Urgent statement

Dr. Ayman Noor sentenced five years in prison !!

Regarding the five years imprisonment sentence issued against Dr. Ayman Noor, based on charges of forgery of signatures for the announcement of El Ghad political party, the Egyptian association for community participation enhancement rejects the unjust sentence against Dr. Ayman Noor – an important person in the Egyptian civil opposition, and one of the most noticeable human rights activists – the association also sees that charges against him have other political motives, and this was clear from the beginning of the investigation with him till the announcement of the sentence on Saturday 24/12/2005, although the association is not surprised with that sentence.

As it became obvious that any pretending speech by the state – about political reform and supremacy of the law and all that stuff – is just pure lies and games played by the government to avoid outside and inside pressures demanding a political reform, because what happened in the parliamentarian elections 2005, and the aggressive violations against citizens which resulted in the death of 14 Egyptian citizens and many others wounded, the excessive use of force to prevent the electors from voting, even assaults on judges observing the elections and other observers from civil society organizations, journalists and delegates of press agencies, and before that the ferocious actions by the security forces against citizens of the north of Sinai, assaults on villages in Egyptian countryside like Serando and Kamsheesh, the arrests, torture, harassments against women and then comes the comic play of Dr. Ayman Noor trial, destroying all meanings of justice and democracy. All those events killed the alleged project of political reform.

The Egyptian association for community participation enhancement at first didn’t announce its opinion in the trial in respect of the Egyptian judgment and as the case was still undergoing, but the unjust sentence and what happened during the trial eliminated all reasons the association had to keep its opinion unsaid.

So, the association presents the following notes:

1. Obviously, all charges issued against Noor are fabricated, as there was a suspicious deal between one of the accused – who was recorded dangerous by the ministry of Interiors – and the public money prosecution officer who drew up the minutes of the case, to lure Dr. Ayman Noor and get him accused. This method is a great danger to justice in Egypt, and everybody saw how criminals were used to prevent electors from voting and terrifying judges in the last parliamentarian elections.

This deal started after Noor insisted on crossing the red lines, and his insistence during the national dialogue of parties on the modification of substance 76 of the constitution and not slowing or delaying it till after the presidential elections 2005, just before the president launched his initiative to modify substance 76, and also Dr. Ayman Noor’s insistence on going through the presidential elections even before that initiative.

2. Procedures for removing Noor’s parliamentarian immunity were full of infractions to rules and measures of parliamentarian and law procedures required, and he was areested and taken from in front of the parliament only half an hour after the immunity was removed, although the immunity removal wasn’t announced, which means that arresting Noor was already intended and planned.

3. Security forces attacked Dr. Ayman Noor after his arrest in Al Tahrir square in mid town, and he was searched in an insulting way in front of the people, also the complaint he filed to the attorney general – about the assault on him and the excessive use of force – wasn’t well investigated and the attorney general in his statement, decided that Noor’s injuries resulted from resisting the police while arresting him!!

4. Referring Dr. Ayman Noor to the higher prosecution for state security for his investigation although the case was a criminal case as the state decided, the renewal of his reserve arrest more than once without lawful reasons – as his home address is known and he is a publicly known person who can’t escape, also he can’t change any of the case’s clues as they are all with the general prosecution.

5. Since the beginning of the trial in court south of Cairo and security forces practiced provocation and humiliation against any of the trial watchers, in the first trial excessive force was used against his followers and the sympathizers with him, which lead to the death of one of them, although the reports of security forces announced that the death was because of the being in a crowded place which resulted in a descent in the blood cycle. Security forces also prevented number of members of the defense staff for Dr. Noor from entering hall, even Ayman himself nearly couldn’t attend the trial had until he presented a complaint to head manager of court south of Cairo, also observers from human rights organizations were prevented from attending of the trial and many people from press agencies were assaulted and prevented from entering, the trial took place in a tight room that wasn’t enough for the attendance,  the security forces continued practicing stuff like that for more than one sitting until its transfer to court of Nasr city that was surrounded by police forces to prevent any one who is not wanted to attend the trial from entering. As for the last sitting on December 24, 2005 the court was literally converted to a military barracks, lawyers observers from civil society organizations and even European ambassadors where prevented from entering except after passing by a tight security fence 500 meters away from the court and after presenting their identifications, and this was practiced with all citizens who went to the court to finish other procedures not related to Dr. Ayman Noor’s trial, even some judges and members of the prosecution of Nasr citxy court were nearly prevented from entering the court until presenting their IDs, as for inside the court everyone was prevented from entering to the hall where the trial took place, also a police officer cursed lawyers of the defense of Ayman and other lawyers of other accused of other cases. The association observer witnessed some observers from European embassies very annoyed of offensive procedures to enter the hall and preferred to leave. The truth is that methods practiced by the security forces during the observation and organization of many assemblies and gatherings became very unjustifiable and offensive to the dignity of the Egyptian citizens, and to the great reputation of this country and this civilization. Security forces at last finished their acts by assaulting Dr. Ayman Noor’s loyalists using anti-disturbance forces after announcing the five years sentence issued against him.

6. Circle 4 felonies, headed by counsel Ahmed Abdel Salam Gom’aa was very discriminate – according to what was said by members of defense for Ayman Noor and many observers of civil society organizations and law experts – as the court didn’t enable the defense to accomplish many requests which prevents them from their right to present a defense,  also the court didn’t stop of cursing to Noor by the defense of other accused in the same case, and that in turn leaded to the defense and Noor himself to ask for changing the court, but their request was refused by court of appeal, then the lawsuit was reopened by the same court, and it was more appropriate for the court to withdraw from the lawsuit works in order to apply justice. Some acts made by the head of the court in some cases of political nature, such as the sentence on Saad ElDin Ibrahim who was found innocent by the court of revocation, due to many infractions by the first degree court, observers also mentioned the sentence by the head of the court on the Iranian spy who was condemned by the court, and causation of the sentence contained praising to Mr. President, and this praise was out of domain. Also it became obvious that some secret acts were made to make Noor stand before that circle, because if we considered that the case is criminal then normally it would have been assigned another sitting and in front of another court, but it appears that the intention was to sentence Ayman Noor by that court.

Due to all said, the association sees that Dr. Ayman Noor’s case ignored many rules of law and rights, such as the infraction for substance 10 for the international agreement civil and political rights, ordering to treat the convicts in a humanly and dignity way, which was the opposite of the way of dealing with the accused during the arrest and during his reserve imrisonment, the infraction to the substance 14 from the international agreement for civil and political rights, and those rights were violated by the court, substance 17 from the same agreement not to hurt or mention the accused or his family by any non-lawful campaigns, which was not made by media and the press related to the state, also substance 21 from the same agreement assuring the right of peaceful gathering without restrictions, that rights was violated by security forces who surrounded loyalists of Ayman Noor and used excessive force to separate them, not to mention many other infractions that can’t be listed in on statement, in clear violation to the Egyptian constitution and the international agreements signed by successive Egyptian governments and became a part of their interior laws.
             

Although the association highly denounce and grieve because of the wrongful sentence, reassuring the state’s insistence on eliminating any voice for the civilian opposition whether liberal, leftist or national to seem isolated with their speeches confronting fundamentalist current brought by the state itself as a scarecrow for who demands democracy and reform. In spite of all that, the association is assured that the fair Egyptian judgment will win for the justice; also the association salutes all the reform powers who joined forces with Dr. Ayman Noor even if they disagreed with him politically, but they were on the side of democratic rules.

The Egyptian association for
Community participation
Enhancement

24 / 12 / 2005