Human Rights Watch (HRW) has demanded Egypt to say the truth about its detention of four Palestinian citizens kidnapped about two years ago in the Sinai after they left the Gaza Strip as passengers through the Rafah border crossing.
On August 19 2015 four Palestinian young men were taken away from a passenger bus by armed men after legally crossing from Gaza to Egypt.
The young men are Abdullah Abu al-Jebain 23 from the Jabalia refugee camp; Abdul-Dayyam Abu Lebda 26 from the al-Bureij refugee camp Hussein al-Zebda 29 a resident of Sheikh Radwan and Yasser Zenoun 26 a resident of Rafah city.
“Egyptian authorities should immediately disclose whether they are or were holding four Palestinian men from Gaza affiliated with Hamas whose whereabouts are unknown” HRW told Egyptian interior minister Magdy Abdul-Ghaffar in a letter on Thursday.
“Based on media reports including photographs purporting to show two of the men in a Cairo detention facility the families believe they are in Egyptian custody. If true their prolonged incommunicado detention with Egyptian authorities denying knowledge of the detention or refusing to reveal their whereabouts would constitute enforced disappearances” HRW said in its letter to the Egyptian minister.
“Authorities should immediately charge the men if they suspect them of criminal activity or otherwise release them” the letter added.
“Twenty months without contact with the missing men inflicts incalculable anguish and suffering on their families and friends” Sarah Leah Whitson HRW Middle East director said.
“Egyptian authorities should come clean and reveal whether these four disappeared Palestinian men from Gaza are in their custody” she stressed.
The families of the kidnapped young men had told HRW that the men legally passed through the Rafah crossing on August 19 2015 calling them from the Egyptian side of the crossing that evening and later that night boarded a bus headed to Cairo International Airport via the Sinai Peninsula.
The families added that the men were planning to head for Turkey al-Jebain and Abu Lebda to continue their studies and al-Zebda and Zenoun to receive medical care.
About 300 meters after the bus left Rafah six armed men in civilian clothes fired on the bus and forcibly took custody of the four young men other passengers on the bus told the families later. The families have not heard from the men since.
“Incommunicado detention violates basic protections for both civilians and fighters under Egypt’s code of criminal procedure which requires authorities to bring criminal suspects in front of a prosecutor within 24 hours and prosecutors to charge the detainee based on evidence or release the person immediately. It also violates international law which requires that all detainees regardless of their particular status be brought ‘promptly’ (i.e. within days) before a judicial officer or equivalent to review the legality and necessity of their detention” the letter read.
“Detainees also have the right to humane treatment communication with their families access to counsel and the ability to challenge the basis for the detention and visitation by the International Committee of the Red Cross” it said further.
