CAIRO: Last week saw fierce negotiations between different human rights organizations and the interior ministry, in an attempt to release the large number of Bedouin political detainees. We have been lobbying for this issue since the first Taba bombings [2004], Ashraf El-Hefni, head of El-Tagamuu party and chief of the citizens' rights committee, told The Daily Star Egypt, but till now, they have released very few people. According to El-Hefni, most of those released have criminal records. They were not arrested for political reasons, he explained. While agreeing with El-Hefni that the released detainees are small in number, Tarek Zaghloul, head of the field work unit at the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, said that some of those released were political prisoners and views the recent release of Al-Jihad Islamic group members as a positive sign. The detainees were arrested under emergency law which allows the authorities to flout legal procedure, arresting civilians anyone without warrants. Since the Taba bombings, the police has arrested hundreds of North Sinai residents. Nearly 3,000 men were taken into custody since 2005. On the sidelines of this issue comes the plea of different human rights organizations for retrying the men accused in the Taba bombings. "They were illegally arrested and tried, explained Zaghloul, and only because of the emergency law. The Bedouins were imprisoned nearly three years ago and their families "will undertake any form of protest to draw attention for their cause, El-Hefni added. It's our right. The North Sinai governor and government spokesman Ahmed Abdel Hameed were unavailable for comment at time of press.
