by human rights groups and the US state department. According to Amnesty International, about 18,000 people detained without trial are languishing in Egyptian prisons in “degrading and inhumane” conditions.
The organisation says that methods of torture routinely employed by the country’s principal intelligence agencies, the Mukhabarat al-Aama and Mubahath el-Dawla, include blindfolding, beating, suspension in painful positions, electric shocks, drugging, rape and death threats.
The UK Foreign Office reported in January last year: “One of the key human rights concerns in Egypt is the widespread mistreatment of detainees and use of torture in police stations, especially in cases involving political detainees. The government has taken some steps to address the problem, such as allowing semi-independent prison inspections, improving prison conditions, and paying compensation to victims of torture.
“There have also been a few court cases against police and prison officers accused of mistreating detainees.
“But the basic problem still remains, and we actively encourage the Egyptians to tackle it.”
Egyptians tell of ‘days of terror’ in pirate hands
March 15, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
With gunfire whizzing overhead, an Egyptian mechanic faced down Somali pirates attacking his cargo ship with nothing but an ax.
But the 25 Egyptian crewmen aboard the Blue Star never had a chance in the Jan. 1 attack. Seven pirates armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were threatening to destroy their ship.
Freed after more than two months thanks to a $1 million ransom dropped by parachute from a helicopter, the crew recounted their ordeal Sunday upon their return to Cairo. Among their many challenges, they said, was having to fish for their food.
Their ship, hauling fertilizer from Egypt’s port of Suez to Mozambique, was one of dozens of vessels to fall prey to Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s most dangerous shipping channels. The number of attacks, which surged to more than 100 last year, has dropped this year thanks to an increased international naval presence, though the threat remains.
The Blue Star strayed into the pirates’ path when it was just 22 miles (35 kilometers) from the Yemeni port of Aden.
“We were startled when we first received a warning from a Greek ship, since we were inside Yemeni territorial waters,” said the ship’s captain, Mahmoud Sweidan. The Greek ship had just fled a group of pirates after killing two of them, he said.
Upon receiving the warning, Sweidan decided to take a different route, but the pirates’ speed boats were already nearby.
Seven pirates opened fire at their vessel, shattering the glass of captain’s cabin, said Mohammed Gomaa, a mechanic aboard the ship.
“When I saw them approaching, I held an ax, the only weapon we had, trying to protect our ship,” Gomaa said. “But they had automatic weapons. Then they opened fire, and one of the bullets hit the cabin only a few centimeters from the captain’s head.”
The Blue Star crew gave up when they saw the pirates’ holding RPG launchers and threatening “to blow up the ship.”
“After about 10 minutes of constant shooting, the pirates climbed the ship, ordered all of us to get down (inside the ship) except for three of us who were on duty, and then we sailed to Somali waters,” Gomaa said.
During their two months of captivity, food supplies ran low and the crew had to survive by fishing and skipping meals.
Sweidan said that pirates threatened to kill two of the sailors if they didn’t receive a $6 million ransom they had initially demanded.
“These were … days of terror,” the captain recalled. “They treated us very badly, they opened fire over our heads several times. We panicked and we just followed their orders.”
The pirates agreed to $1 million in ransom after negotiations with the ship owner and the money was dropped to them from a helicopter. The ship and its crew were released March 4, and the ship continued on to Kenya before the crew returned home.
Analysts say attacks will continue as long as chaotic Somalia provides a haven for pirate bases and its people remain poor. The Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government for since 1991 and is riven between heavily armed clan-based militias.
Fire hits historic building in downtown Cairo
March 15, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
A fire has damaged a historic apartment building in downtown Cairo, injuring 14 people and sending huge plumes of smoke over the city.
Fire fighters doused the nine-story building with water on Saturday as flames leapt from its upper floors.
The site, near Egypt’s High Court, was under renovation as part of a program to restore downtown Cairo’s 19th century buildings. Police say the 14 injured suffered burns and smoke inhalation.
Cairo has been hit by several major fires recently, prompting criticism of poorly enforced safety rules. In August, Egypt’s upper house of parliament was heavily damaged. One fire fighter was killed in that blaze, which raged for 18 hours.
Fire gutted the main hall of Egypt’s National Theater a month later.
Fatwa: Community can force divorce
March 14, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
A Muslim cleric in Egypt issued a fatwa saying community members can file for divorce on a couple’s behalf.
Sheik Gamal Qutb, former head of Egypt’s top religious institution, the Fatwa Committee at al-Azhar, said Sunday during a meeting at the Egyptian Press Syndicate that his fatwa states that neighbors and family members can file for a couple’s divorce if the pair’s differences appear irreconcilable, al-Arabiya reported Friday.
Qutb said community members should first attempt to help solve a couple’s marriage problems, but should then present evidence of the marriage’s failings to a court if the husband and wife cannot live together in peace.
“If the evidence the neighbors present is verified, the court has the right to divorce the couple,” Qutb said.
Does Cairo Bombing Mark a Return to Terrorist Violence?
March 14, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
A bombing in Cairo’s ancient Khan al-Khalili market has raised fears about a new round of terrorist attacks in Egypt coming amid the 2009 tourist season. The February 22 attack left one French tourist dead and over 20 local and foreign bystanders injured, including French, German, and Saudi tourists. Located in the historic Old City (Islamic Cairo) section of Egypt’s capital, Khan al-Khalili is a bustling tourist magnet and trading center. Though terrorist violence has been at a low ebb lately, Egypt has experienced a series of major terrorist attacks in the past by radical Islamists targeting foreign visitors and the country’s tourism infrastructure — the lifeblood of the Egyptian economy — as well as symbols of the Hosni Mubarak regime, especially the security services (al-Jazeera [Doha] February 23; February 25).
Initial reports based on eyewitness accounts at the scene of the bombing indicated that explosives may have been thrown from the roof of the nearby al-Hussein hotel or from a passing motorcycle (al-Jazeera, February 23; al-Ahram [Cairo], February 26). According to Egyptian investigators, however, the perpetrators of the attack placed a crudely made explosive device composed of gunpowder and rocks under a stone bench outside of the historic al-Hussein mosque, adjacent to the Khan al-Khalili market. The device is reported to have weighed between 500 and 750 grams, consisting of two explosives-filled canisters that were concealed in a plastic water cooler. The bomb was detonated with a washing machine timer. Egyptian security officials uncovered a second device approximately 30 meters away from the initial bombing that failed to detonate (Egypt Daily News [Cairo] February 25). At this point, Egyptian investigators believe the material for the explosives may have come from locally manufactured fireworks, typically used during the annual Eid festivities (Egypt Daily News, February 25). This is not the first terrorist attack at Khan al-Khalili that has targeted tourists: a suicide bomber struck at the market on April 7, 2005, killing two French tourists and an American, and injuring scores of others (al-Jazeera, February 23).
Over 14 suspects have been detained for questioning by the Egyptian authorities since the attack; however, no individual or group has claimed responsibility for the bombing (al-Ahram, February 26). Based on the crude nature of the bomb, a consensus among Egyptian investigators and local observers appears to rule out involvement by al-Qaeda or other radical Islamist groups with a history of executing major attacks in Egypt against tourist centers. These include Egypt’s Islamic Jihad (IJ), a group formerly led by al-Qaeda’s deputy commander Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri that has since merged with al-Qaeda; and Gama’a al-Islamiya (Egyptian Islamic Group- EIG), a group that renounced violence in 1997 and entered into a unilateral ceasefire with the state following a major crackdown by the Egyptian authorities. An obscure faction within EIG led by Muhammed al-Hakaima is opposed to the ceasefire and claims to have merged with al-Qaeda. (al-Jazeera, February 25; Terrorism Focus, October 24, 2006; Terrorism Focus, September 12, 2006). Many Egyptian media sources and other observers suggest that the attack was most likely executed by a small terrorist cell, possibly without ties to foreign terrorist organizations, but nevertheless determined to act against the state on their own initiative by striking out at the regime’s economic lifeline (Al-Dustour [Cairo], February 23; al-Jazeera, February 23). Other sources do not rule out the possibility that the attack was executed by a small splinter cell that may at one point have been linked to IJ or EIG during the height of Egypt’s radical Islamist violence in the 1980s and 1990s (al-Jazeera, February 25).
In another Khan al-Khalili incident targeting foreigners, an American teacher living and working in Egypt was attacked while shopping with his wife on February 27 by a man wielding a knife. The victim suffered only minor injuries. Although Egyptian authorities reported that the attacker has a history of psychiatric problems, they also reported that the attacker acted due to his “hatred for foreigners because of the Israeli offensive in Gaza” (Egypt Daily News, March 1l; al-Arabiya [Dubai] February 28). In a mysterious incident the following day, an unidentified man hurled an incendiary device at the crowded Helmiet al-Zaitoun subway station in Cairo while it was packed with commuters. The device failed to detonate and the perpetrator managed to escape. No injuries were reported. No further reports have surfaced regarding a possible motive behind the subway attack (al-Arabiya, February 28).
There are no indications that the bombing at Khan al-Khalili and the subsequent attacks in the market and subway station are in any way connected. However, the timing of the attacks, coming so soon after Israel’s December invasion of Gaza, may be telling. Egypt was widely seen across the Middle East as having actively conspired with the Israelis against the Palestinians of Gaza. This wave of attacks may therefore represent the first round in a looming campaign of violence led by a new generation of Islamic militants with no formal ties to established terrorist organizations, but who are nonetheless driven to retaliate against the Mubarak regime for its perceived complicity in Israel’s attack against Gaza. Radical Islamists have long harbored a deep hatred of the Mubarak regime over what they see as its repression, corruption, and heresy. The Mubarak regime is also widely viewed by militants—and many mainstream Arabs and Muslims alike—as an agent of U.S. and Israeli interests in the Middle East. Moreover, both Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri issued public statements during the Gaza crisis lambasting Arab regimes for what they saw as their collusion with Israel’s actions, singling out Egypt in particular for its refusal to open its border with Gaza to allow besieged Palestinians entry into Egypt. Both bin Laden and al-Zawahiri called on Muslims to rise up and retaliate on behalf of the Palestinians (al-Jazeera, January 15). Given the global financial crisis, a period where Egypt is considered a bargain tourist destination compared to other destinations, a new round of attacks against Egypt’s tourism industry and other targets in Egypt could go far in undermining the Mubarak regime. While it is still unclear whether the recent attacks in Cairo can be attributed to festering resentment in Egypt over Gaza, the rudimentary quality and sequence of the attacks indicate that Egypt may have to face its own brand of homegrown terrorism in the months ahead.
Egypt rejects conditional U.S. assistance
March 13, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
Egypt’s state-owned al-Gomhuriya newspaper quoted Egyptian minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul- Naga as saying that Cairo will not accept any conditions being placed on U.S. aid.
Wednesday, U.S. Senate voted to cut $200 million in economic assistance to Egypt. The U.S. military aid package to Egypt for the current year remained unchanged, at $1.3 billion.
Abul-Naga said she hoped that U.S. economic assistance would focus on building economic ties between the two countries.
Under an agreement signed between Egypt and the United States in 1998, U.S. economic assistance to the African country would gradually diminish with each year.
Three held after fire bomb bid in metro
March 13, 2009 by admin · Comments Off
Police have arrested three men accused of throwing a petrol bomb in a metro station in the capital last month, a police official said on Thursday.The three, aged between 17 and 20, were arrested on Wednesday, he said. The attack, in which the bottle did not explode, was not a political act, he added.
“The three men were fighting with another group over girls. They threw the petrol bomb at the others who were on the metro platform.”
The February 28 incident came six days after a French teenager was killed by a bomb in Cairo’s Khan el-Khalili bazaar and on the same day that an American man was knifed and lightly wounded in the same market.
The three attacks were cited by the US embassy in Cairo in a statement urging American citizens to take security precautions while in Egypt.
“These events do not appear to be connected, but there is some indication that additional incidents are planned,” a statement on the embassy’s website said.
Police arrested three men after the bazaar bombing, which targeted a group of French tourists, and the man who allegedly stabbed the American.
Police said the attacks were not lined, and that the man accused of the knife attack was insane and hated Westerners. The three men detained after the market bombing are still in custody but have not been charged.
