The State Security Supreme Emergency Court in Ismailia, headed by Judge Hasan Mahmoud Farid, sentenced 14 individuals accused of being members of the "Tawhid and Jihad" group to death and referred them to the mufti on Tuesday 14 August. They were accused of attacking a police station in al-Arish and killing police and military officers during June and July of last year.
On 23 July 2011, The Army and National Security forces arrested scores of residents of al-Arish in Northern Sinai, including some minors. They were held in Army camps in al-Arish, and later transferred to the al-Jala prison in the military area of Ismailia, where they were interrogated by military investigators and tortured using, inter alia, beatings and electric shocks.
They were then referred to the al-Jala military court, which considered their cases in several sessions before ruling that the cases were outside its jurisdiction and referred them to the competent Public Prosecution. The accused were transferred to Torah prison in Cairo and their cases were taken up first by the State Security Public prosecution, before then being transferred before the State Security Supreme Emergency Court in Ismailia.
Mr Ahmed Mefreh, Alkarama's legal researcher questioned "How can the accused be sentenced based on confessions and information obtained using torture by the military prosecution? These individuals were forcefully disappeared and had no access to lawyers or rights to defend themselves during the interrogations".
He added: "The State Security Public prosecution should have reopened the investigations with the accused when it received their cases. The court also should have dismissed confessions of civilians obtained inside a military area using torture and ill-treatment".
Alkarama has visited al-Arish and talked to many of the residents and families of the detainees who complained to Alkarama of their harsh treatment, violations to their property, and insults during the arrests of their relatives.
The State Security Supreme Emergency Court is an un-constitutional court. It was created under the Egypt's State of Emergency law. Legal and human rights organisations have often called for the dismantling of the court, and ending its dark history of human rights abuses. The fact that the court held its legitimacy from the emergency law turned it into a symbol of injustice, deception and political targeting, using legal proceedings which contradict human rights law on a number of levels.