The Perils of Using Video for Pretrial Detention Renewals in Egypt

Egypt Widely Deploys Videoconference System for Pretrial Detention Renewals

The Human Rights Watch recently revealed that the Egyptian authorities have extensively employed a videoconference system since 2022 to conduct pretrial detention hearings remotely, without bringing the detainees to court in person. The system violates the right of the detainees to be brought physically before a judge, assess the legality and conditions of their detention, speak directly to the judge and their lawyers privately, and get a sense of their well-being to family members. The system exacerbates long-standing abusive pretrial detention practices, flagrant due process violations, and effectively covers up abusive detention conditions. Vulnerable detainees remain isolated for months or years and arbitrarily denied visits or correspondence with family and lawyers.

Decree No. 8901 of 2021 issued by Justice Minister Omar Marwan on December 20, 2021, enables judges to conduct pretrial detention renewal hearings remotely “using technology” while “observing all legal guarantees,” without providing explication on what these guarantees involve or linking the procedure to a specific emergency or situation. According to media reports, the authorities began using the system on a limited scale in October 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Human Rights Watch interviewed six Egyptian human rights lawyers who represented detainees during remote detention renewal sessions. The lawyers said that all remote hearings they attended were overseen by terrorism courts, which are part of Badr criminal court in the new Badr prison complex, east of Cairo.

Denying the Right to Legal Counsel

The Egyptian authorities have routinely prevented lawyers from visiting and undermined the right to legal counsel. However, during past in-person court hearings, detainees inside detention cells in courtrooms sometimes had a brief window of 5 to 15 minutes to communicate with lawyers and see family members, from behind a barrier. Although these limited moments allowed families to get a glimpse of the detainees’ well-being when prison visits were forbidden, such opportunities no longer exist under the remote hearing system. The flawed system robs the opportunity for confidential communication with the clients and deprives detainees of the right to an adequate defense and an impartial judicial review of their detention, violating due process rights and blocking access to justice.

Judges frequently do not give lawyers or detainees an adequate amount of time to speak and silence detainees who attempt to complain about detention conditions. The remote hearings have removed the opportunity for confidential communication between the lawyers and their detained clients and often lead to judges reviewing cases collectively instead of addressing each detainee’s legal situation separately. Judges routinely prevent detainees from reviewing the exact charges or the prosecution files, preventing them from having a fair trial.

Flawed Legal System Abuses Pretrial Detention Practices

Since 2014, under the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egyptian authorities have arbitrarily held tens of thousands of detainees, particularly in political cases, in prolonged pretrial detention without presenting evidence of wrongdoing, often for exercising their right to peaceful assembly and free expression. Egypt’s Criminal Procedural Code allows prosecutors, not judges, to order detention for up to 150 days. The code also permits keeping detainees in pretrial detention for up to two years, but authorities have often kept detainees beyond that limit. International and African human rights law require authorities to use pretrial detention as an exception, not the rule, and only when necessary for specific reasons, and for the shortest time possible. The defendant should be tried within a reasonable time and must have the right to appear before a judge to seek a ruling on the legality and necessity of their detention.

Advice

Egyptian authorities should scrap the remote detention renewal system, reform abusive pretrial detention practices, and guarantee due process rights. The defendant should be brought before the judge physically, particularly if this presence would “serve the inquiry into the lawfulness of detention, or where questions regarding the ill-treatment of the detainee arise.” All detainees should have the right to confidential legal assistance and be interviewed with the assistance of legal counsel. The government should ensure that any detainee who has been deprived of their rights receives reparations. Finally, the Egyptian government should end its abusive pretrial detention laws and practices, which have contributed to imprisoning people unjustly.

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