IBAHRI condemns the persecution and sentencing of Egyptian human rights defender Bahey eldin Hassan

The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) condemns the persecution and sentencing, in absentia, of Bahey eldin Hassan, Director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of EGP 20,000 after criticising Egypt’s Public Prosecutor. The prominent Egyptian human rights defender was sentenced on 19 September 2019, however, it is reported that he has only just found out about the ruling.

The IBAHRI is becoming increasingly concerned at the apparent use of secret applications to court where not even the defendant is heard, nor are they vouched-safe of the secret order made by the court against them.

Mr Hassan has been subject to death threats, personal and institutional asset seizures, and media smear campaigns, in addition to being placed on entry watch lists. Some of his colleagues at the CIHRS, together with other Egyptian human rights defenders, have experienced similar mistreatment. In April 2018, Mr Hassan filed a lawsuit (no. 4818/2018) against a media personality who incited his murder on a television programme. The lawsuit is reported to have been dismissed.

Indictments were brought against Mr Hassan in March 2018 following an anonymous complaint demanding legal action over a social media post made by him, in which he stated: ‘The job of the public prosecutor in Egypt is no longer to stop violations by the Interior Ministry; his role is now to provide legal and judicial cover for such crimes. He has abandoned his role as a public prosecutor to protect society to become a defender of the systematic, daily assault on it.’ Mr Hassan’s comments were in response to the treatment of Egyptian writer and founding member of the political movement Kefaya, Alaa al-Aswany, who was detained and subjected to an illegal search and subsequent confiscation at Cairo’s international airport in March 2018. Mr Hassan was later charged with ‘publishing statements likely to undermine the judicial authority’ and ‘falsely claiming the public prosecutor had abandoned his role’, among charges of harming ‘public security’ and the ‘public interest’.

IBAHRI Director, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, commented: ‘In accordance with international human rights law, Egypt must uphold its commitments to protect freedom of opinion and expression. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ensures that “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.” Furthermore, Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights safeguards the rights to “hold opinions without interference” and “to freedom of expression…in writing or in print”. Therefore, in accordance with the Constitution of Egypt, we urge the Egyptian government to respect Bahey eldin Hassan’s right to freedom of speech.’

ENDS

Notes to the Editor

1. Click here for related items on the IBAHRI’s work in Egypt:
   www.ibanet.org/Human_Rights_Institute/Egypt
2. The International Bar Association (IBA), the global voice of the legal profession, is the foremost organisation for international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. Established in 1947, shortly after the creation of the United Nations, it was born out of the conviction that an organisation made up of the world's bar associations could contribute to global stability and peace through the administration of justice.
   
   In the ensuing 70 years since its creation, the organisation has evolved from an association comprised exclusively of bar associations and law societies to one that incorporates individual international lawyers and entire law firms. The present membership is comprised of more than 80,000 individual international lawyers from most of the world’s leading law firms and some 190 bar associations and law societies spanning more than 170 countries.
   
   The IBA has considerable expertise in providing assistance to the global legal community, and through its global membership, it influences the development of international law reform and helps to shape the future of the legal profession throughout the world.
   
   The IBA’s administrative office is in London, United Kingdom. Regional offices are located in: São Paulo, Brazil; Seoul, South Korea; and Washington DC, United States, while the International Bar Association’s International Criminal Court and International Criminal Law Programme (ICC & ICL) is managed from an office in The Hague, the Netherlands.
   
   The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), an autonomous and financially independent entity, works to promote, protect and enforce human rights under a just rule of law, and to preserve the independence of the judiciary and the legal profession worldwide.

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