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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 000213 SIPDIS DRL FOR A/S POSNER FOR NEA, NEA/ELA AND DRL/NESCA E.O. 12958: DECL: 2035/02/17 TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, PREL, KDEM, KTIP, EG SUBJECT: ACTIVIST URGES U.S DIPLOMATIC APPROACH TO THE GOE ON TORTURE REF: 10 CAIRO 147; 09 CAIRO 2164; 09 CAIRO 2064; 09 CAIRO 451 CLASSIFIED BY: Stephen O'Dowd, Counselor, State, Economic and Political Affairs; REASON: 1.4(B), (D) 1. KEY POINTS -- (C) Human rights activist Hossam Bahgat told us February 10 he believes the top USG human rights priority in Egypt should be diplomatic approaches to urge the GOE to combat torture. He recommended quiet diplomacy over public statements. -- (C) Bahgat was pessimistic the GOE would pass human rights-related legislation besides a trafficking law before the 2011 presidential election, but asserted that the GOE could be open to issuing a discreet order to stop torture -- (C) He described police torture as pervasive, and attributed it to senior-level Interior Ministry pressure on officers to extract confessions, especially in murder cases, by any means necessary. -- (C) He speculated that a change in Interior Ministry policy could have a positive effect on the rule of law, relations between the police and the public, and the overall human rights situation. 2. (C) Comment: Bahgat's suggestions, which focus on trying to change the GOE's political will through diplomacy, differ from other activists' recommendations for legislative changes to broaden the definition of torture (the law defines torture only in the context of extracting confessions) and increase the penalties. In response to USG approaches on specific torture cases, the Interior Ministry has been defensive and has claimed that police brutality is highly unusual (reftels). In the MOI's authoritarian power structure, an order from senior officials regarding police brutality could have a significant impact. End comment. 3. (C) On February 10, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights Director Hossam Bahgat urged the U.S. to focus on quiet diplomatic approaches to the GOE on combating torture as our top human rights priority. Bahgat believed such diplomacy would be more successful than efforts on other human rights issues. Bahgat advised that a series of discreet diplomatic approaches, as opposed to public statements, would be most effective in securing GOE agreement to combat torture. He said he has been in contact with diplomats from EU countries to encourage them to make similar approaches to the GOE. 4. (C) Bahgat was pessimistic that the GOE would pass significant political legislation, other than the human trafficking law, before the 2011 presidential elections. GOE discussions about lifting the State of Emergency and passing a counterterrorism law "are just a distraction," he maintained. Bahgat asserted that MFA and NDP officials, as well as some journalists in the pro-government press, are embarrassed over the extensive use of torture, and want to see improvements. He believed that a discreet order from the Interior Ministry to stop torture would have a powerful effect, and would be more effective than the passage of legislation expanding the definition of torture and increasing penalties, which the quasi-government National Council for Human Rights and independent NGOs have urged. (Note: A contact confirmed that on February 15 a parliamentary committee rejected legislation proposed by a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated MP to increase prison terms for torture from the current 3-10 years to 25 years, and extend the definition to cover senior officers who order torture. End note.) 5. (C) According to Bahgat, the worst police torture takes place during murder investigations. He said that his brother-in-law who is a police officer in the Delta Governorate of Kafr El-Sheikh described "unrelenting pressure" from superiors to solve murder CAIRO 00000213 002 OF 002 cases by any means necessary. Bahgat said human rights lawyers and his brother-in-law have told him that to conduct murder investigations, police will round up 40 to 50 suspects from a neighborhood and hang them by their arms from the ceiling for weeks until someone confesses. 6. (C) Bahgat believed that a GOE political decision to stop pressuring police officers to solve crimes quickly by using torture if necessary would have far-reaching effects. Bahgat speculated that such a policy change could have a broad positive impact on the rule of law, the police's role in society and even political participation. If the public's fear of the police waned, he noted, citizens would not be as afraid to enter police stations to report crimes, tell the police about their neighborhoods, or procure voter registration cards for the coming elections. He said the current pervasive nature of torture began in the 1990's when the security forces were fighting Islamic extremists, and would be possible to reverse. Bahgat recalled that the public respected the police in the 1980's, and he expected that with a policy change the GOE could restore a positive relationship between the public and the police. SCOBEY