Ahmed Ramadan - Al Jazeera Net
Human rights and political demands for an international investigation emerged following the death of the prominent leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Essam Al-Erian, in his prison, to be added to similar calls in the death of other opponents in prisons and various detention facilities, against the background of accusations by the Egyptian regime of killing them.
Calls from the Brotherhood and human rights organizations followed a new impetus for demands for investigation, which some considered a new candle in a dark tunnel, while some saw it as "unrealistic."
At dawn on August 13 this year, Egyptian media announced the death of Al-Arian after a heart attack, and the group called for an international investigation, following information that it said indicated that he had been tortured.
The group’s demand was followed by the launch of the “Save Them” campaign - an opposition human rights campaign - carried out by the Al-Shehab Center for Human Rights, Salam International Organization for the Protection of Human Rights, and Adalah for Human Rights. The campaign called for an investigation into the death of Al-Arian and the deaths in places of detention.
The appeals were directed to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Commission for Human Rights Office, members of the European Parliament, the Secretary-General of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, and members of the Human Rights Council of the League of Arab States.
The demand for an international investigation was repeated with the death of every leader inside prisons, without any positive responses. After the death of former President Mohamed Morsi, more than a year ago, the Muslim Brotherhood and political and human rights organizations also demanded an international investigation into his death.
Some talk about international legal difficulties in moving any lawsuit without official Egyptian approval, or because Egypt did not sign some laws that allow this.
Various actions
For his part, the director of the Shehab Center for Human Rights, Khalaf Bayoumi, said that the circumstances and circumstances of Al-Arian's death, and the information they received about an altercation that occurred with a prison officer, and the ensuing insistence of the Ministry of Interior not to allow his family to attend the washing made them doubt that The death is not natural, and it is not a death by medical negligence, but rather a case of premeditated murder, which prompted them to resort to all international mechanisms to demand pressure on the Egyptian regime to open an investigation into the incident.
Bayoumi added, in exclusive statements to Al-Jazeera Net, that the measures taken by the human rights organizations this time are different from their predecessors, as all the international mechanisms have been corresponded, and all the evidence that occurred has been attached, and the main reason for calling for an international investigation into the death of the Brotherhood leader is that they have received responses Positive this time.
On the talk about using the term international investigation for media consumption only, Bayoumi emphasized that human rights organizations did not submit this request except in cases that have irrefutable evidence that the regime has committed systematic, sustained and widespread crimes, especially a fourth case, the death of the late President Mohamed Morsi, and the crime of disappearance. Forced, and finally the Al-Arian case.
Bayoumi stressed that resorting to the request for international investigation into crimes committed by the regimes against their opponents is one of the most important means of human rights institutions, in light of the lack of confidence in the public prosecution or the local judiciary.
duty
In turn, the head of the Egyptian-American Dialogue Center, Abdel Mawgoud Dardiri, believes that the demand for an international investigation into the death of Al-Arian is a right, and what happened to Al-Arian and the way he was killed, washed and buried, cannot be tolerated and calls for doubt, he said.
Dardiri confirmed, in exclusive statements to Al-Jazeera Net, that seeking an international investigation is a duty, and he appealed to those he described as free from the Egyptian people, to join hands until the international investigation finds its way.
Dardiri clarified that there is a real desire among human rights workers to move within the framework of demanding an international investigation into all violations committed by the Egyptian regime against its people, asking them to verify the evidence they have, and to submit their notes to all civil society organizations outside Egypt, and in what A country can investigate these claims.
He added that jurists have a great role to play, and politicians also have a greater role to raise these demands in every international forum, stressing that an international memorial will be organized for the Brotherhood leader Essam El-Erian, next Sunday, with the participation of Egyptian, Arab and international parliamentarians, as a first step to work on spreading the issue internationally.
While the human rights researcher, Ahmed Al-Attar, denounced the calls for an international investigation into the death of Al-Arian, saying, "It is a fact that we must be well aware of the actual reality, and that we should not go behind rhetorical phrases and terms that we know well that will not be fulfilled for many reasons, and we realize that they do not ultimately lead to Actions. "
Al-Attar indicated, in exclusive statements to Al-Jazeera Net, that the demand to open an international investigation, which is an important human rights measure in a crime, must be investigated, but a number of facts, circumstances and evidence must be investigated, which he believes are not available in the case of Al-Arian's death, and that the available information is only Questions and doubts, and not fixed evidence or proof of the nature and circumstances of the death.