Cairo: 15 February, 2021
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said today that it has received allegations that engineer Reeman al-Hussaini, who has been held for two years and eight months in pretrial detention at Al-Qanater Women Prison, has been brutally beaten and transferred from remand detainees ward to the ward of those sentenced to death. Such allegations, if true, constitute flagrant violations that necessitate bringing their perpetrators to account and urgent trial.
ANHRI’s Criminal Justice Program has received a complaint from the family of engineer Reeman al-Hussaini after they visited her at Al-Qanater Women Prison, reporting that her relative was subjected to severe beatings, stripped of her necessary personal belongings, and transferred to the ward of those sentenced to death, in flagrant contravention of the law, prison regulations, and the legal guarantees and rights that must be provided for pretrial detainees.
It’s worth mentioning that engineer Reeman al-Hussaini was arrested on 10 May 2018, and had been unlawfully detained for three weeks, before she appeared before the State Security Prosecution on 3 June 2018. She was interrogated into the Case No. 817 of 2018 State Security on charges of; joining a terrorist group contrary to the provisions of the law with knowledge of its purposes and receiving funding to support this terrorist group.
Reeman had remained for two years on remand detention until the Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered her release on 31 May 2020 under the guarantee of her place of residence; after exceeding the two-year limit of pretrial detention stipulated in the Criminal Procedures Code. However, instead of respecting and implementing the release order, the engineer was taken from the police station to one of the National Security Agency facilities where she was kept under illegal detention. Consequently, on 14 July 2020, she appeared once again before the Supreme State Security Prosecution; as she was recycled “rotated” and added to Case No. 730 of 2020 State Security, after accusing her of: joining a terrorist group with knowledge of its purposes, promoting the terrorist group’s views, spreading false news and information, and misusing one of social media means. The Prosecution then ruled to hold Reeman in pretrial detention for 15 days pending probe, and she is still being detained in Qanataer Prison.
ANHRI reiterates its demands for the Public Prosecutor to stop the phenomenon of rotation/ recycling (including pretrial detainees into new cases) which violates the law and justice, and until that is accomplished, he should exercise his power and authority to put an end to such violations, if they are true, and open an investigation into such complaints. The Arabic Network also calls on the Minister of Interior, since he bears the primary responsibility, to immediately instruct Al-Qanater Women’s Prison warden to halt the violations committed against engineer Reeman al-Hussaini and to return her to the ward of pretrial detainees in compliance with the law and in respect for a constitution that is persistently violated.
