US embassy cable - 05CAIRO4980

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 004980 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/27/2015 
TAGS: PHUM, PREL, PGOV, KDEM, KIRF, KISL, EG 
SUBJECT: EGYPT: RELEASE OF SHI'A MUSLIM DETAINEE MOHAMED 
EL-DERINI 
 
 
Classified By: ECPO Counselor John Desrocher for reasons 
1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
1.  (C)  Summary:  On June 29, Egyptian Shi'a Muslim Mohamed 
El-Derini, arrested in March 2004 apparently because of his 
religious beliefs, was released after having spent 15 months 
in administrative detention.  Derini's release comes just a 
week after the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention 
issued a formal opinion condemning the GOE's arbitrary 
detention of Derini as violation of its international legal 
obligations and calling on the GOE to "take the necessary 
steps to remedy the situation."  The Working Group's opinion 
came as a result of a formal complaint filed by the Egyptian 
Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), an independent human 
rights organization established in 2002.  Derini's case has 
been an example of the GOE's intermittent and relatively 
unnoticed campaign against the small population of Shi'a 
Muslims in the country.  The Derini case highlights both the 
larger problem of arbitrary detention and the ongoing 
struggle for judicial independence in Egypt.  End summary. 
 
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A detainee set free 
------------------- 
 
2.  (SBU)  Mohamed Ramadan Hussein El-Derini, a Shiite Muslim 
arbitrarily detained for 15 months, was set free in the early 
morning hours of June 29.  Derini, 42, was arrested at his 
house in Zatoun (a suburb of Cairo) at dawn on March 22, 2004 
by members of the State Security Intelligence Service (SSIS), 
apparently due to his affiliation with Shi'a Islam and his 
work as Secretary-General of an unrecognized Sh'ia 
organization, "The Supreme Council for the Care of the 
Prophet's Descendants."  Credible reports indicate that SSIS 
presented no warrant at the time of his arrest and proceeded 
to seize numerous items from Derini's home and apartment. 
The GOE detained Derini, a well-known member of the Shi'a 
community in Egypt, without ever filing formal charges or 
referring him to prosecution.  In addition, the Supreme State 
Security Emergency Court issued four separate rulings 
ordering his release, most recently on June 19.  After each 
ruling, however, the Minister of Interior issued a new 
administrative detention decree, under Article 3 of Law 
162/1958 (the "Emergency Law"), nullifying the court's 
release order.  There have been credible reports that SSIS 
repeatedly tortured and mistreated Derini while in custody. 
Before his release, he remained in detention at the Wadi 
el-Natroun prison, after initially spending time at SSIS 
headquarters in Lazoghly on two separate occasions and at an 
SSIS branch in the Cairo suburb of Nasr City.  (Note: The 
Department reported on Derini's arrest and subsequent 
detention in the 2004 Human Rights Report and 2004 
International Religious Freedom Report (IRFR). End note). 
 
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A U.N. Body Weighs In 
--------------------- 
 
3.  (SBU)  On June 22, the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary 
Detention publicly released Opinion No. 5/2005, condemning 
the GOE for continuing to arbitrarily detain Derini.  In 
determining that the GOE, by detaining Derini, had violated 
Articles 9 and 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights (UDHR) as well as Articles 9 and 14 of the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Parties (which 
Egypt ratified in 1982), the Working Group "found the 
detention of Derini to be arbitrary" and requested that the 
GOE "take necessary steps to remedy the situation."  (Note: 
The U.N. Commission on Human Rights established its Working 
Group on Arbitrary Detention in 1991, entrusting the 
quasi-judicial panel of five independent experts to 
investigate cases of arbitrary deprivation of liberty, absent 
an individual's ability to obtain sufficient domestic legal 
remedies.  End note.)   The Working Group's decision noted 
that, "(I)n the present case no legal basis can be invoked to 
justify the detention, least of all an administrative order 
issued to circumvent a judicial decision ordering the 
release."  The Working Group's opinion came as a result of a 
formal complaint filed by the Egyptian Initiative for 
Personal Rights (EIPR), an independent human rights 
organization founded in 2002 and led by civil society 
activist Hossam Bahgat.  (Note: EIPR had previously submitted 
multiple complaints on the Derini detention to the Office of 
the General Prosecutor and to the National Council for Human 
Rights (NCHR) but never received a response.  End note.)  The 
U.N. Working Group will formally submit its opinion as part 
of its 2006 Annual Report. 
 
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Previous Arrests of Shi'a 
------------------------- 
 
4.  (SBU)  Derini's arrest came in the wake of the arrests of 
at least eight Shi'a Muslims in the Red Sea town of Ras 
Ghareb, 300 km south of Cairo, in December 2003, again 
apparently due to their religious beliefs.   Although five 
were released in the days and weeks that followed, 
three--Adel el-Shazli, Ahmed Gom'a, and Mohammed Hama 
Omar--remained in custody several months longer.  As in 
Derini's case, there were credible reports that security 
forces tortured and mistreated these three individuals while 
in detention.  Ahmad Gom'a was finally released on April 29, 
2004; El-Shazli in June 2004; and Mohammed Omar in August 
2004. 
 
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A Trend? 
-------- 
 
5.  (SBU)  The Department's 2004 IRF Report notes that "the 
GOE, at times, prosecutes members of religious groups whose 
practices are deemed to deviate from mainstream Islamic 
beliefs, and whose activities are believed to jeopardize 
communal harmony."  The December 2003 and March 2004 arrests 
and subsequent detentions of Mohammed el-Derini and fellow 
Shi'a Muslims are evidence of this trend.  EIPR has 
documented similar GOE crackdowns on Shi'a Muslims that 
occurred in 1988, 1989, 1996, and 2002, with a total of at 
least 124 Shi'a Muslims arbitrarily detained over the last 16 
years. (Note: in most of the cases that have not been 
referred to trial, the arrestees have belonged to the sect of 
Twelver Imami Shi'a Islam (as do most Shi'a Muslims in 
Egypt), which Al-Azhar, Egypt's highest religious authority, 
has deemed legitimate since the early 1960s.  End note.) 
Commenting on the persistent problem of arbitrary detention 
in Egypt, the U.N. Working Group noted in its opinion on the 
Derini case that "(M)aintaining a person in administrative 
detention once his release has been ordered by the court 
competent to exercise control over the legality of detention 
renders the deprivation of liberty arbitrary." 
 
6.  (C)  Comment:  Derini's case highlights the ongoing 
problem of arbitrary detention under the Emergency Law, used 
by the Ministry of Interior in disregard of court rulings, 
even those from the Supreme State Security Emergency Courts. 
While Derini's release is a very positive development, it 
should also be seen in the context of his lengthy detention 
without charge or trial; serious, credible allegations of 
torture that have gone uninvestigated; and the arbitrary 
detention of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of individuals 
under the Emergency Law in recent years, despite court 
rulings ordering their release. 
 
7.  (C)  Comment continued:  Derini's case also represents 
another example of periodic GOE oppression of the Shiite 
minority in Egypt.  International attention has tended to 
focus on the larger religious minority groups in Egypt--e.g., 
the Orthodox Coptic Christian community--while the plight of 
much smaller groups, including Shi'a Muslims and Baha'is, has 
gone relatively unnoticed internationally, at least until 
recently. 
 
8.  (C)  Comment continued:  Derini's release likely comes as 
a result of a culmination of events--the four release orders 
from the Supreme State Emergency Court; EIPR's submission of 
formal complaints to the Public Prosecutor, the NCHR, and the 
U.N. Working Group; and the Working Group's recently released 
opinion condemning Derini's detention--rather than any single 
event.  Nevertheless, EIPR's submission to the Working Group 
of the case of Mohamed El-Derini--and the Group's resultant 
condemnatory opinion--has proven to be both a creative and 
effective way to put direct, international pressure on the 
GOE to cease its longstanding practice of arbitrary 
detention, in compliance with both its constitution and 
customary international law.  The Working Group's specific 
opinion that Derini's arbitrary detention was a clear 
violation of Egypt's domestic and international legal 
obligations--and the Working Group's broader condemnation of 
recurring detention orders to nullify court orders--raises 
the prospect that the GOE will face new international 
pressure to improve its poor human rights record.  End 
comment. 
 
 
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CORBIN