CAIRO/ NEW YORK: New York-based watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the US government in a press release earlier this week to halt the deportation of an Egyptian man based on 'vague' diplomatic assurances from Egypt that the man will not be subject to torture upon return to his home country. "Not only does the US State Department's own Country Report on Egypt describe torture in detention centers as 'common and persistent,' but Egypt has breached assurances against such abuse in the past. "The executive branch is snubbing the courts and relying on a no-torture promise from a known torturer. This makes no sense, stated Jennifer Daskal, US Program Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch. The man facing extradition, Sameh Khouzam, is a Coptic Christian who fled Egypt in 1998 for the US. Upon arrival at the US border, HRW argues that Khouzam's visa had been cancelled based on a claim by Egyptian authorities that he was wanted on a murder charge in Egypt. According to HRW, Egypt has allegedly not submitted evidence supporting the murder charge to this day. Khouzam was subsequently denied US asylum and spent nearly eight years in US immigration detention before a federal court in early 2006 granted his petition for habeas corpus. He was released on the condition that he would report his whereabouts to immigration authorities. However, when Khouzam paid a visit to the immigration authorities on May 29, HRW claims that he was detained and informed that the Department of Homeland Security had lifted his court-ordered deferral of removal, and that he could be returned to Egypt within days. The Department of Homeland Security allegedly stated in a letter to Khouzam that it had "sufficiently reliable diplomatic assurances from the Egyptian government that Khouzam would not be tortured upon return. According to HRW, Khouzam could be extradited to Egypt any day. Furthermore, HRW stressed in its statement that neither Khouzam nor his lawyers were informed that Khouzam's stay of removal had been terminated, nor were they allowed by the US government to review the content of Egypt's diplomatic assurances of no torture in the case. Egypt indeed has no award-winning record of keeping promises of humane treatment, considering previous recent cases of extradition. In 2001, Sweden deported two Egyptian asylum seekers, Ahmed Agiza and Mohammed Al-Zari, to Cairo with the help of the US Intelligence Service, based on assurances of no torture from the Egyptian government. However, both men claim to have been subject to abuse and to have been tortured with electricity upon entering Egyptian detainment. Since then, UN agencies, the Committee against Torture and the Human Rights Committee ruled that Sweden violated the international ban in the extradition of the two Egyptians, arguing that "Sweden should have known that Egypt consistently tortures detainees. Earlier this spring, the Swedish government revoked its former decision to extradite Agiza and Al-Zari, stating that "the government does not believe that the guarantees provided to the Swedish authorities by Egypt in 2001 should have been considered sufficient. A few years later, US Intelligence officials abducted Egyptian cleric Abu Omar from Italy in 2003 and transferred him back to Egypt where he claims he was subject to repeated abuse and torture, despite the US's policy of acquiring "diplomatic assurances of humane treatment. "Given Egypt s appalling record of torturing even those suspects it had explicitly promised to treat humanely, diplomatic assurances that people returned to Egypt won t be tortured aren t worth the paper they re written on. The US Department of Homeland Security should abide by the federal court s ruling that Sameh Khouzam should not be sent back to Egypt, Elijah Zarwan of HRW's Middle East Division told The Daily Star Egypt. The Daily Star Egypt was unable to reach the US State Department for a comment.
