Egypt investigates judges for drafting anti-torture bill

Two Egyptian judges are being investigated for taking part in drafting an anti-torture law proposal.

Ayman Abbas, the head of the Cairo Appeals Court, was commissioned on Sunday to investigate the deputy head of the Cassation Court, Assem Abdel Gabar and a former assistant to the justice minister, assistant Hisham Raouf, over their participation in drafting the proposed law.

The bill was organised by the United Group of Lawyers and Legal Consultants. It aimed to end torture in prisons and custody centres.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information [ANHRI] has called on the Supreme Judicial Council to stop the investigation immediately.

Gamal Eid, ANHRI's executive director, said: "Do the national security services want to punish the judges for taking part in drafting an anti-torture law or for cooperating with a non-governmental institution? Or for both reasons?"

Raouf's recent paper, Torture, a crime against humanity, revealed the huge discrepancy between torture in Egyptian penal code and the international anti-torture conventions the country has signed.

Eid added: "The ongoing investigation for working on a prospective law that Egypt needs, violates not only freedom of speech, but also the freedom of the judiciary and international conventions against torture.

"Instead of investigating them, the Egyptian government should be thanking the judges for attempting to amend Egyptian laws in accordance with international charters."

The decision comes weeks after prominent reformist judge and former head of Egypt's Judges' Club, Zakaria Abdel Aziz, was referred to a disciplinary committee for participating in the storming of the State Security Investigations headquarters in March 2011.

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.