Egypt government systematically abusing detainees: Amnesty report News
Egypt government systematically abusing detainees: Amnesty report

[JURIST] Amnesty International [advocacy website] Wednesday criticized Egypt for systematic human rights abuses of detainees in its police stations, military camps, and centers run by State Security Investigations (SSI). In a new report [text] the international human rights organization said:

Around 18,000 administrative detainees – people held without charge or trial under orders issued by the Interior Ministry – are languishing in Egypt’s jails in degrading and inhumane conditions. Torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests and detention, and grossly unfair trials before emergency and military courts have all been key features of Egypt’s 40-year state of emergency and counter-terrorism campaign. Some [detainees] have died as a result of torture.

The report called on the Egyptian government to amend legislation that allows for human rights violations and to promptly investigate any allegations of abuses in its detention system. Amnesty also urged Egypt to comply with international human rights laws and to disclose the names of any terrorist suspects that have been unlawfully transferred to Egypt from other countries. AP has more.

4/13/07 – The Egyptian Foreign Ministry [official website] on Thursday rejected Amnesty's allegations, saying the report "included inaccurate and biased information." The Foreign Ministry also said that the country has been making "real and continuous achievements in the field of human rights." AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.