Al-Badrawi said that on some unknown subsequent date, a military tribunal inside Wadi al-Gadid prison, 200 miles south of Cairo, convicted the eight men of carrying and using firearms, robbery, and breaking curfew. He said that on February 26, Mahmoud al-Hagrassi, a court official, told relatives of the defendants that the court had canceled these verdicts on February 23 but that the men had to appear in court in Cairo personally to gain release. The detainees could not appear, al-Badrawi said, because the prison officials declined to transport them to Cairo, citing security reasons. They remain in custody.
HRW has also received reports of abuse of protesters by soldiers. On February 26 soldiers abused protesters at Tahrir Square and the parliament building, including Amr Abdullah al-Bahari, with sticks and electric prods, a witness, Laila Soueif, who was participating in the demonstration, told Human Rights Watch. She said that when soldiers took al-Bahari into custody he had bruises and scratches on his face.
One of the other protesters at the site, Mohammed Musa, recounted brutal treatment he had received in a garage at a building housing cabinet offices, near the parliament. Soldiers, including officers, kicked him all over his body and head, he told Human Rights Watch. Soldiers stripped some detainees and sprayed them with water, and beat and shocked others with electric batons, he said.
Late on February 26 the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which currently rules Egypt, issued an apology, saying that what happened "was the result of unintentional confrontations between the military and the youth of the revolution." The statement said, "All measures will be taken to ensure this will not happen again"
"An apology for this kind of brutal physical abuse of demonstrators and detainees is not nearly enough," Whitson said. "Authorities need to hold the soldiers and officers responsible accountable.''
As a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Egypt must ensure that people charged with criminal offenses have the right to a fair trial. Article 14 of the ICCPR requires "a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law and the right to review of any conviction and sentence by a higher tribunal." Egypt's military tribunals do not meet these core standards, Human Rights Watch said.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee -- the body authorized to monitor compliance with the ICCPR -- has stated that trials of civilians by military courts should be very exceptional and occur only under conditions that genuinely afford full due process. Under changes to Egypt's Military Justice Code issued in April 2007, those convicted may appeal the ruling within 60 days, but only on procedural grounds.
The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), to which Egypt is also a state party, holds, in article 26, that state parties "shall have the duty to guarantee the independence of the courts." The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the body created to monitor the implementation of the ACHPR, elaborated on these rights in its guidelines for a fair trial. "The only purpose of military courts shall be to determine offenses of a purely military nature committed by military personnel," the commission wrote, "Military courts should not, in any circumstances whatsoever, have jurisdiction over civilians.''
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