Press releases

ACIJLP urges the Libyan authorities not to isolate condemned Egyptians and deny them contact with the outside world

10 January, 2008

The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) urges the Libyan authorities to annul the procedures taken by the Libyan prison authorities to hold the Egyptians condemned to death in isolation, deny them contact with the outside world, place them in solitary confinement and deny them contact with their lawyers and relatives. The condemned men, who are being held in Benghazi’s Kofaya Prison, began a hunger strike on the 8^th January 2008 in an attempt to stop the implementation of this decision by the Libyan authorities.

ACIJLP fears that this decision was taken in response to a segment of a television programme in which one of the condemned men described the problems connected with their case – some of the men have had their sentences reduced and have won the right to be released but remain in detention despite this.

ACIJLP urges the Libyan authorities concerned to annul the decision to isolate the Egyptians imprisoned in Libya and deny them contact with the outside world. The Libyan authorities must abide by its international obligations under associated international treaties, in particular articles 11 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which Libya ratified on 15^th May 1970, and the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners approved by two decisions of the Economic and Social Committee on 31^st July 1957 and 13^th May 1977.

ACIJLP believes that this decision represents one of the most serious obstacles to negotiation, reconciliation and dialogue between their legal representatives.

ACIJLP urges the Libyan authorities to annul the decision to isolate the Egyptians and deny them contact with the outside world. It urges the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to intervene immediately with the Libyan authorities and consolidate its efforts to end the Egyptian prisoners in Libya crisis.

The Arab Coalition urges the international community to cooperate with the ICC on the handing over of suspects

17 December, 2007

The Arab Coalition for an International Criminal Court is concerned by the obstacles the International Criminal Court (ICC) is facing in the exercise of its duties and, in particular, in matters concerning the handing over those involved in the most serious crimes against humanity.

The handing over of those wanted by the ICC is one of the most serious obstacles hampering the ICC from carrying out its work. In a press conference convened on 21^st November 2007 in New York, the ICC proposed the establishment of a body via which States would be obligated to cooperate with the ICC in matters pertaining to the handing over of suspects, particularly in the cases of Darfour, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Uganda.

The Arab Coalition expresses its solidarity with the ICC, and urges the international community to cooperate with the Court in order to establish justice and end the culture of suspects escaping justice.

The Arab Coalition urges the group of States Party to the ICC to sign the Rome Statute’s Protocol which would put in place a permanent mechanism through which the ICC would be able to force States to hand over wanted individuals to international justice.

Since Sudan is a sovereign country, the Arab Coalition calls on the Sudanese government to abide by international law and implement Security Council resolution 1593 issued in 2005, by cooperating with the ICC, detaining wanted individuals and handing them over to the ICC.

The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) believes that by remaining in his position Ahmed Haroun is able to control towns and camps, which reduces the chances of peace in Darfour. The Sudanese government must take advantage of the procedural guarantees of justice laid down in articles 65, 66, 67, 75 and 76 of the Rome Statute.

ACIJLP fears that the Sudanese government’s behavior and its rejection of cooperation with the ICC may force the Security Council to take action under Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter in order to implement its resolutions, particularly articles 41, 43, 46 and 47 of the Charter issued on 26^th June 1945 and adopted on 17^th December 1963.

The ICC is an independent and permanent court which investigates individuals suspected of serious crimes of international importance (Darfour, the Democratic Republic of Congo etc) such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity where the State concerned is either unwilling (Sudan) or unable (the Democratic Republic of Congo) to do so. The office of the ICC’s Prosecutor is currently running investigations into four cases all of which are in Africa (the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, the Sudanese province of Darfour and the Central African Republic).The humanitarian situation in these areas remains deplorable with a huge number of victims in need of international justice.

Targeting civilians and killing civilians outside the limits of law is a regression of the humanitarian gains

4 December, 2007

The Arab Center for the Independence of Judiciary and Legal Profession (ACIJLP) condemns targeting and killing civilians outside the limits of law by armed violence groups, which regarded as a regression of the humanitarian gains.

The center sees that the continued attacks that Algiers and Morocco faced lately, in addition to what Iraq face every day, which targets civilians can’t be justified and it’s not accepted. Furthermore it is regarded as a wide-ranging attack on civilians citizens in one of the images of crimes against humanity.

While the center condemn this criminal acts against civilians, it call upon the international community to confront this phenomenon, and to bring those persons, who committed these crimes, before the criminal justice in courts that fulfill the international procedures of fair and just trails.

The center also call upon the Arab Countries to try not to be affected of these events towards the situations of human rights, and not to enact laws or legislatives that limit of violate human’s fundamental rights, under so-called terrorism fighting laws.

The center noting that the democratic and political reforms, and the trend of more freedom and human rights protection and strengthen in the Arab region will have a great effect in confronting the armed violence groups.

The Sudanese government must hand over Ahmed Haroun and Ali Kowshayb to the ICC

11 July, 2007

The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) impresses on the Sudanese government the urgent need to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) as an independent international judicial mechanism and urges the government to accede to the ICC prosecutor’s demand that Ahmed Haroun, former State Minister of Internal Affairs and the present State Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Mohamed Abdel Rahman, also known as Ali Kowshayb, be handed over. The two men are accused of having committed crimes falling within the ICC’s jurisdiction according to article 5 of the ICC’s Rome Statute.

ACIJLP urges the Sudanese government to cooperate with the ICC prosecutor, seeing cooperation as the best and most just route out of the present crisis in Darfour which was transferred to the ICC under Security Council resolution 1593 issued in 2005 under Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter.

ACIJLP fears that the Sudanese government’s continued non-cooperation with the ICC and its refusal to hand over the two accused men will lead to a worsening of the situation in Darfour, at a time when average incidents of crimes committed are increasing – which has led to the forced displacement of civilians and endangerment of their lives.

ACIJLP underlines to the Sudanese government that the probity and independence of the ICC and the guarantees provided under articles 66 and 67 of the Rome Statute together ensure that the accused men will receive a fair and impartial trial and also prevent the court from assuming a political character.

Arrest warrants for the two men were issued on 2^nd May 2007 upon the request of the ICC prosecutor. The court concluded that there was credible reason to believe that the accused men had a role in crimes committed in Darfour falling within its jurisdiction.

ACIJLP calls upon both of the Egyptian president and the Libyan president for immediate interference to the execution of about 24 Egyptian citizens in Libya

23 May, 2007

Within the frame of the center’s follow up of the Egyptian citizens crisis in Libya, who convicted in criminal crimes, the center sent a letter to both of His Excellency the president of Egypt and His Excellency the president of Libya, calling upon there excellencies to interfere to stop the execution penalty against 24 Egyptian citizens, twelve of them will be executed during the next week.

The letters included urgent request for the both presidents to interfere to stop the execution penalty, until the end of the conciliation procedures between the convicted persons and the families of the victims, which is permitted by the provisions of the Libyan law.

The letters also clarified that some Libyan civil society institutions expressed there full readiness to lend a helping hand the Egyptian convicted persons and to assist them in baying the blood money for the families of the victims and making conciliation with them. In addition to that they will send them to Egypt, provided that will be a party from the Egyptian Embassy in Libya to coordinate with these institutions, but the Egyptian Embassy didn’t take the needed procedures.

Furthermore the two letters noted that there are ongoing procedures in the present moment to look for the victims’ families and to make conciliation with them according to the provisions of the Libyan law, but this will take some time. For these reasons the center directed its letters to the Presidents in order to interfere personally to stop the up mentioned judgments.

Targeting civilians and killing civilians outside the limits of law is a regression of the humanitarian gains

12 April, 2007

ACIJLP urges the Libyan authorities not to isolate condemned Egyptians and deny them contact with the outside world

The Arab Coalition urges the international community to cooperate with the ICC on the handing over of suspects

Targeting civilians and killing civilians outside the limits of law is a regression of the humanitarian gains

The Sudanese government must hand over Ahmed Haroun and Ali Kowshayb to the ICC

ACIJLP calls upon both of the Egyptian president and the Libyan president for immediate interference to the execution of about 24 Egyptian citizens in Libya

Targeting civilians and killing civilians outside the limits of law is a regression of the humanitarian gains

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