'Hope' as 60 rare Siamese crocodiles hatch in Cambodia

Published: 18 Jul 2024 - 


An undated handout photo released on July 18, 2024 by conservation group Fauna and Flora shows newly hatched baby Siamese crocodiles in Cardamom National Park, Koh Kong province. (Photo by Hor Leng / Conservation group Fauna and Flora / AFP)

Phnom Penh: A group of 60 rare Siamese crocodiles have hatched in Cambodia, boosting hopes for one of the world's most endangered reptiles, conservationists said Thursday.

Five Siamese crocodile nests were discovered in Cambodia's Cardamom National Park in mid-May, the country's environment and agriculture ministry said in a joint statement with conservation group Fauna and Flora.

The nests contained 106 eggs, of which 66 were fertilised, and a total of 60 Siamese crocodile eggs successfully hatched between June 27 and 30, the ministry said.

"This discovery indicates that the area is a key habitat for natural crocodiles, providing hope for the species' recovery," they said in the statement.

Researchers say there are approximately 1,000 Siamese crocodiles worldwide, including around 300 individuals in the wild in Cambodia.

Their survival is threatened by poachers who supply eggs and adult reptiles to crocodile farms around the region, where their skins are turned into luxury belts, shoes and handbags.

Cambodian environment minister Eang Sophalleth said it was a source of "pride" that the country is home to some of the world's rarest species, pledging continued efforts to "preserve biodiversity."

Deforestation and poaching have devastated many species in Cambodia, one of Asia's poorest and most corrupt nations.

In its haste to develop, the government has been criticised for allowing firms to clear hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest land -- including in protected zones -- for everything from rubber and sugar cane plantations to hydropower dams.

The successful mass hatching shows the vital importance" of protecting the Cardamom National Park, said Pablo Sinovas, country director of Fauna & Flora Cambodia programme.

"With only a few hundred individuals estimated in the wild, the hatching of 60 new crocodiles is a tremendous boost," Sinovas added.

Siamese crocodiles grow up to three metres in length and the Mekong River basin and wetlands in Cambodia appear to hold the only remaining wild populations, according to conservation group WWF.

They are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

106 rare crocodile eggs are found in Cambodia, the biggest such discovery in 20 years

Eggs of a rare Siamese crocodile species hatch in Cardamom National Park in June, 2024. (Bros Pov/Fauna & Flora via AP)

By The Associated Press

Posted Jul 18, 2024 07:06:19 AM.

 

Last Updated Jul 18, 2024 08:24:36 AM.

PNOMH PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Conservationists in Cambodia found 106 eggs of rare Siamese crocodile species in a western Cambodian wildlife sanctuary, officials said Thursday, calling it the biggest discovery in the last 20 years, giving new hope for the world’s rarest crocodile species’ survival in the wild.

The group discovered the species eggs in Cardamom National Park in May. Between June 27 and 30, a total of 60 eggs were successfully hatched, according to a joint statement issued by the ministries of agriculture and environment along with the conservation group Fauna & Flora.

“This discovery indicates that the area is a key habitat for wild crocodiles, providing hope for the species recovery,” the statement said.

The area and the young reptiles have been under the protection of Cardamom National Park Wildlife Sanctuary rangers, it added.

The crocodile species was once widespread across Southeast Asia but is now listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. It had all but disappeared by the 1990s due to a combination of poaching, habitat destruction and crossbreeding with other crocodile species.

Cambodian environment minister, Eang Sophalleth, said his ministry is working on the conservation and habitat restoration of these critically endangered Siamese crocodiles.

“The Siamese crocodiles play an important role in the ecosystem and the discovery of the five nets successfully hatching 60 eggs reflects that the Cardamom National Park is a safe and suitable habitat for this species,” Sophalleth said in Thursday’s statement.

It’s believed only about 1,000 Siamese crocodiles remain in the wild, with more than 300 of them in Cambodia.

In 2017, wildlife researchers found six eggs in Sre Ambel district in the southern province of Koh Kong as they were exploring for tracks and signs of the reptile. Later in September 2021, eight hatchlings were found by conservationists in a river in the Srepok wildlife sanctuary in eastern Cambodia which raised hopes for its survival in the wild.

The Associated Press

Pakistan's intelligence agencies gain legal cover for surveillance

Pakistan's intelligence agencies gain legal cover for surveillance

Is it a national security protection or privacy threat?

Written byRamna Saeed

Posted 18 July 2024

The Supreme Court of Pakistan. Image taken by the author.

Pakistan has formally authorized the military-run Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to intercept citizens’ phone calls and messages under the guise of national security, a term often used by the state to infringe on citizens’ rights. Despite the Supreme Court's rulings declaring such surveillance illegal and unconstitutional, violating the dignity of man as enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution of Pakistan, this authorization persists.

During an ongoing audio leak case involving Bushra Bibi, wife of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) was informed about a Lawful Intercept Management System (LIMS) being in place without any legal backing. Lawful interception (LIMS) enables law enforcement agencies, with court orders or legal authorization, to selectively wiretap targeted individual telecommunications subscribers. Telecom companies in the country provided intelligence agencies with access to the phone calls, messages, and web browsing data of 2 percent (approximately 4 million) of their users through LIMS. Subsequently, the government issued a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) notification, permitting the ISI to monitor citizens under Section 54/1 of the Pakistan Telecommunication Act 1996, thereby granting it legal cover.

This controversial decision has initiated a debate among opposition leaders, citizens, and digital rights activists on social media, who argue that it violates citizens’ constitutional rights under Article 4.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) states that the notification flagrantly violates citizens’ constitutionally protected rights:

Reema Omar, a legal advisor for South Asia at the International Commission of Jurists, highlights the reasons why the notification was made in bad faith:

Surveillance laws in Pakistan:

Since its independence in 1947, Pakistan has utilized various legislations and laws to monitor its citizens. The Telegraph Act of 1885 allowed the interception of messages and control of licensed telegraphs in the interest of public safety or during emergencies. The Federal Investigation Agency Act of 1974 aimed to prevent and detect various crimes, including offences under the Pakistan Penal Code, Official Secrets Act, and Prevention of Corruption Act. The Pakistan Telecommunication Act of 1996 outlined a framework for surveillance and interception of telecommunications.

More recently, the Investigation for Fair Trial Act of 2013 allowed access to various forms of communication, such as emails, and telephone calls, with a court order, however, investigative agencies were not given powers to monitor private communications. The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) of 2016 granted the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) the power to block or remove information on the internet. The Monitoring and Reconciliation of Telephony Traffic Regulations of 2010 required providers to establish systems for real-time monitoring and recording of network traffic, banned the use of encryption software and granted PTA the authority to monitor all internet traffic through a monitoring system that internet service providers (ISPs) were mandated to install.

History of Audio leak cases in Pakistan

In the past, Pakistani Prime Ministers, federal ministers, and high-ranking officials have alleged that their private telephone conversations were made public. A notable case is Benazir Bhutto vs. the President of Pakistan, where the government was found guilty of illegally tapping the phones of political opponents with support from state intelligence agencies. The Supreme Court ruled that the government must obtain permission from a commission or the Supreme Court for each case of phone tapping until appropriate legislation was enacted to protect the constitutional rights of privacy and freedom of speech. In 2013, Parliament passed the Investigation for Fair Trial Act.

Just before the February 8 elections, a series of audio and video leaks involving various politicians, military officials, and judges surfaced on social media. While many of these leaks were either refuted or met with silence, the advent of AI-generated content has added complexity and potential threats, necessitating forensic analysis to determine recording authenticity. In 2019, in the video scandal case involving an Accountability Court judge, the Supreme Court ruled that “No audio tape or video can be relied upon by a court until a forensic report is prepared by an analyst from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency, as per Section 9(3) of the Punjab Forensic Science Agency Act, 2007.

Reactions to this decision:

Omar Ayub Khan, the opposition leader in Parliament, believes the spy agency will target lawmakers and has labelled the notification a “black law.”

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, a strong supporter of the move, recalled Imran Khan’s support for the military agency (ISI) engaging in unauthorized surveillance of politicians’ phone calls.

Six members of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) have challenged the government's decision to legalize mass surveillance in the Islamabad High Court, requesting that the court declare it null and void. A petition also has been filed in the Lahore High Court challenging this decision, arguing that call-tapping constitutes a serious invasion of privacy.

When Global Voices inquired with a senior official of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) about LIMS, they responded, “We do not handle this matter, and PTA is not involved in such activities.”

Global Voices spoke with Sadaf Khan of the non-profit Media Matters for Democracy via WhatsApp about the lack of awareness surrounding surveillance. She noted:

Pakistan has low literacy, and surveillance regulations are rarely understood or discussed by the public. This lack of awareness is concerning, as the fear of government surveillance impacts online freedom of expression. The key issue is that we learned about surveillance through court documents indicating it occurred without adhering to the Fair Trial Act of 2013. This revelation creates fear, leading to self-censorship and hindering freedom of expression.

She further stated that the state must conduct fair surveillance:

Pakistan faces significant law enforcement challenges, including ongoing terrorism threats. Surveillance is a crucial strategy for law enforcement worldwide to investigate and enforce laws. To ensure fair use of such invasive procedures, Pakistan enacted the Investigations for Fair Trial Act in 2013, which introduced judicial procedures for lawful surveillance, including warrant requirements and timelines. Similarly, PECA includes procedures for digital surveillance requiring judicial intervention. However, current authorizations through the PTA bypass these protective mechanisms, which is very concerning. While national security is important, there must be a balance through the enforcement of protective laws, ensuring that surveillance is both fair and just.

Barrister Ali Tahir told Global Voices via WhatsApp:

Surveillance in Pakistan primarily involves state monitoring, supported by private companies and telecom providers. This collaboration operates under privacy-eroding laws and legal uncertainties. Even without legal backing, intelligence agencies intercept and record calls and texts illegally. High-profile figures, including Prime Ministers and Chief Justices, have been victims of leaked audios.

When asked about the purpose behind the interception, he further stated:

It is clearly not for legal purposes. The IHC court has revealed no warrants under the law for eleven years, indicating illegal call tapping. Even if it is for security, the lack of warrants makes it illegal. Article 14(1) of the Constitution guarantees the right to privacy, which extends to phone calls. Laws like the Monitoring and Reconciliation of Telephony Traffic Regulations (2010) and the Investigation for Fair Trial Act (2013) regulate surveillance, requiring court warrants and permissions from high-level officials for specific offenses. No agency should arbitrarily invade an individual's privacy, as doing so is against the state's interests.

This post is part of Advox, a Global Voices project dedicated to protecting freedom of expression online. All Posts

'Widespread Fear': Spate Of Killings In Pakistan's Restive Northwest Targets Journalists

July 18, 2024 
By Khalida Niaz and
Frud Bezhan

Pakistani journalist Hassan Zeb was killed by unidentified armed men in northwestern Pakistan on July 14.

Hassan Zeb was in his car when two unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire and killed him in broad daylight.

The brazen attack occurred on July 14 outside Peshawar, the capital of the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Zeb is the third reporter to be killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a restive region bordering Afghanistan that has witnessed rising militant attacks, in recent months.

Overall, eight journalists have been killed in the South Asian nation of some 240 million people in 2024, a record number, highlighting the growing threats to media workers.

'I Heard The Gunfire'

Zeb’s brother, Anwar, witnessed the attack that occurred in the district of Nowshera.

“I was purchasing something from a shop while Hassan was sitting in the car,” he told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal. “I heard the gunfire and saw that he was shot. I didn’t recognize the motorcyclists who attacked my brother.”

Anwar Zeb said his brother -- a father of six who worked for the Peshawar-based Aaj newspaper -- did not have any enemies and had not received threats to his life.

Reporters staged a protest against the killing of Zeb on July 15, accusing the authorities of doing little to protect media workers.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), strongly condemned Zeb’s killing in a statement on July 15 and called on the Pakistani government to protect journalists amid what they described as “rampant violence and impunity.”

Dozens of journalists protested the killing of reporter Khalil Afridi, who was shot dead by unknown gunmen on June 18.

String Of Killings

Zeb’s killing came after Khalil Afridi was shot dead on June 18 by hooded armed men, who had stopped the reporter’s car and opened fire.

Police said Afridi was on his way home from a picnic area with a friend in the district of Khyber when the incident occurred.

Afridi worked for the Pashto-language Khyber TV and was a civil society activist. Afridi’s family said he had survived two previous attempts on his life. They said he had received threats before his death.

A month earlier, freelance journalist Kamran Dawar was killed by unidentified gunmen in front of his home in the district of North Waziristan.

Dawar ran a YouTube channel and a Facebook TV news channel called Waziristan TV. Known for his criticism of Pakistan’s all-powerful army, he had received threats before his death.

No group has responsibility for any of the deaths.

'They Face Threats'

Gohar Ali of the Freedom Network, a nongovernmental organization working for media freedom and freedom of expression in Pakistan, said the perpetrators are believed to be militants.

“Journalists are also threatened by state actors. [Reporters] cannot work independently, and when they do, they face threats.”

Pakistan is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.

The country’s northwest has been the scene of a yearslong insurgency by the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, or Pakistani Taliban, extremist group. Other militant groups like Islamic State and Al-Qaeda as well as smaller militant outfits also operate and carry out attacks.

The region has witnessed a sharp rise in militant attacks since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021, a move that boosted many extremist groups in Pakistan.

“The media environment has changed because of such incidents,” said Ali, referring to the spate of killings targeting journalists. “There is widespread fear among the journalism community, and [reporters] cannot report [freely and] independently.”

International media watchdogs have also documented the increasing repression of freedom of expression and the intimidation of journalists.

Over 300 journalists and bloggers this year were affected by state coercion and targeted, including eight who were charged with alleged sedition, terrorism and incitement to violence, according to the IFJ’s annual press freedom report, which was released in May.

The report also noted “largescale restrictions on the Internet and social-media access.”

Khalida Niaz
Khalida Niaz is a Peshawar-based reporter for RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal.



Frud Bezhan

Frud Bezhan is the regional desk editor for Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan in the Central Newsroom at RFE/RL. Previously, he was a correspondent and reported from Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Turkey. Prior to joining RFE/RL in 2012, he worked as a freelance journalist in Afghanistan and contributed to several Australian newspapers, including The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

In Kyrgyzstan, an ‘unprecedented crackdown’ on free press raises alarm

As several laws threaten to criminalise their work, investigative reporters are fleeing the Central Asian nation.

Rinat Tuhvatshin (left), head of the investigative outlet Kloop, fled Kyrgyzstan in 2023 fearing a media crackdown and is now based in Poland. Aidai Irgebai (right), a presenter, producer and editor with Kloop, says she may never return to Bishkek

 [Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Al Jazeera]

By Aigerim Turgunbaeva and Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska
Published On 18 Jul 2024

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and Warsaw, Poland – Last year, Aidai Irgebai had a serious talk with her two daughters, aged nine and seven.

The girls would not return to their school in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s capital, when the holiday break was over, Irgebai told them. In fact, they may not return home at all

They were in Warsaw, Poland’s capital, where Kloop, a well-known investigative media outlet that Irgebai works for, had set up a new office pre-emptively, fearing the consequences of a growing crackdown against independent journalism in Kyrgyzstan.

With hindsight, that seems like a prescient move.

Before the summer ended, a court ruled that Kloop should be shut down, claiming that it was not properly registered as a media organisation. Kloop, still operating for now, is appealing the decision.

“They can easily silence us by putting pressure on our children. I’m not very good at keeping quiet, so it became clear that I had to stay abroad to continue working as a journalist,” Irgebai, 34, told Al Jazeera in Kloop’s office in central Warsaw.

The towering Kyrgyz Ministry of Culture, Information, Sports and Youth Policy building in Bishkek [Aigerim Turgunbaeva/Al Jazeera]

Kyrgyzstan has gone through three revolutions over the past 20 years and has long been viewed as the freest post-Soviet republic in Central Asia.

The last revolution in 2020 brought to power President Sadyr Japarov, who in tandem with security services chief Kamchybek Tashiev has ruled the country since, gradually strengthening their grip on power.

This has become difficult, however, as the number of critical voices and professional investigative teams rose, having been developed over the years of relative freedom.

Kloop and other Kyrgyz media have investigated high-level corruption, such as in 2020 when Kloop and its partners revealed that a powerful former customs official oversaw a large-scale transnational scheme, or in May this year, when damning reports implicated people close to Japarov.

Japarov appears determined to challenge them.

Laws tighten control of media as outlets are targeted

In 2021, a new law obliged NGOs to file complex tax reports as human rights activists were starting to be seen as agents of a Western agenda and LGBTQ propaganda. According to Eurasianet, the MP championing the law has positioned herself as for against “Western ideology” and suggested LGBTQ advocacy leads to higher divorce rates.

In 2022, the parliament passed a “false information” bill which gave the government more power to remove unwanted online content. Under the law, the state can force an outlet to remove content it deems to be false information. Activists say it’s a form of censorship.

A few months later, Kyrgyzstan blocked the website and bank accounts of Radio Azattyk – the Kyrgyz service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, citing counterterrorism and anti-money laundering reasons. Jamie Fly, the organisation’s chief, promised to appeal the court’s “outrageous decision”. In July 2023, a Kyrgyz court overruled the government’s decision.

By 2023, Kyrgyzstan plummeted by 50 places to 122 from 72 in Reporters Without Borders’s annual press freedom ranking.

In January 2024, 11 former and current reporters for the Temirov Live investigative group were arrested, having been charged with calling for mass riots. Its office was raided and documents were confiscated while its founder, Bolot Temirov, was stripped of his Kyrgyz citizenship and deported to Russia as he holds a Russian passport.

In April 2024, Japarov signed the foreign agents law mirroring the Russian legislation which requires NGOs receiving funding from abroad to register as “foreign representatives” and undergo additional auditing processes.

Now, a new media law is currently in the works. Once passed, civil society groups say it will give the government the power against registering “undesirable” media without citing legal grounds. The government claims that the current law does not reflect the challenges of contemporary media, especially online journalism.
‘Unprecedented crackdown on free press in Kyrgyzstan’

“The recent unprecedented crackdown on free press in Kyrgyzstan is the authorities’ direct response to the investigative reporting by Kloop and Temirov Live – both members of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project,” Gulnoza Said, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, told Al Jazeera.

“They uncovered corruption by the highest-level officials, including the head of the Kyrgyz security services and family members of President Japarov. The reaction of the authorities was to suppress these voices.”

Kloop no longer believes in the rule of law back home. As part of a trial last February, several psychiatrists testifying on behalf of the state said that the website’s content affected Kyrgyzstanis’ mental health by upsetting people with negative information.

“Most journalists from our team who were threatened directly are already out of the country,” said Rinat Tuhvatshin, 40, head of Kloop. He left Kyrgyzstan in 2023 and is now based in Warsaw.

“It’s hard to switch to remote model of work, but we had to develop new mechanisms to continue operating. If they can stop us, they can stop anyone”.

But the authorities do not agree with the diagnosis of the country’s democratic backsliding.

“According to the annual report of the Reporters Without Borders, the Kyrgyz Republic has improved its performance compared to 2023 and moved up two places – from 122nd to 120th place,” Chyngyz Esengul uulu, Kyrgyzstan’s deputy minister of culture, information, sports and youth policy and the chairman of a group working on the new media law, told Al Jazeera.

“We can confidently say that Kyrgyzstan maintains its position in the ranking, confirming its commitment to democratic values and support for an open society. This is a source of national pride which demonstrates the country’s significant efforts to strengthening freedom of speech and media independence.”

But an apparent crackdown continues. In early July, Akyn Askat Zhetigen, a local folk poet and singer, continuing the old Kyrgyz tradition of oral socio-political commentary, was sentenced to three years in prison for criticising the government on social media.

“There is systematic repression of anyone who tries to speak freely. Dozens, if not hundreds, of regular people who said something online that the authorities did not approve of now languish in prisons,” Tuhvatshin, Kloop’s founder told Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the claim, since state officials do not release data about prisoners.

“In part, the government’s actions are caused by fear. They are afraid of the people of Kyrgyzstan, of their own people. Japarov – because a revolution brought him to power. Tashiev – because he can be fired any day. I think they’re also afraid of each other,” added Tuhvatshin.

Meanwhile, other investigative media outlets are trying to navigate the new reality.

Dilbar Alimova, the 39-year-old editor-in-chief of the PolitKlinika website, which reports on social and political issues, feels like the pressure on free media intensified with Japarov’s coming to power.

PolitKlinika’s office was raided in 2020 by unknown perpetrators and sued a year later by a state media channel for allegedly reporting fake news about international loans taken by Japarov. There were also several attempts between 2018 and 2022 to block the website. In January, one of PolitKlinika’s employees, Tynystan Asypbek – also a former employee of Temirov Live, was arrested. His house was searched and his property was confiscated. He remains under house arrest.

“The government has succeeded in making us divided and weak. Now every journalist and activist exercises self-censorship,” Alimova said, sitting in her Bishkek office.

“But they will not break us. Kyrgyz people love independence and have proven it more than once. In one way or another, journalists will find a way to speak up.”

Egypt’s Carceral Complex

Since taking power, el-Sisi has vastly expanded his country’s network of prisons and detention centres



AUTHOR
Hossam el-Hamalawy
NEWS | 07/15/2024

Wadi el-Natrun Correctional & Rehabilition Center, a newly constructed wing of Wadi el-Natrun Prison, located north of Cairo.

Photo: IMAGO / Joerg Boethling

For over a month now, hundreds of prisoners in Egypt’s notorious Badr 1 Prison, around 70 kilometres northeast of Cairo, have been staging a hunger strike against torture and abusive conditions. An unprecedented heatwave has engulfed the country, turning those dismal prison cells into ovens. Since the start of the year, rights groups have documented the death of at least 27 people in prisons and police stations run by the Ministry of Interior (MOI) — almost half of them died in June alone.

Hossam el-Hamalawy is an Egyptian journalist and socialist activist currently based in Berlin. His posts appear regularly on Substack and Twitter.

The hunger strike has received zero coverage in the local press, controlled and micromanaged by the General Intelligence Service. The state’s crackdown was immediate, subjecting some to solitary confinement, escalating the abusive treatment, and transferring scores to remote prisons. The prisoners’ families found no channel to communicate their grievances except social media. They launched a petition, already signed by more than 1,300 families of prisoners from Badr 1 Prison and other carceral centres, begging the regime to release their loved ones in exchange for a pledge to avoid any form of political activism or online writing.

While Egyptian prisons have always been infamous for notoriety, the situation severely deteriorated following the July 2013 coup. The mass crackdowns by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi following the July 2013 coup have meant a growing population behind bars, kept in dismal conditions. As the regime consolidated, prisons became a cornerstone in the survival of a new order, which, unlike previous regimes, did not manage dissent, but instead eradicated it using lethal and carceral violence.
The Carceral Regime

Some local rights activists estimated the total number of incarcerated following the coup to be as high as 120,000 convicted prisoners and pre-trial detainees. Almost half of them were held on “political” grounds, while the other half for “criminal” reasons. Reports by other rights watchdogs provided slightly more conservative estimates. Around 41,000 persons were arrested or charged during the first year after the coup. According to the state-controlled National Council for Human Rights, Egypt’s prisons were operating at 150 percent of capacity by 2015.

Among the MOI’s “achievements” highlighted by the presidency’s official mouthpiece, the State Information Service, was the arrest of 22,000 “terrorist elements” in six years (2014–20). However, it is not clear how many of those were charged or released. In 2020 and 2021, at least 16,000 people faced prosecution on political charges, according to a local independent research group. By 2024, Haitham Muhammadein, a veteran labour lawyer and former prisoner, estimated the total number of political prisoners and detainees to be anywhere between 10,000 and 20,000.

The arrests appear to surge (and largely assume a random nature) before, during, and after sporadic demonstrations or online calls for protests. For instance, more than 4,400 were rounded up following the 20 September 2019 protests. A year later, at least 2,400 people were arrested in connection to the 20 September 2020 protests. In the run-up to and during the COP27 summit in Sharm al-Sheikh, the police arrested over 800 persons as online calls for anti-Sisi protests circulated in cyberspace in November 2022.


Prisoners suffer from inadequate food, lack of sufficient access to ventilation, are deprived of exercise, prevented from family contact, and deliberately denied medical care.

The difficulty in determining accurate incarceration figures stems not only from the regime’s lack of transparency but also from a revolving door carceral policy adopted by the MOI, which Egyptian activists dubbed tadwīr, or rotation. In September 2013, Interim President Adly Mansour ratified the Criminal Procedures Law, removing time limits on pre-trial detention. From then on, the prosecutors collaborated with the police to keep thousands in a state of perpetual incarceration without trial.

Whenever detainees are ordered to be released by the prosecutor’s office, they are sent to police stations or Homeland Security (HS) facilities, where they “disappear” for days, weeks, or months before surfacing again in a new case, carrying the same charges, beginning their saga anew. This incarceration loop can stretch beyond three years, where the detainee may get “rotated” through as many as six different cases. An investigative report by the New York Times estimated that in just six months (September 2020 to February 2021), approximately 4,500 people were trapped in this vicious cycle of pre-trial detention.
Prisons, Prisons, and More Prisons

Since the coup, at least 34 new MOI-run prisons had been built by 2021 alone. Incarceration conditions are appalling. Cells are overcrowded, with dismal hygiene standards. “The cell, which used to house five or six [people], is now required to house 20 to 25”, recalls Taher Mukhtar, a medical doctor and former political prisoner himself. “People sleep on the floors, with little private space. Respiratory and skin diseases spread easily.”

Prisoners suffer from inadequate food, lack of sufficient access to ventilation, are deprived of exercise, prevented from family contact, and deliberately denied medical care. Torture, including sexual violenceagainst both men and women, has been systematically employed by the MOI in prisons, police stations, and HS sites. Some prisoners are kept in solitary confinement indefinitely. High-profile prisoners, mostly Islamists, have been locked up in isolated cells since 2013. “I have clients who have been in solitary confinement for nine years in a row”, says a Cairo lawyer representing several political prisoners. “They have also been denied any family visits for at least six years.”

During the period from 30 June 2013 to 30 November 2019, a local rights group documented at least 958 deaths in custody, including nine minors. Around 70 percent of the deaths resulted from intentional denial of medical care, 14 percent from torture, and 7 percent from suicide. By 2022, the deaths had already exceeded 1,000.
The Torturers

The MOI’s carceral brutality following the coup was enabled by police major generals who ran Qiṭāʿ al-Suǧūn, the Prison Sector, and were infamous for their long records of involvement in human rights violations, such as Hassan el-Suhagi, Hisham el-Baradie, and Tarek Marzouk. However, the conditions, especially for the political prisoners, grew even worse after the HS got involved.

Before 2011, the State Security Police (SS), the forerunner to the HS, had a presence in the prison facilities, assigned to a group under the Counter-Extremism Administration dubbed Maǧmūʿat Amn al-Suǧūn, Prisons Security Group. The SS commanding officer usually had the final say in how maximum-security prisons were run. This continued to be the case with HS following the coup. There were even some prisons that did not have stationed HS officers.

However, since 2016 or 2017, HS control of the prison system has evolved into a semi-absolute authority, bypassing the wardens and regular officers in all prisons. HS officers and their designated informers micromanage all details related to incarceration conditions, mostly for political rather than “criminal” prisoners. In rare cases, a warden or a regular prison officer could be as powerful as the HS due to family connections and unofficial patronage relations.
Egypt’s Orwellian Turn

The MOI declared in August 2021 that it was officially changing the name of the Prison Sector to Qiṭāʿ al-Ḥimāya al-Muǧtamaʿiyya, the Community Protection Sector. Prisons were to be renamed as “reform and rehabilitation centres”. Wardens were to be called “centre directors”, while prisoners would be referred to as “inmates”. In the following month, Sisi announced the construction of Egypt’s “biggest prison complex”, built “US-style”, in a phone call with a talk show host.

This new direction was marketed by Sisi’s publicists as part of his democratic reforms at a time when the regime was lambasted locally and internationally over its human rights record. But beneath the changes in titles, a more brutal carceral policing was evolving.

In October 2021, the first of these complexes was inaugurated in Wadi al-Natron, around 90 kilometres northwest of Cairo, and was hailed by the MOI as one of the achievements of Sisi’s New Republic. The local media also celebrated the event, proudly describing it as the “biggest prison complex in the world”. By the end of the same year, the second complex built in Badr City, around 70 kilometres northeast of Cairo, started operations.


Already paranoid about the prospects for another 2011 scenario and with little support in the country outside the ranks of the military and security services, the Sisi regime is unlikely to reverse its carceral policies anytime soon.

According to interviews I conducted with rights lawyers and activists, fluorescent lights are switched on in most cells that confine political prisoners in both complexes, constituting psychological torture. The following year, after protests by the prisoners and their families raising the issue on social media, the lights were dimmed by midnight.

CCTV cameras are installed not just in the corridors but also to peer inside the cells, leaving no space for privacy except in the toilets. These video feeds appear part of a centralized grid run from the Prison Sector administrative office. Food rations are insufficient. Extra clothes or blankets to provide warmth in winter are not allowed. Those in pre-trial detention no longer leave their prison facility to go to courts or prosecutors’ offices. Instead, they are taken handcuffed to a room in their prison section, where the hearings are conducted through video conference calls.

By October 2023, the Interior Minister announced that five new mega-prison complexes had been built. Twenty-six old prisons, he added, were shut down or demolished to be used as real estate assets for the Egyptian state.
A Blocked Horizon

Human rights activists and political pundits have long been warning of the social costs of the regime’s carceral drive and severe repression. Yet, for a counterrevolutionary regime ideologically and structurally geared towards considering popular unrest as its dominant threat, the use of carceral and lethal violence is “inescapable”, as Egyptian pundit Maged Mandour remarks. “Simply put, in order for the regime to justify the dominance of the military, insidious enemies need to exist — otherwise, its continued dominance is no longer justified.”

A decade of white elephant projects and mismanagement of the country’s wealth has brought the Egyptian economy to its worst economic malaise since the Free Officers founded the Republican order in 1953. Already paranoid about the prospects for another 2011 scenario and with little support in the country outside the ranks of the military and security services, the Sisi regime is unlikely to reverse its carceral policies anytime soon.

RLS - Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung (rosalux.de)

Six political detainees die in Egyptian prisons in one week

A rights group said the detention centre had refused one detainee access to a specialist doctor after he complained about chest pains.

The New Arab Staff
18 July, 2024

Six political prisoners died in detention centres in the space of one week in Egypt [Getty]


The death of six detainees in Egyptian prisons in the space of one week has sparked concerns among rights groups, further highlighting terrible conditions in prisons across the country.

The Egyptian Network for Human Rights (ENHR) reported that the six political prisoners died in a detention centre in the Sharqia governorate while tens of thousands of other detainees enter their 12th year behind bars.

One of the prisoners was identified as Mohamed Farouk Hussein, 49, who was reportedly suffering from health issues and was finally transferred to Zagazig Hospital where he died on Monday.

Hussein had suffered chest pains and shortness of breath for several weeks with his requests for treatment repeatedly refused by prison authorities, the ENHR said.

The rights group also warned that prison conditions had deteriorated across the country, with high temperatures and overcrowding common, with some detention centres three times over capacity.


Five other detainees died in the same prison within 48 hours, ENHR said, pinning the cause of their death to suffocation due to poor ventilation, dehydration, high temperatures, and overcrowding, while prison authorities only distribute water for two hours a day despite the suffocating heat.

Poor sanitary conditions within the prison had also caused the spread of diseases.

"These deaths are a microcosm of the serious violations that occur in police detention centres in Egypt, amid a complete lack of oversight and inspection by the responsible authorities," Ahmed El Attar, the executive director of ENHR said in a statement cited by various news publications.
Sexual harassment

ENHR recently reported several cases of sexual harassment and poor treatment of women detainees by senior police officers at the Zagazig detention centre.

In a testimony to the rights group, one female prisoner said women there are often touched inappropriately when male officers search them with no female staff working in the women's section of the detention centre.

ENHR said it "holds the ministry of interior responsible for the deaths of detainees", calling for immediate action and an investigation into the deaths.

It comes as Amnesty International warned that 119 people had been detained in a crackdown over calls for protests over rising energy prices and power cuts which never materialised.

Local and international human rights groups estimate that Egypt has detained as many as 60,000 people since current President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi overthrew Mohamed Morsi, the country's first democratically elected leader, in a military coup in 2013.

More than 100 protesters arbitrarily detained in Egypt since July 1

Matteo Piccioli | Maastricht U. Faculty of Law, NL

JULY 18, 2024 

Since the start of July, Egyptian security forces have detained 119 people, including at least one child, for participating in anti-government protests, human rights advocacy organization Amnesty International reported Thursday.

In recent weeks, frustrations about price hikes and power cuts have fueled demonstrations and calls for revolution against the government of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The arrests have spanned six governorates since early July, come amid rising public discontent over soaring prices and ongoing power cuts in the country.

In reporting on the arrest figures, Amnesty International cited human rights lawyers from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Freedoms (EIPR) and the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF). Seven of these arbitrary arrests occurred over content posted on Facebook and X claiming anti-government protests. Most of the charges investigated against the detainees by the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) include “joining a terrorist group, publishing false news and misuse of social media”.

Arbitrary arrests are prohibited under international law by Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This article establishes the right to liberty and security, entailing that no individual shall be subjected to arbitrary arrests. Referring to the 119 cases presented, Mahmoud Shalaby, Amnesty International’s Egypt Researcher, stated:”The Egyptian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all those arbitrarily detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression”.

Egypt has been experiencing a rise in prices and continuous electricity cuts as part of a series of cost-saving measures. This has created general discontent against the government which has increased pressure against protesters, opposition activists, and human rights advocates. As of June 15, human rights organizations have called for Egypt to stop targeting human rights lawyers and stop disregarding international human rights norms.

Amnesty International calls for a different approach by the government to the situation. As Shalaby said, “Instead of silencing people for expressing their discontent and continuing to use brutal tactics to eradicate any public protests, the government of Egypt must take concrete steps to fulfill people’s social and economic rights”.

Egypt: More than 100 arbitrarily detained over calls for anti-government protests


©KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images

July 18, 2024

The Egyptian authorities have embarked on a new wave of arbitrary arrests of dozens of people against the backdrop of calls for anti-government protests amid rising public discontent at soaring prices and ongoing power cuts, Amnesty International said today.

Since the beginning of July, Egyptian security forces have arbitrarily detained 119 individuals, including at least seven women and one child, in at least six governorates, in connection to online calls for a “Dignity Revolution” on 12 July. Detainees posted on their social media accounts calling for protests and for the ousting of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government due to price hikes and the year-long power cuts. The protests eventually did not materialize.

“It is utterly shameful that complaining about worsening economic and living standards means imprisonment in Egypt. Instead of silencing people for expressing their discontent and continuing to use brutal tactics to eradicate any public protests, the government of Egypt must take concrete steps to fulfill people’s social and economic rights,” said Mahmoud Shalaby, Amnesty International’s Egypt Researcher.

“The Egyptian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all those arbitrarily detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression. They must ensure that people can exercise their right to protest without having to fear retribution.”

Egypt has been witnessing a rise in discontent among people who are struggling to meet their basic needs amid hikes in food and fuel prices and a shortage of medicines across the country.

In January 2024, people in Egypt were hit by a series of price hikes that included telecom fares and metro tickets. Since July 2023, the Egyptian government has implemented cost-saving measures including cutting electricity for two hours every day in all areas of the country, except some governorates with high numbers of tourists. The cuts affect several aspects of life in the country, including access to water which requires pumps to reach higher floors in many buildings. Local media reported several deaths of people who got stuck in elevators during the cuts.

It is utterly shameful that complaining about worsening economic and living standards means imprisonment in Egypt.Mahmoud Shalaby, Amnesty International

Amnesty International conducted interviews with human rights lawyers representing eight detainees, including lawyers at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Freedoms (EIPR) and the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF). They said the total number of people brought before the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) in the criminal cases involving their clients in relation to the protests calls was 119 as of 16 July 2024.

Eight of the detainees, aged from their thirties to their sixties, do not have a history of political activism and come from divergent backgrounds and professions. Seven posted content on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) under the hashtag “Dignity Revolution” calling for anti-government protests. One posted a video calling the parliament to impeach President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Security forces detained the eight at their houses and workplaces in Cairo, Giza, Al Gharbia, Beni Souif, Red Sea, Alexandria and Menoufia governorates, before transferring them to police stations or National Security Agency (NSA) facilities. They kept seven of the eight incommunicado for periods ranging between two to five days. NSA agents questioned them while being blindfolded, which amounts to ill-treatment, and without the presence of a lawyer.

Authorities later transferred the detainees to the SSSP which opened investigations against them over charges of ‘joining a terrorist group’, ‘publishing false news’ and ‘misuse of social media.’ The prosecution ordered the pretrial detention of the eight along with 111others who faced similar charges, for 15 days pending investigations. The evidence against the eight individuals detained was screenshots from their social media accounts in addition to their personal mobiles.

SSSP prosecutors asked the detainees about their personal and professional life, the reasons they supported the protests calls, and whether they expected people to take to the streets on 12 July or not.

A detainee in his forties told the prosecutors that he has three children and has been suffering to provide for them despite working long hours in a physically demanding job, which made him support the calls to express his anger.

Another detainee in his thirties who works in a private company told prosecutors that he wrote “Enough Sisi, go away” because he was no longer able to afford life necessities as his salary is never sufficient amid the price hikes.

Background

Amnesty International previously documented how the Egyptian authorities carried out preventive mass arrests of hundreds of people amid protests calls in the lead-up to COP 27 in 2022.

Since 2013, the Egyptian authorities have been severely repressing the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly and clamping down on critical voices offline and online. Thousands of actual or suspected government critics continue to be arbitrarily detained.

LATVIA

Baiba Braže: the development of quantum technologies is of strategical importance for national economy, innovations and security


Published: 18.07.2024.

Photo: Laura Celmiņa, Ministry of Foreign Affairs


On 18 July 2024, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baiba Braže, and the Director of the Institute of Electronics and Computer Science, Dr Modris Greitāns, at VAS State Radio and Television Centre of Latvia in the Television Tower of Zaķusala, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the Development of Quantum Technologies in Latvia. This brings up to 13 the number of partners that have joined the memorandum.


“I am happy that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has joined the circle of partners under this memorandum, as when thinking about our country’s development, the progress of Latvian science and the involvement of our scientists in the creation of innovative technologies, and our joint work to put modern technologies and scientific inventions into practice, our joint functioning must be based on three main cornerstones: cooperation, exploitation of opportunities and our potential, and understanding of national security and international cooperation,” Foreign Minister Baiba Braže said, emphasizing that such a memorandum of cooperation is a “road map” for joint action among public administration institutions, scientific institutions and private companies, as well as IT industry leaders to ensure the strategic interests of the country in the field of high technology. “The memorandum will enable partners to reach a common understanding of the knowledge and opportunities that exist and to foster sustainable cooperation in order to pool efforts and help Latvia develop quantum technology, promote achievements internationally and attract cooperation partners.”

Baiba Braže noted that NATO is currently building a transatlantic quantum community, where Latvia could also have a major role to play. “The quantum industry in our country is already at a level that allows us not only to join this transatlantic quantum community but also to take the lead at some point. There are not many countries like that,” the Foreign Minister underlined.

Background information about the Memorandum of Understanding on the Development of Quantum Technologies in Latvia

On October 19, 2023, during the international forum "5G Techritory" in Riga, the first 11 cooperation partners signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the Development of Quantum Technologies in Latvia: PLC "Latvian State Radio and Television Centre", PLC "Electronic Communications", University of Latvia, Institute of Solid State Physics of the University of Latvia, Riga Technical University, LLC "LMT", LLC "Tet", LLC "Mikrotīkls", Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Defence, Environmental Protection and Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development.

The Memorandum provides for the promotion of the international competitiveness of Latvian high technologies in the field of quantum technologies, including (1) by developing local competence and innovations; (2) establishing, developing and sharing a test environment for technological solutions; (3) supporting the creation, adaptation and coherent development of innovative solutions of quantum technologies; (4) promoting cooperation of the academic sector with industry in order to activate knowledge transfer in the national economy of Latvia; (5) holding joint meetings several times a year to discuss the status of existing initiatives, current projects and collaborative works in the development of quantum technologies.

Development of quantum technologies in Latvia

One of the most important directions in the development of quantum technologies is the security sector. With the advent of quantum computers in the market, existing encryption principles will be at risk. In preparation for the "quantum era," researchers are intensively building new data coding algorithms and modifying, testing, adjusting communication channels to streams of quantum states. Currently, a project for the creation of quantum communication infrastructure and networks at the national level is being implemented in Latvia with the aim of supporting knowledge, skills, technologies and ideas related to practical applications of quantum mechanics, as well as other projects with applications of quantum technologies. It is planned that the quantum network for the use of secure services for public sector institutions, merchants and private individuals in Latvia will be available already at the end of 2025.

In the field of quantum in Latvia, the academic sector, industry and public administration are already successfully cooperating to create and implement innovations. Latvia has so far excelled internationally in various areas of quantum technologies, including quantum algorithms, quantum sensors, quantum communications and quantum nanoelectronics. Scientists from the University of Latvia – tenour professor Andris Ambainis and professor Mārcis Auziņš – are already among the world's most recognized scientists in the development of quantum algorithms and quantum sensors. Meanwhile, in the field of quantum communication, Evijs Taube, Leo Trukšāns from the Latvian State Radio and Television Centre, Professor Jurģis Poriņš of Riga Technical University, the company "Tet", as well as scientists from the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Latvia of the University of Latvia are actively working in the field of quantum communications in creating a secure quantum communication network in Latvia. Tenure Professor of the University of Latvia, Vjačeslavs Kaščejevs, has gained international recognition in the field of quantum nanoelectronics.