 CAIRO - Amnesty International on Wednesday strongly condemned what it termed the “systematic abuses” of human rights in Egypt, particularly in light of recently passed amendments to the constitution.
| Reeeeeeally? We would have never known. |
Wide powers for security services, systematic torture of detainees, the use of unjust courts were all cited by the report from the London-based rights organisation as evidence of a worsening situation in Egypt where even the few constitutional protections are being rolled back.
| Just another day's work for a third-world thug. |
“I would say that it is worse in the sense that the few safeguards that we had in the constitution are now being attacked,” Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty’s Middle East deputy director told reporters, referring to the amendments passed in a sparsely attended referendum March 26. “Torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests and detention, and grossly unfair trails before emergency and military courts have all been key features of Egypt’s 40-year state of emergency and counter-terrorism campaign,” said the report.
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In particular it highlighted a new anti-terrorism law being prepared by the government to replace the old emergency law under which some 18,000 people are estimated by Amnesty to be detained without charge. “What we see and we fear with the new law is a broad definition of terrorism crime that would criminalise the peaceful exercise of rights that are guaranteed internationally,” Sahraoui said.
The report, “Systematic abuses in the name of security”, also highlighted how the United States and other countries used the process of “renditions” to send terrorism suspects to Egypt to be interrogated, in contravention of international law.
| See -- you knew they couldn't get through the whole report without taking a swing at us. |
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