European Parliament

2004-02-12

Frågestund (kommissionen) William Shaiboub
Question no 63 by Lennart Sacrédeus (H-0005/04)

A double murder was committed in the Egyptian village of El-Kosheh on 14 August 1998. Over 1000 Christians were taken for interrogation by the police. It has been said that many of the detainees were tortured in order to extract a confession, including a 13-year-old girl.

The Coptic Christian William Shaiboub Arsal was also tortured, and was eventually charged for the double murder based solely on the confessions of two army officers, who later attempted to retract their statements, saying they had been given under duress. He was incarcerated for two years before his sentence was finally handed down in June 2000. He was sentenced to 15 years with hard labour.

William Shaiboub has appealed the court's decision but a date has not been given. Has the Commission any possibility to put pressure on the Egyptian Government, so that the sentence may be appealed?

Answer Commission

The Commission is aware of the case of Mr William Shaiboub and, more generally of the situation of the Egyptian Christian community in Egypt, having followed events in the largely Christian village of El Khosheh since August 1998.

The delay between Mr Shaiboub’s trial and his appeal hearing has raised concerns in the international community. The Commission expects the Court of Cassation to consider the appeal of Mr Shaiboub in accordance with the Egyptian judicial process.

The Commission was unofficially informed that the Court of Cassation will examine the case by June 2004.

Finally, the Commission is pleased to inform the Honourable Member that it has initiated contacts with the Egyptian authorities aimed at upgrading dialogue and cooperation on human rights and building on existing governmental efforts, for example, on human rights principles, access to justice or the promotion of inter-religious dialogue.