Ongoing judicial harassment against Mozn Hassan, Nazra for Feminist Studies, Mohamed Zarea and the Arab Penal Reform Organization

EGY 004 / 0616 / OBS 049.8

Judicial harassment /

Asset freeze

Egypt
January 2, 2017

The Observatory for the Protection of Human RightsDefenders, a partnership of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) andFIDH, received new information and requests your urgent intervention in thefollowing situation in Egypt.

New information:

The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the continuedjudicial harassment and the restrictions to freedom of association faced by severalEgyptian human rights organisations, as well as their staff and members, in theframework of the so-called case No. 173/2011, also know as the “NGO foreignfunding case” (see background information).

According to the information received, on December 12, 2016, during acourt hearing regarding the freezing of assets belonging to human rights lawyerMs. Azza Soliman[1], the investigative judgerequested the North Cairo Court to freeze the assets of Ms. Mozn Hassan,Founder and Executive Director of Nazra for Feminist Studies, Mr. Mohamed Zarea, head of Arab PenalReform Organization (APRO), as well as the assets of the two organisations. Therequest will be examined by the court on January 11, 2017.

The Observatory recalls that Ms. Hassan has been targeted under theforeign funding case since March 22, 2016 when three Nazra staff members weresummoned to court for interrogation, while she was summoned to appear on March29, 2016. On that day, the investigative judge wished to reschedule herinterrogation at a later date, which has still not been fixed to date. On June27, 2016 she was also banned from travelling without receiving furtherinformation[2]. Ithas to be recalled that in September, Ms. Mozn Hassan and Nazra received the“Right Livelihood” Award 2016, known also as the Alternative Nobel Prize, fortheir activities in defence of women’s human rights.

The Observatory strongly condemns this new act of harassment against theabove-mentioned defenders, which only aims at sanctioning their legitimatehuman rights activities, and urges the Egyptian authorities to immediately andunconditionally put an end to all forms of harassment against them and more ingeneral against all human rights defenders in Egypt.

Background Information:

Since 2011, the Egyptian Government has launched ajudicial harassment campaign against civil society organisations on the pretextthat they received unauthorised foreign funding under criminal case No.173/2011, known as the “foreign funding case against NGOs”.

The 2011 Government Fact-Finding Committee report,which formed the basis of the first trial in 2012, listed 37 NGOs who could betargeted under this “foreign funding case against NGOs”. That list includedACIJLP, CIHRS, LCHR, the Egyptian Democratic Academy (EDA), HMLC, ANHRI, EIPR, ElNadim Center for the Management and Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence andTorture, the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR), the ArabPenal Reform Organization, the Egyptian Center for the Right to Education,El-Haq, the Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement(ACPE), Nazra for Feminist Studies, the Appropriate Communications Technologies(ACT), among others.

The first set of investigations targeted internationaland foreign NGOs. On June 4, 2013, the North Cairo Criminal Court sentenced 43Egyptian and foreign staff members of five foreign civil society organisationsto imprisonment ranging from one (suspended) to five years of prison for“managing unlicensed branches” of their organisations, “conducting research,political training, surveys, and workshops without licenses”, “trainingpolitical parties and groups” and “illegally receiving foreign funding”. Thoughnone of the defendants were forced to serve their sentences either because theywere abroad or in the case of the junior staff had their sentences suspended,the court ordered the confiscation of their funds and the closure ofEgypt-based branches of Freedom House, the International Republican Institute,the National Democratic Institute, the International Centre for Journalists(ICFJ), and Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

The second case targets Egyptian civil societyorganisations that have received foreign or international funding. It startedwith the ultimatum made by the Ministry of Social Solidarity (MoSS)[3] for Egyptian human rightsorganisations to register by late 2014 under Law 84/2002 or face closure. Onemonth later, a new wave of harassment targeting human rights NGOs began.

In September 2014, President Al-Sisi signed into lawamendments to Article 78 of the Penal Code. These amendments include theprovision that receiving foreign funding for the purpose of “harming nationalsecurity” is punishable by life imprisonment.

In late 2014, the Investigating Judge in charge of thecase appointed a technical committee from the MoSS[4] to determine whetherEgyptian organisations under review operate as civic associations without beingregistered as such under Law 84/2002, and to examine documents related to theirsources of funding. The committee first examined the EDA. It is noteworthy tonote that despite the EDA's registration in compliance with the ultimatum[5], they are still beinginvestigated. In January 2015, the judge issued travel bans against Messrs. Hossamal-Din Ali, Chairman of the EDA, Ahmed Ghoneim, Deputy, as well asMs. Israa Abdel Fattah and Bassem Samir, who previously worked inthe same organisation.

In June 2015, Mr. NegadEl Borai, the Director of United Group, was interrogated by theInvestigating Judge about its sources of funding and legal status[6]. In March 2016, the UnitedGroup was summonsed for the fourth time. On May 17, 2016, he was summonsed forthe fifth hearing session[7], but at the very lastminute it was postponed to an undetermined date.

On June 9, 2015, the Investigating Judge mandated thetechnical committee to visit the Cairo office of the CIHRS in order to examinewhether the CIHRS engages in activities of civic associations under theprovisions of Law 84/2002. The committee requested the staff present in theoffice to provide documentation relating to the administration of the NGO, suchas its registration, founding contract and statute, as well as the budgets,financial accounts, and funding contracts for the past four years. Oneadditional demand the staff were instructed to comply with was to providedocumentation that proved that the CIHRS was not conducting NGO work.

On June 16, 2015, the CIHRS was presented with asummons letter to appear on June 17, before the Investigating Judge within theframework of the case No. 173/2011. However, the CIHRS refused to accept thesummons letter as it failed to comply with the legal requirements in force andsubsequently submitted its arguments in writing to the representative of theInvestigating Judge. Since then, CIHRS and its members had not received anyfurther summons, until those of March 13 and 14, 2016 (see below).

In July 2015, the HMLC was also subjected to the samereview.

In December 2015, the ANHRI received a phone call fromthe technical committee, which asked to conduct an inspection, but due to theabsence of ANHRI’s Director, Mr. Gamal Eid, the visit was postponed andeventually did not take place.

In December 2015, the Egyptian Center for the Right toEducation was summoned by the Investigating Judge for questioning.

On February 4, 2016, Mr. Gamal Eid was informed of a travel ban as he was attempting totravel outside Egypt. Mr. Hossam Bahgat, founder of EIPR, was informedof a similar ban on February 23, 2016.

On March 13 and 14, two staff members of CIHRS andthree staff members of Nazra for Feminist Studies were notified by telephone ofa summons to appear on March 16 before the Investigating Judge in Cairo withinthe framework of criminal case No. 173/2011. However, the two staff members ofCIHRS refused to appear, as they had not been properly notified in person inaccordance with the law in force. Two former staff members of the AndalusInstitute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies and one accountant from theUnited Group were also summoned within the same context.

On March 17, Messrs. Hossam Bahgat and Gamal Eid wereinformed that the Investigative Judge had ordered the freezing of their assetsand that their case would be reviewed by the Cairo Criminal Court in Zeinhom onMarch 24, 2016. The case was subsequently adjourned to April 20, 2016, uponrequest from the Public Prosecutor.

On March 22, 2016, Ms. Mozn Hassan wasformally accused of receiving foreign funds without authorisation, andthroughout the month of March 2016, a number of NGO staff members were summonedto appear before the Investigating Judge.

On April 19, Mr. Baheyeldin Hassan, CIHRS Director, two staff members of CIHRS, as well as Mr. MoustafaEl Hassan, HMLC Director, were informed at 9pm through a phone call fromthe Egyptian police that they were summoned to appear before the Cairo CriminalCourt in Zeinhom on April 20, along with Messrs. Bahgat and Eid.

On April 20, the Cairo Criminal Court in Zeinhom addedseven defendants from three additional NGOs to the “asset freeze order”initially targeting Messrs. Hossam Bahgat and Gamal Eid.

The additional defendants are Mr. Bahey eldin Hassan,Mr. Moustafa El Hassan, Mr. Abdel Hafiz Tayel, Executive Director of theEgyptian Center for the Right to Education, two staff members of CIHRS, as wellas of Mr. Bahey eldin Hassan's wife and daughter and Mr. Gamal Eid's wife anddaughter[8].

The hearing by the Cairo Criminal Court in Zeinhomregarding the asset freeze order was postponed several times by the prosecutorsto review the evidence and formally summon the new defendants. It was adjournedto May 23, 2016, July 17, 2016, August 15, 2016 and September 17, 2016.

On May 27, Mr. Mohamed Zaree, CIHRS Egypt Director,was informed by the authorities at Cairo International Airport that a travelban had been imposed on him based on an order by an investigative judge. Webelieve this travel ban was ordered within the framework of the “foreignfunding case against NGOs.

On June 27, 2016 Ms. Mozn Hassan was informed byauthorities at the Cairo International Airport that a travel ban had beenimposed on her, under the framework of the “NGO Foreign Funding Case”. Ms. MoznHassan had attempted to travel to participate in the Executive Committeemeeting of the Women Human Right Defenders (WHRD) Regional Coalition for theMiddle East and North Africa, taking place during the period of June 27ttoJuly 1, 2016.

On September 17, 2016, the Cairo CriminalCourt in Zeinhom ordered the freezing of the assets of Messrs. Gamal Eid, Director of ANHRI, Hossam Bahgat, founder of EIPR, Abdel Hafiz Tayel, Executive Directorof CRE, Moustafa El Hassan, Directorof HMLC, and Bahey Eldin Hassan,Director of the CIHRS, as well as those of three human rights NGOs, the CRE, the CIHRS and the HMLC. The Court however refused to freeze the assets of somerelatives of the accused also targeted by the asset freeze request.

On December 14, 2016, the presiding judgeof North CairoPrimary Court ordered the freezing ofall assets related to Ms. Azza Soliman, both personal and of her law firm, underCriminal Case No. 173/2001[9].

Actions requested:

Please write to the authorities of Egypt asking them to:

i. Put an endto all forms of harassment – including at the judicial level - against allhuman rights defenders in Egypt as they only aim to sanction their legitimatehuman rights activities.

ii. Guaranteein all circumstances the freedom of movement and association of human rightsdefenders, by immediately and unconditionally lifting all travel bans andassets freeze imposed against them, as they aim only at sanctioning theirlegitimate human rights activities;

iii. Conformwith the provisions of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted bythe General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1998, especiallyArticles 1 and 12.2; and

iv. Moregenerally, ensure in all circumstances the respect for human rights andfundamental freedoms in accordance with the Universal Declaration of HumanRights and with international and regional human rights instruments ratified byEgypt.

Addresses:

· President of the Arab Republic of Egypt,H.E. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Fax: +202 23901998
· Prime Minister, Mr. Sherif Ismail. Fax: +202 2735 6449 / 27958016. Email: primemin@idsc.gov.eg
· Minister of the Interior, General MagdyAbdel Ghaffar, E-mail: moi1@idsc.gov.eg, Fax: +202 2579 2031 / 2794 5529

· Minister of Justice, Mr. AhmedAl-Zanad, E-mail: mojeb@idsc.gov.eg, Fax: +202 2795 8103
· Public Prosecutor, Counsellor NabeelSadek, Fax: +202 2577 4716
· Mr. Mohamed Fayeq, President of theNational Council For Human Rights, Fax: + 202 25747497 / 25747670. Email: nchr@nchr.org.eg

· H.E. Ms. Wafaa Bassim, Ambassador,Permanent Mission of Egypt to the United Nations in Geneva, Email:mission.egypt@ties.itu.int, Fax: +41 22 738 44 15

· Embassy of Egypt in Brussels, Fax:+32 2 675.58.88; Email: embassy.egypt@skynet.be

Please also write to the diplomatic missions or embassies of Egypt in yourrespective country.

***

Geneva-Paris, January 2, 2017

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of thisappeal in your reply.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (theObservatory) was created in 1997 by the World Organisation Against Torture(OMCT) and FIDH. The objective of this programme is to intervene to prevent orremedy situations of repression against human rights defenders. FIDH and OMCTare both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanismimplemented by international civil society.

[1] See ObservatoryUrgent appeal EGY 004_/ 1116 / OBS101.2 issued on December 15, 2016. Ms. Azza Soliman is a human rightslawyer and founder of the Centre for Egyptian Women Legal Aid (CEWLA), an NGOthat provides free legal, social, and psychological services to women andmarginalized groups, and advocates for improved protections of their rights,and member of the Executive Committee of the WHRD MENA Coalition.

[2] See ObservatoryUrgent appeal EGY 004 / 0616 / OBS049.5 issued on June 28, 2016.

[3] Theultimatum was made public in July 2014, and in September 2014, the deadline waspushed back to November 10, 2014.

[4] The committee is composed ofMinistry of Social Solidarity officials but they report to the InvestigatingJudge.

[5] The EDA has been registered underthe Associations Law No. 84/2002 since September 2014.

[6] The UnitedGroup is a law firm established 50 years ago, and headed by Mr. Negad El Borai,one of Egypt’s most influential human rights defenders and lawyers.

[7] See Observatory Urgent Appeal EGY 002 / 0516 / OBS 042, issued on May 17, 2016.

[8] Mr.Bahgat attended the April-20 hearing, while the other defendants wererepresented by their lawyers. No formal charges were confirmed on thatoccasion.

[9] Seethe Observatory Urgent Appeal EGY 004 / 1116 / OBS 101.2, issuedon December 15, 2016.