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Amnesty: Egypt holding Israeli-Egyptian without trial
New report by International human rights organization on Cairo's security forces, prison service cites gross violation of human rights; claims Egyptian-Israeli citizen has been held without trial for 12 years
Human rights organization Amnesty International published a new report Wednesday, scrutinizing Egypt's security apparatus.
The report documents years of abuse in Egyptian prisons, and, among other things, reveals a 12-years-long detainment of Egyptian-Israeli citizen Ouda Suleiman Tarabin.
According to Amnesty, Tarabin has been held by the Egyptian security forces since 1999. He was arrested after illegally crossing the border with Egypt, and promptly convicted by a military tribunal for espionage. The then-19-year-old was sentenced to 15 years in jail. He is currently said to be serving time at the Liman Tora Prison.
Amnesty claims that despite the speedy court-martial, Tarabin was never brought before a judge, never formally charged, and was deprived of legal representation during the proceedings. The group's numerous attempts to obtain a copy of his conviction have failed.
Given Cairo's refusal to release any documentation pertaining to Tarabin's arrest or tribunal, Amnesty said it is impossible to ascertain whether he ever actually stood trial, or is actually being held under administrative detention.
Amnesty said it attempted to contact Egypt's interior ministry about Tarabin's legal status, but was ignored.
Amnesty explained that the details of Tarabin's arrests "demonstrated that administrative cases were clearly used to circumvent all sorts of judicial rulings, including those issued by courts established by the Emergency Law."
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