On June 15, the Egyptian Public Prosecution announced in a statement via its official Facebook page the referral of a police officer, whose identity has been concealed by Egyptian authorities, and five Matrouh residents to a criminal trial. This decision came in the wake of the murder of an Egyptian citizen by police gunfire and the events that occurred subsequently in Sidi Barrani, a city located in the Matrouh Governorate, approximately 90 kilometers from the Saloum land border crossing between Egypt and Libya.
Following the murder, protests erupted in the Barrani area, where the residents besieged a police station and another government building, causing chaos that led to the death of a junior member of the police force. Lawyers’ testimonies indicate that the public prosecution in Marsa Matrouh Governorate has decided to release the police officer accused of killing the Egyptian citizen Farhat Hawya Abd Rabbo Abu Bakr ( فرحات حويا عبد ربه أبو بكر), alias “Abdullah Al-Mahfouzi Al-Sharda”. Meanwhile, it ordered the detention of five residents under the charge of “rioting, thuggery, and causing the death of the officer Mohammed El-Sadek,” in addition to the release of three citizens who were arrested on the grounds of protesting.
According to the Prosecution’s statement, the murder of “Al-Mahfouzi” took place during a security campaign to combat “illegal migration” in the area, where the accused officer reportedly attempted to stop Al-Mahfouzi and fired at his vehicle when he refused to comply. However, according to the testimonies of locals from the area who have spoken to the Refugees Platform in Egypt (RPE), the “security campaign taking place in the area due to migration has been ongoing for the past three years but has intensified significantly after the incident of the capsizing of the boat in Greece.”
One of the residents describes the conditions following the boat incident as “hell,” adding that “there are inspection campaigns in homes and shops daily, in addition to people being detained in the streets. People are arrested every day, and by the time we discover where our children have been taken, they have already been accused of being smugglers when they’re actually poor.”
“The smugglers are well-known,” adds one of Matrouh’s leadership figures.
The testimonies of lawyers and community leaders in Marsa Matrouh confirm that over the past months, there has been a large-scale arrest campaign, which some have described as “random” with many individuals who have no relation to smuggling operations getting detained.
Per our investigation of the numerous complaints from residents of the area to security and community leaders in Matrouh, those detained are arrested without legal basis, disappearing for varying durations after their arrest before reappearing as defendants before the Prosecution on charges related to “smuggling” and “irregular migration.” Moreover, during their dissappearance, they are subjected to torture while the cases in which they are accused are being filed.
On the 14th of June, the Hellenic Coast Guard caused the capsizing of a boat off the Greek coast carrying around 750 migrants, of whom only 104 survived. According to the families’ testimonies, there were approximately 250 Egyptian passengers on board, including children, of whom only 43 survived.
The Egyptian response came late, Cairo’s first official statement being issued three days following the incident. The statements by The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Emigration included condolences and clarification of the role of Egyptian authorities in combating “smuggling of migrants,” excluding any information that could assist the victims’ families. The first practical step taken by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs came on the 19th of the same month, with a decision to form a specialized committee to follow-up on the incident. The committee then asked families to travel to Cairo for DNA testing. No subsequent statements have been issued regarding the disaster of the results of the samples.
Meanwhile, Athens accused 9 Egyptians of being responsible for the capsizing of the boat, whose trial is still ongoing amidst media reports indicating pressure from the Greek government on the survivors to testify against them and absolve the Greek government of any responsibilities. In a statement, the RPE has called on the Egyptian government to follow Egyptian law, which obliges providing support to the survivors and the families of victims and missing individuals.
Immediately after the boat capsizing disaster, it was reported that the boat was empty when departing from Egypt towards Libya, where it picked up migrants and transported them towards the Greek coast. Following the incident, security campaigns were intensified in both Egypt and Libya.
Many cases followed and documented by RPE over the past three years, as previously indicated in earlier reports, confirm that the Egyptian authorities commit systemic violations as part of a security campaign in many Egyptian governorates, with Matrouh being at the head. Individuals targeted by this campaign – estimated to be hundreds- have faced a consistent pattern of violations in all governorates, which included “ enforced disappearances, torture, arbitrary detention, and repeated prosecution on the same charges despite the judicial or investigative authorities’ order of release, which security authorities refuse to implement in most cases.”
One of the lawyers providing legal support to defendants in similar cases points out that “decisions of detention in such cases rely solely on investigations by the State Security Investigations Service and National Security Agency, most of which lack any evidence or complaints from victims. Defendants are subjected to egregious violations during the procedures, which the Prosecution fails to investigate.”
In a statement released by the Egyptian Public Prosecution on February 16, 2023, the Attorney General, Chancellor Hamada El-Sawy, ordered his technical bureau and Department of International Cooperation to examine “illegal migration cases nationwide, review the positions of the defendants, and prepare detailed reports and statistics on the outcome of the inspection to take appropriate actions regarding those and the accused therein.”
This statement came after a protest campaign that included vigils and a social media campaign organized by the families of the accused in migration cases, who are subjected to many violations. The campaign launched by the victims’ families and their lawyers called on the Public Prosecution to intervene to cease the violations against the accused. However, two months after the Prosecutor’s decision was issued, the RPE documented the continuation of the same violation patterns of fair trial requirements in cases of the same nature.
The decision of the Public Prosecution regarding the investigation outcomes, supposedly conducted by relevant prosecution offices to review the cases, has not been implemented to date.
Despite strong human rights opposition and calls for further measures to protect human rights within the framework of implementing joint agreements, the European Union approved 80 million euros in funding for the Egyptian Coast Guard. This funding contributed to tightening restrictions on irregular migration in Egypt through the use of Law 82 of 2016, which, among other things, criminalizes assisting irregular migrants and conflicts with other laws that expand the scope of human rights violations against people on the move.
On this matter, the platform has published a paper titled “EU Funding for Coast Guard (Enhancing a Partnership that Violates Human Rights)“, in which it illustrates the gravity of European funding regarding the rights of people on the move, Egyptians and others, especially with the absence of prior risk assessment or review of the outcomes of previous agreements and without any guarantee of accountability and prosecution of criminals.
