An Egyptian human rights organization has documented 26,207 detainment incidents from the Egyptian security institutions in 18 months, as reported by the New Khalij.
This was mentioned in a report on the number of detainees and the arbitrary detention prisoners in a year and a half in Egypt. The report was released by the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedom (ECRF), a non-governmental rights organization.
In response, a security source denied the numbers recorded in the (ECRF) report and considered it,” inaccurate and exaggerated.”
In addition, the report stated that these numbers don’t include the detainment cases in North and South Sinai Governorate because of the difficulties in working in these areas due to security restrictions.
According to the report, the cases of detainment and arbitrary detentions in 2015 were 23,000 incidents but the number of cases have reached nearly 3,207 incidents in the first half of the year 2016.
The rights organization said that there are indications, “Ensuring that the real numbers much exceed those mentioned ” but it said that it couldn’t document all the cases because of the security restrictions.”
The security source said, “Within the turmoil conditions in Egypt and the presence of terrorist elements in the country, it is normal to widen the the suspicious circle,” adding that,”all the regulations are adopted according to law and the constitution and with full supervision from the judicial institution.” “No one is kept in custody except with a decree from the general prosecution,” said the security source, adding that “it isn’t accurate to consider stopping people to be be presented to the general prosecution as (detention), which is only adopted in Sinai that resides under state of emergency as a result of the militants attacks against the army and the police officers.”
The Egyptian authorities has launched a massive crackdown against political opposition since the the military coup in 2013 led by al-Sisi against Mohamed Morsi-the first democratically elected president.
