On Monday afternoon 31/7/2006 Maat Center organized a symposium about the Emergency Law and detention and their results.
The symposium witnessed displaying a recorded film prepared by Maat about torturing in the Egyptian prisons and life testimonies of the detainees' families about their relatives' situations in the prisons.
Mr.Abo Elnaga Elmahrazy, the deputy of the bar Association at Giza , asserted that the Emergency Law has not definite defention and can not protect the system or the general security for one over four of a century ,pointing that the renewing of its enforcement has actually started before being brought before the parliament according to previous decisions of the political committee to which the National Democratic Party 's representatives adheared . Mr.Elmahresy related the internal situations in Egypt and its ability to serve the issues of the Arab nation , asserting that the bad developments of the matters at all levels shows the negative Egyptian situations towards the zionist war against lebanon in which the first man of the Arab nation Hassan Nasru Allah stands to defend the nation's honor.
Brigadair Manhooh Kattary refuted the system's claims about the need to an exceptional Law which remained inforce for one over four acentury in spite of the fact that the ordinary Law is sufficient to confronr terrorism crimes and others. The pertext of the security bodies in this might be that they had not the sufficient time to present a condemnation evidences against any suspected , in a process showed the state's security men over power on on the general security soldiers. Kattary also disclosed the continued drop in the security and police performance which is the result of that the police studies which the students
in Police Faculty study is so superficial and as result of this , they had no general grounds of work , so they established a state with no law and no security at the same time . The evidence of that is Luxor 's massacre in 1997 , and the blasts which followed it in Sinai preceded by the assultion attempt against president Mubarak .
ElKattary also redicated the calls of some security leaders to built a wall around Sharm Elsheikh to protect the summer headquarter of the president releaving that the capture of any group on its security enterence is sufficient to control it . Kattary also calls for a puplic document directed with its signature to the president to stop the enforcement of the Emergency Law and the deletion of detaintion calamity.
Atef Eloragony,the chairman of El defaa Elarabi (the Arab Defence ) associates, calls upon the detainee's families to form an ungovernmental net work to disclose the governments crimes in front of mass media and to press forcely to release their innocent relatives from the system's prisons and to show its reality in front of the American Minster who financed it with the money of the American taxes payers.
Ahmad Mekhemar, the chairman of Hewar Center for media and Development ,asserted that continuing the enforcement of the Emergency Law for 27 years means the seizure of the constitution itself by a suspected law that supposed to express an exceptional condition drawing attentionto the danger of establishing a full
generation under the umbrella of this law which make the civilian lose his rights and humanity.
Ayman Oqeel, the chairman of Maat Center , announced the formation of the Egyptian network to defend the detainee's issues in Egypt. The network includes seven associations as the network core, and it will extend to include all organizations that want to support the detainee's intentionally and theactivities lawyers . the center will also held training curses for young lawyers in all Egyptian governrates to train them to deal with the detaintion issues and to enhance the spirit of voulenteering work among them to serve their local society.
Oqeel called the mass media and press to focus on the detaintion issues and its economical , socialand psychological effects on the Egyptian society , and on detainee' s families , calling for the system to carry the responsibility towards those , warning the systems from the detention calamity and its effect on the state 's economy with the absence of anr right or certain information about the political detainee's numbers or places ,pointing at the impottance of opening the doors of prisons and the unofficial detention camps before lawyal and national parliamentary supervision committees.
The symposium witnessed listening to alife testimonies of the political detainee's families and most of them of Giza inhabitants through which they asserted that their relarives exposed to torture in prisons.
The detainee's mothers ,of which mothers of Amad and Mohammad Nasr Imam , Ayman Bakr Abd Elmneam and Ashraf Hassan Abosreaa, and mothers of their detainees disclosed the reality of the huge family detention for youngmen and children of Kerdasa since 1995, and then remained dedetainee although the release repeat decisions which they acquired for 12 years.They also disclosed what the detainee suffers in the prisons of toture , health neglection and prented their families from visiting them .
The wife of Salama , the detainee , gave her testimony about the disappearing of her husband lately and his torture for many years in the prison in spite of his good behavior and his full refusal of the extremist group's activities . Also some inhabitants of Mazghona countryside and places affliated to Imbaba Center gave similiar testimonies . They also called upon president Mubarak to release their relatives to rehabituate them , and to mix them with the society that refuses them totally because the blockade of the security reports asserting their readiness to work as voulenteers to defend our brothers in Lebonon and Palestine . They also called for social, health and financial protection for them and their relatives to ease the effects of the detentionon the prisoner's children . Also the attendance listened to testemonies of some activities of Kareem Elshaer who asserted that he was exposed to many violations inside the prison , drawing the attention to another society that exists in the prisons and includes alot of innocent people who are completely ignorant of the civilian rights and who were always victims of the inclinations of the security soldiers and their personal temperament . His colleague ,Ali Elfeel, asserted that he was exposed to beating , torturing and insulting in the prison and that administration of the prison mixed up between the political detainees and the criminal ones. He also pointed that his being detained did not lessen his love to his homeland and the issue of its freedom.