EGYPT: RELEASE OF SHI'A MUSLIM DETAINEE MOHAMED

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
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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
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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
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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?
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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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