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Authentic Questions: Egypt's Public Prosecution Role
By: Gamal Eid
Lawyer &Human Rights Advocate
In the mid of last June, the Egyptian police attested two young men who belong to a group calling for change and reform in Egypt charged with them disseminating papers that censure inheriting the rule and the wide spread corruption in Egypt.
The two young men were, as customary, not allowed to inform their families or even been submitted to the public prosecution before being investigated by the police. The police investigations also had the typical routine transgressions that are customarily happening in Egypt.
Dozens of lawyers and friends of the two young men gathered in front of the public prosecutor office demanding the public prosecutor to interfere in order to save the youth from the possibly practiced torture.
After a while and due to the sluggishness of the public prosecution in conducting its investigation, as it is obliged by law, the rally started to shout "we demand a free prosecution, it's a tormenting life " (Ayzeen Niaba Horra, Alesha ba'et Morra)
This is the outcry with which the angry rallies in Egypt censured the government and the security apparatuses; and demanded a new government or a new police system.
Interestingly, this time the censure was from the irritated youth, lawyers and public who united in front of the public prosecution to demand a free prosecution. A thing that may seem new, but the reality is that it is not.
Though it is the first time to criticize the public prosecution's role in the context of the issue of freedoms in Egypt, it was not the first time to have doubts casting such role.
Many human rights advocates and pro democracy and change, plus the lawyers, has wondered long time ago about the role that may be played by the public prosecution in the rise of the movement calling for democracy and reform.
Many advocates, including the writer of this article, have expressed their fears of having the public prosecution increasingly withdrawing from defending the basic rights and freedoms.
The worries about the prosecution members not performing their roles fairly, consistently and expeditiously; not respecting and protecting the human dignity; and not supporting human rights.
Those who have worries about the retreating role of the public prosecution in protecting the Egyptians' human dignity and their public freedoms have many indications and proofs of the genuine role of the public prosecution and the extent of its objectiveness.
Examples of these occurrences are:
The suspended investigations in dozens of complaints, which were filed by the anti-war protesters against the police men who practiced torture against them during the protest against the war on Iraq. In addition to submitting none of the officers who were involved in these cases.
The public prosecution manner towards the victims in the case known with "torturing a whole family in Helwan", for the head of the prosecution, though received a communiqué about taking all the family members as hostages and torturing them, declined to take any measure, except when a number of lawyers took action and the chairman of Egypt's Par Association.
Eleven years had passed without announcing the results of the investigations in murdering the Islamic lawyer Abdel Hareth Medany by the hands of the State Security, an event that caused the encounter between the lawyers and the state in 1994.
For 19 years, no officer from the State security - which is well known by routinely practicing torture against political prisoners - had been prosecuted in the case known with torturing the Jihad indicts in 1986.
In any case tackled by the public prosecution, when it touches a public person, there is an obvious lack of impartiality.
The public prosecution often deals as an opposing party not as an impartial body, therefore it often oppresses the indicts in the political cases, example is its manner in the case of Asharf Ibrahim, known by the Leftist Organization.
The protracted manner that usually characterizes the office of the public prosecutor in examining the complaints filed by the human rights organizations, which are often pertaining to practicing torture.
These are some examples to be hold against the public prosecution, and that also cast doubts about the impartiality of such body as well as its efficiency to play the role of a the society's legal representative, not the representative of the Egyptian oppressive security.
These are the same doubts and fears that a greater number of advocates and lawyers had when the former public prosecutor Raga'a al-Araby was in position.
After his leaving his position many justice- defenders breathed sighs of relief, as the whispers about the public prosecution impartiality were just about to become outcries about throwing justice away.
I was stopped by an item 12 in the Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors, adopted by the United Nations' eights congress in Havana, 27 August to 7 September 1990, U.N. Doc. A/CONF.144/28/Rev.1 at 189 (1990), that says: "Prosecutors shall, in accordance with the law, perform their duties fairly, consistently and expeditiously, and respect and protect human dignity and uphold human rights, thus contributing to ensuring due process and the smooth functioning of the criminal justice system"
I went on wondering, do the prosecutors in Egypt know about this article?
Does the public prosecutor in Egypt care about making sure that his subordinates know about it?
Does anybody in Egypt think that the prosecutors in Egypt know about such article?
The last question is
Will the investigations on the Black Wednesday, on which the ladies journalists' dignity was grossly violated on the hands of the officers and the agents of the ruling party, end with submitting those, well known, criminals to trail?
The answer is, given the previous experiences, the investigations will take a long time, not to scrutinize every detail and make sure of the reached facts, but till the upheaval settle down, and another horrible offense is conducted by the government that used to offense its citizens; the old offense will become insignificant.
And once again, the rallies will gather in front of the public prosecutor office; his highness will promise with conducting investigations; another powerful official will be exempted from punishment; and so on, and the justice in Egypt will be in oblivion.
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The published articles reflect the author's opinion, either individual or organization, it does not necessarily present the Network's opinion
