March 29, 2024 02:09 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
PM Modi has mastered art of manipulating democracy, hurting Constitution: Mallikarjun Kharge | Mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari dies of cardiac arrest at 63 | NIA arrests key conspirator in Bengaluru cafe blast case | Actor Govinda returns to politics after 14 years of 'vanvas', joins Eknath Shinde camp | 'To browbeat and bully others is vintage Congress culture': PM posts after 600 lawyers write to CJI
Egypt urged to free prominent couple jailed arbitrarily since last June: UN rights office
UN Photo/ Violaine Martin

Egypt urged to free prominent couple jailed arbitrarily since last June: UN rights office

India Blooms News Service | @indiablooms | 04 Jul 2018, 02:28 am

New York, July 4 (IBNS): The UN human rights office is urging Egypt to free a prominent married couple that has been arbitrarily detained for more than a year.

Ola Al-Qaradawi and her husband Hosam Khalaf, both in their 50s, were arrested at their vacation home in Alexandria on 30 June 2017, allegedly for their affiliation with the banned Muslim Brotherhood organization and for terrorist activities.

She has been held in solitary confinement “in one of the worst prisons in Egypt”, the UN human rights office said on Tuesday. Her husband is being held in similar conditions in a different prison, according to media reports.Al-Qaradawi is the daughter of Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, a leading Islamic scholar and member of the outlawed group, who lives in exile in Qatar.

Al-Qaradawi has been denied visits from her family and lawyers, and recently began a hunger strike in protest.

“We understand that Ola Al-Qaradawi’s health is frail and deteriorating and urge the authorities to ensure that her right to health and to physical and psychological integrity is respected,” Liz Throssell, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, told journalists in Geneva.

“We call on Egypt to release all those arbitrarily detained in the country unconditionally.”

In June, a UN-mandated body issued a decision determining that Ms. Al-Qaradawi and her husband had been arbitrarily arrested, and called for their immediate release.

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention also determined that repeated renewals of 45-day detention orders against them resulted in ongoing violations of their rights to fair trial and due process.

Furthermore,  Al-Qaradawi’s prolonged solitary confinement could also amount to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

The decision stated that “The Working Group cannot but conclude that  al-Qaradawi and Khalaf have been arrested and detained for their family ties with Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi.


This is the only plausible explanation for the subversion of the equal protection of the law they experienced”.

 

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.