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I. Summary

On October 7, 2004, a massive car-bomb wrecked the Taba Hilton hotel located on the Egyptian-Israeli border. There were two smaller bombings later that night at nearby tourist campsites. The attacks killed more than thirty and wounded more than one hundred. Most of the victims were tourists, many of them Israelis, as well as Egyptian hotel staff.

Initial speculation by Egyptian and Israeli authorities focused on al-Qaeda or other international groups that have carried out large-scale attacks against civilians. But just over two weeks later, on October 25, Egypt’s Ministry of Interior announced that it had identified nine persons responsible for the attacks, all from the North Sinai area: five were in custody, two had been killed carrying out the attack, and two remained at large.

Meanwhile, around October 13, Egypt’s State Security Investigation service (SSI) began a campaign of mass arbitrary arrests in and around al-`Arish, the government and commercial center of North Sinai, apparently as part of its investigation into the Taba attacks. These arrests continued unabated after the October 25 announcement through early December. Egyptian human rights groups said that security forces had rounded up as many as three thousand persons, including several hundred persons detained solely to secure the surrender of wanted family members.

The government has officially neither confirmed nor contested that figure, although one North Sinai security official insisted anonymously that the number being held in early December was “only” around eight hundred. As of early February, the government has still provided no information to families or legal counsel regarding the number of persons in detention or their whereabouts. On January 28, between five hundred and one thousand demonstrators reportedly clashed with police in al-`Arish when they tried to stage a march protesting the detentions. In early February 2005, the government announced that it had released ninety persons detained in connection with the investigation.

On February 1, 2005, police reportedly engaged in a shoot-out with other suspects near the central Sinai town of Ras Sudr, killing one person who had not been previously identified as a suspect. Further clashes on February 5 killed at least one of the two named suspects still at large. 

Human Rights Watch visited Egypt in early December and, accompanied by two representatives of the Egyptian Association against Torture, interviewed former detainees and eyewitnesses to arrests in the al-`Arish area. In every one of the score of cases that Human Rights Watch investigated, the SSI had detained persons without informing them of the reasons for their detention. They were usually picked up in pre-dawn raids on their homes. Officials typically kept detainees in local SSI offices for three or four days, and in some cases well over a week, without charging them. The authorities released some but most of the detained individuals were transferred to Tora prison in Cairo and Damanhur Prison in the Nile Delta. Human Rights Watch has been unable to learn if these detainees were charged at the time of transfer or since. Most of those detained, it appeared, were or were considered to be Islamists—that is, persons favoring a system of governance that accords with what they consider to be core Islamic principles.

Family members told Human Rights Watch that they were afraid to “cause trouble” by pressing officials for information about detained relatives. They learned only informally, if at all, about the whereabouts of their husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers from those who had been with them in detention but were now released.

This lack of knowledge was especially painful to families because of widespread reports that detainees were subjected to torture and ill-treatment during interrogation. These reports were consistent with documented practices of the SSI in politically-charged investigations. Human Rights Watch interviewed several former detainees who provided credible accounts of torture they underwent at the hands of SSI interrogators. Others spoke of seeing fellow detainees who had been badly tortured, and hearing the screams of those being abused. Given that those most likely to have been tortured are among the hundreds if not thousands of persons still in detention, and that many of those released fear the possible consequences of meeting with independent human rights monitors, Human Rights Watch believes that torture and ill-treatment by the SSI has been widespread in connection with the investigations into the Taba attacks.  

Human Rights Watch contacted the Ministry of Interior, the Office of the Prosecutor General, the Office of the State Security Prosecutor, the head of the Governorate of Northern Sinai, and the Deputy Commander of the SSI in al-`Arish to request meetings to discuss our concerns, to obtain information about the investigations, and to learn the perspective of government officials. In all cases, the requests were rejected or received no response. To Human Rights Watch’s knowledge, the government has not commenced any investigation into the allegations of torture and abuse, and has not prosecuted or disciplined any officials for having taken part in the torture and mistreatment of detainees.

The Egyptian government’s counter-terrorism policies rely in part on special powers conveyed under the nation’s Emergency Law of 1958, which has been in effect continuously since 1981 and which must be renewed every three years,  as well as the Law to Combat Terrorism of 1992. These laws flout human rights protections enshrined in Egypt’s Constitution by giving the government the power to arbitrarily arrest and detain people for indefinite periods. Even the Emergency Law, however, requires that authorities immediately inform a person of the reason for his arrest, allow him to contact family and legal counsel, and provide for the right to appeal his detention after thirty days. Furthermore, the laws do not permit torture under any circumstance.

Human Rights Watch recognizes the government’s obligation to address serious threats to the security of its citizens and residents such as that posed by the Taba attacks. However, international law is unambiguous: no security threat, no matter how grave, justifies torture, and the government’s ability to detain persons without charge is strictly limited. Human rights agreements to which Egypt is a party, most notably the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), ensures basic protections for persons even in the midst of a declared emergency.

Egypt has a long-standing and well-documented record of arbitrary arrest and torture and ill-treatment of detainees.¹ Human Rights Watch calls on President Hosni Mubarak to state clearly and publicly that the government will not tolerate acts of torture and ill-treatment, and that such abuses by law enforcement personnel, including agents of the SSI, will be investigated, prosecuted, and punished.

With respect to the recent mass arrests and the absence of any transparency on the part of the government, Human Rights Watch urges the government to establish a public registry or persons detained in connection with the Taba investigations, promptly release all persons detained unless they have been charged with a recognizable offense, conduct a thorough and impartial inquiry into allegations of arbitrary arrest and torture, discipline or prosecute those officials found to have violated the law, and ensure that persons arrested illegally and/or subjected to torture and ill-treatment have access to prompt and fair compensation. Any detainees who are charged should be granted a fair trial and all related due process guarantees.