Acharnement judiciaire contre Hossam Bahgat
Le 20 juin 2019, le tribunal du Caire a reporté l'examen de la demande de levée des interdictions de voyager issues contre les défenseur-ses des droits humains Mozn Hassan, Hossam Bahgat, Mohamed Zaree et Gamal Eid jusqu'au 14 septembre 2019.
Le 17 septembre 2016, la Cour d'assise du Caire a confirmé l'ordre de geler les fonds personnels et les avoirs familiaux de huit défenseurs des droits humains et leurs organisations, notamment Gamal Eid, Hossam Bahgat, le Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) et son fondateur Bahey El Din Hassan, l'Egyptian Center for Right to Education (EIPR) et son directeur Abdel Hafez Tayel, ainsi que l' Hisham Mubarak Law Center et son directeur Mostafa Al Hassan. Les cinq défenseurs et les trois organisations non gouvernementales sont accusés d'avoir illégalement reçu des fonds étrangers. S'ils sont reconnus coupables, ils risquent jusqu'à 25 ans de prison.
41 organisations égyptiennes ont été ajoutées à l'affaire de financements étrangers, également appelée Affaire N0 173, et certains leaders et employés ont été cités à comparaitre pour des accusations incluant la "réception de fonds illégaux étrangers" et "travail sans autorisation légale".
Hossam Bahgat est un éminent journaliste et défenseur des droits humains. Son travail d'investigation est publié par le service d'information indépendant Mada Masr. De 2002 à 2013, il était directeur exécutif de l'Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, organisation dont il est toujours président et qu'il a fondée.
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- 25 Juin 2019 : Hossam Bahgat sous le coup d'une interdiction de voyager
- 22 Septembre 2016 : La cour d'assise gèle les avoirs de plusieurs défenseurs des droits humains et organisations
- 24 Février 2016 : Interdiction de voyager contre l'éminent journaliste et défenseur des droits humains M. Hossam Bahgat
- Hossam Bahgat posts statement on detention and interrogation
- Hossam Bahgat released, unclear if charges still pending
- 9 Novembre 2015 : Military prosecution and detention of prominent human rights defender Hossam Bahgat
Le 20 juin 2019, le tribunal du Caire a reporté l'examen de la demande de levée des interdictions de voyager issues contre les défenseur-ses des droits humains Mozn Hassan, Hossam Bahgat, Mohamed Zaree et Gamal Eid jusqu'au 14 septembre 2019.
Le 17 septembre 2016, la Cour d'assise du Caire a confirmé l'ordre de geler les fonds personnels et les avoirs familiaux de huit défenseurs des droits humains et leurs organisations, notamment Gamal Eid, Hossam Bahgat, le Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) et son fondateur Bahey El Din Hassan, l'Egyptian Center for Right to Education (EIPR) et son directeur Abdel Hafez Tayel, ainsi que l' Hisham Mubarak Law Center et son directeur Mostafa Al Hassan. Les cinq défenseurs et les trois organisations non gouvernementales sont accusés d'avoir illégalement reçu des fonds étrangers. S'ils sont reconnus coupables, ils risquent jusqu'à 25 ans de prison.
Le 23 février 2016, les autorités égyptiennes de l'aéroport international du Caire ont empêché le journaliste et défenseur des droits humains M. Hossam Bahgat de se rendre en Jordanie, où il devait participer à une conférence des Nations Unies sur la justice dans le monde arabe; elles l'ont informé qu'il est sous le coup d'une interdiction de voyager décrétée par le procureur.
Le 23 février, alors qu'il s'apprêtait à se rendre en Jordanie où il devait faire un discours à l'occasion de la conférence de la Commission économique et sociale de l'ONU pour l'ouest de l'Asie sur la justice dans le monde arabe, les forces de sécurité de l'aéroport international du Caire ont empêcher Hossam Bahgat d'embarquer, en vertu d'une interdiction de voyager décrétée par le procureur. Le défenseur n'avait pas été informé au préalable à propos de cette interdiction de voyager, ni qu'il faisait l'objet d'une affaire criminelle.
En novembre 2015, Hossam Bahgat a été arrêté pendant quatre jours et interrogé au siège des renseignements militaires, au sujet de sa publication de rapports sur l'armée égyptienne sur le site web Mada Masr.
Les interdictions de voyager sont de plus souvent utilisées en Égypte pour intimider et réduire au silence les défenseur-ses des droits humains. Elles sont souvent décrétées sans que les autorités ne donnent de raisons claires. Le 4 février 2016, le défenseur des droits humains Gamal Eid a été placé sous le coup d'une interdiction de voyager. Il n'avait pas été informé ce cette interdiction ni convoqué dans le cadre d'une quelconque enquête. En janvier 2016, la sécurité égyptienne à l'aéroport international du Caire a empêché le défenseur des droits humains et poète Omar Hazek de se rendre à Amsterdam, où il devait recevoir un prix pour la liberté d'expression décerné par PEN International. M. Mohamed Lotfy, fondateur et directeur exécutif de l'Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) est sous le coup d'une interdiction de voyager depuis juin 2015 ; il n'avait pas été autorisé à embarquer à bord d'un vol pour Berlin, où il devait parler de la situation des droits humains en Égypte à l'occasion d'une table ronde organisée au parlement allemand. Le 13 janvier 2015, des policiers ont empêché la spécialiste des médias numériques et défenseuse des droits humains Mme Esraa Abdel Fattah d'embarquer à bord d'un vol pour l'Allemagne à l'aéroport international du Caire. Des interdictions de voyager ont également été prononcées contre les défenseurs messieurs Hossameldin Ali, Ahmed Ghonim et Bassem Samir, de l'Egyptian Democratic Academy, à qui il a été expliqué que ces interdictions ont été ordonnées dans le cadre d'une enquête judiciaire en cours sur les fonds étrangers illégaux reçus par les organisations de défense des droits humains en Égypte depuis 2011.
Front Line Defenders est préoccupée par l'interdiction de voyager imposée à Hossam Bahgat et craint que cette mesure ne soit suivie par un interrogatoire et des poursuites.
Human rights defender Hossam Bahgat published a statement on his Facebook page documenting his three-day detention by military intelligence and interrogation by military prosecution.
On Monday, 9 November 2015, the Military Prosecution ordered the detention of the human rights defender. He was detained at the headquarters of the Military Intelligence for four days, pending investigation on charges of “publishing false news that harms national interests” and “disseminating information that disturbs public peace” for publishing reports about Egypt's military.
Bahgat is a journalist and prominent human rights defender in Egypt. His investigative stories appear in the independent news service Mada Masr. From 2002 to 2013, he was the founding executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights where he still serves as chairman.
The English translation of Bahgat's Facebook post reads:
Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who has expressed any form of solidarity during the three days in which I was “hosted” by the Egyptian military.
It is not the appropriate moment for me to narrate all the details of the past three days, so I will only document the events that took place briefly.
On the morning of Sunday November 8, I headed to military intelligence headquarters in response to a written summons that was delivered to my house three days earlier.
I spent approximately three hours at military intelligence before I was escorted through a back door to a car and driven to the military judiciary, accompanied by armed guards. My request to contact my family, lawyer or colleagues, who were waiting for me outside the building, was denied.
At the military judiciary, I was held in the car with armed guards for over five hours, before being made to appear in front of a member of the North Cairo Military Prosecution and interrogated as someone facing charges.
I resisted several attempts to intimidate and entice me into waiving my right to have a lawyer present. Upon my insistence, I was allowed one phone call to inform a friend of my whereabouts and request a lawyer.
As my interrogation began, a large number of colleagues, friends and lawyers, who are the companions of years of struggle, waited for me outside with the knowledge of the colonel who heads the prosecution.
The interrogation, which commenced in the presence of 25 volunteer defense lawyers, was wholly focused on a journalistic investigation that I published in Mada Masr on October 13 with the headline “A coup busted?”
My interrogation was based on a report by military intelligence against me. At the end, the head of the prosecution informed me that I faced charges of deliberately broadcasting false news that harms national interests and involuntarily disseminating information that harms public interests, as per Articles 102 and 188 of the Penal Code.
After the interrogation was completed and the lawyers were dismissed, I was transferred to military intelligence again. I waited in the same car until 11 pm, when another car arrived with three armed men in civilian clothing. They searched me thoroughly, then took me to their car, blindfolded me and asked me to lower my head on the seat in front of me.
I was taken to a room, which was secured by both a wooden and metal door, from Sunday November 8 at midnight until Tuesday November 9 at noon. During this time, I was not interrogated.
All of the demands I made to the guards were ignored. I requested many times that they inform officials of my wishes to know the military prosecution’s decision regarding my detention and to understand my legal position — to know whether I was being detained under investigation, referred to trial or abducted. I was not even allowed to meet any of the officers.
Today, on Tuesday, at noon, I was blindfolded and escorted by an armed guard in a car to military intelligence again. I met with two officers, a general and a lieutenant colonel, for an hour, and was informed for the first time that the prosecution had ordered my detention for four days pending investigations, but that military intelligence had decided to release me today.
At the end of the meeting, I wrote a statement that was dictated to me stating: “I will abide by legal and security procedures when publishing material pertaining to the Armed Forces” and asserting that I did not experience any physical or emotional abuse during my detention at military intelligence. My possessions were returned to me and I was allowed to leave.
I still do not know the fate of the investigations into the two charges mentioned above. Defense lawyers will try to clarify the matter in the coming days.
Throughout the course of my interrogation by military prosecution, they reiterated that I do not enjoy the legal and syndicate protection that journalists have, because I am not a member of the Journalists Syndicate. While I thank the syndicate for sending a lawyer to attend my interrogation, I urge, again, the board of the Journalists Syndicate and its general assembly to take immediate measures to secure syndicate protection to all those who practice journalism with no discrimination.
In the end, I was lucky to receive an outpouring of solidarity and sympathy, which guaranteed a degree of relatively better treatment during my detention and the short duration of my stay, despite the aforementioned procedural violations of my rights as a detainee. I can only thank all the lawyers, colleagues, friends, comrades and Egyptian and international organizations that expressed their support and offered me their assistance.
I wish for freedom for the thousands of people unfairly detained in Egyptian prisons. I reassert my rejection of the criminalization of journalistic work, the use of the Penal Code to imprison journalists, and the trial of civilians in military courts.
Hossam Bahgat
November 10, 2015 — 6 pm.
Human rights defender Hossam Bahgat was released from military intelligence on Tuesday, 10 November 2015.
Front Line Defenders has learned that Bahgat was released signing a document stating, “I, Hossam Bahgat, journalist at Mada Masr, declare that I will abide by legal and security procedures when publishing material pertaining to the Armed Forces. ... I was also not subjected to any moral or physical harm."
It remains unclear whether the charges levelled against him have been dropped.
On Monday, 9 November 2015, the Military Prosecution ordered the detention of the human rights defender. He was detained at the headquarters of the Military Intelligence for four days, pending investigation on charges of “publishing false news that harms national interests” and “disseminating information that disturbs public peace” for publishing reports about Egypt's military.
The Military Prosecution ordered today the detention of prominent journalist and human rights defender Mr Hossam Bahgat.
The human rights defender is now detained at the headquarters of the Military Intelligence for four days, pending investigation on charges of “publishing false news that harms national interests” and “disseminating information that disturbs public peace” for publishing reports about Egypt's military.
Hossam Bahgat received a summons from Military Intelligence at his home in Alexandria on Thursday, November 5th. He arrived at the Military Intelligence headquarters in Nasr City in Cairo at 9 am on Sunday, November 7th. He was not allowed to enter with his phone, or be accompanied by a lawyer. After several hours, Hossam Bahgat was transferred to Military Prosecution which interrogated him into the night in the presence of his lawyers and ordered his overnight detention at the headquarters of the Military Intelligence until it delivers its final decision on his case.
