April 09, 2014
Starting
in late December, the show Elsandok Elaswad (The Black Box) on the Al Kahera Wal Nas (Cairo
Centric) channel aired secretly taped personal calls made by such prominent
figures as former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohammed
el-Baradei, Abdel Moniem Aboul Fotouh, and the head of the Misr al-Hurriya
party, Amr Hamzawy—among other well-known activists. Spying on the phone calls,
correspondence, and movements of activists and politicians has been a standard
practice of Egyptian intelligence agencies such as National Security, General
Intelligence, and Military Intelligence for decades. And despite Minister of
Interior Mohamed Ibrahim’s denial of involvement, the decision to broadcast the
phone conversations of such significant political figures could not have been
taken without the approval of Field Marshall Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt’s
minister of defense and de facto ruler. The wiretapping is a further indication
of Egypt’s troubling trends regarding rule of law, revisionist narratives of
the January 25 Revolution, and the lack of widespread pushback against privacy
violations.
The leaked
wiretaps violated international covenants, the constitution, and Egyptian law,
revealing the overall decline in the rule of law. Article 17 of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, for instance, specifies that “no one shall be
subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy…” The current constitution affirms the inviolability of private
life, as Article 57 says that the state may not infringe upon private life,
including telephone calls, without a causal judicial order. Likewise, according
to Article 99, “any assault on the personal freedoms or sanctity of the life of
citizens . . . is a crime with no statute of limitations.” In the Egyptian
penal code, Article 309 bis stipulates imprisonment for anyone
who eavesdrops on or transmits telephone conversations without consent, whileArticle 73 of the 2003 Telecommunications Law
dictates jail or a fine for telecommunications sector employees who are
responsible for recording and disclosing calls. Notably, the Egyptian
authorities did not take any steps regarding the leaks, even though Article 99 of
the current constitution grants the National Council for Human Rights the right
to report privacy violations to the public prosecutor, while the National
Telecommunication Regulatory Authority has the legal right to ensure that
telecommunications companies are protecting clients’ rights.
Even
though a group of NGOs submitted a request
for an investigation in the leaks to the Attorney General
in late December, as did former MP Mostafa El-Naggar, one of the public figures
targeted by the wiretaps, the prosecutor has yet to open an investigation. This
is a worrying sign of the deterioration of the rule of law in Egypt. With human
rights violations on the rise, the only hope remaining that privacy laws will
be applied lies in the judiciary’s consideration of the lawsuit filed by
El-Naggar against Elsandok Elaswad’s
host, Abdul Rahim Ali, the proceedings of which began on February 22.
Egypt’s
wiretapping scandal also reveals that the military authorities aim to rewrite
the history of the January 25 Revolution, essentially adopting the version of
events espoused by former president Hosni Mubarak and his vice-president Omar
Suleiman. The state-run media has been waging an aggressive campaign to
demonize any and all opposition to the military rulers, portraying the January
25 Revolution as a vast conspiracy that brought together youth activists and
foreign powers with the goal of putting the Muslim Brotherhood in power. The
wiretap leaks coincided with the buildup to the third anniversary of the
January 25 Revolution; they were aimed at both preempting anti-military
demonstrations and convincing the public that the military is the best defender
against enemies and traitors lurking within. The military authorities are also
seeking to refurbish the tainted image of the security and intelligence
agencies, such as National Security (formerly known as State Security), which
have been condemned by democracy and human rights advocates for the past three
years and had lost some of their status after their headquarters were stormed
in March 2011. The military’s message is that the intelligence agencies never
stopped carrying out their patriotic duty of monitoring activists and
opposition politicians. This message aims to instill fear among the members of
the public, particularly those considering political activism, by threatening
their privacy and reputations.
There has
been little open criticism of the wiretaps; indeed media coverage and op-eds
have applauded Elsandok Elaswad’s
host for his ability to obtain wiretapped conversations of activists such as
Ahmed Maher and Mohammed Adel (of the April 6 Movement), Mostafa El-Naggar and
Abdel-Rahman Yousef (the former chairs of el-Baradei’s election campaign), Wael
Ghoneim (the administrator of the We
Are All Khaled Said Facebook page), Asmaa Mahfouz, and
Mohamed Abbas, all of whom are pro-democracy activists who played prominent
roles in toppling the Mubarak regime. Beyond a December 28 letter to interim President Mansour Adly
signed by 50 public condemning the smear campaign and a handful of op-eds by
democracy advocates, including the satirist Bassem Youssef, little else has been done. However,
here are some indications that not all of society supports the wiretapping: for
instance, YouTube views of the leaks have remained only
in the tens of thousands, and Al Kahera Wal Nas’s viewer rankings are still fairly low, according to an
Ipsos survey. However, this scattered opposition has not coalesced in any sort
of organized campaign in defense of privacy, and even some of those who were
targeted have failed to speak out to criticize the wiretaps, arguing there are
more pressing issues, such as the political process and the conditions of
detainees and university students. But the lack of reaction both from political
activists and broader society reflect a deeper crisis, and raises questions
about how willing Egyptians are to defend privacy and rule of law.
The
wiretapping shows the extent of Egypt’s setbacks in citizens’ rights and the
rule of law. The pro-democracy movement and civil society are weak and
fragmented, offering little resistance to this or other human rights violations
under the military rulers. With the likely election of former Minister of
Defense Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the future of freedom and the political
process in Egypt looks gloomy.
This
article is reprinted with permission from Sada. It can be accessed online
at:
http://carnegieendowment.org/sada/2014/03/31/egypt-s-wiretapping-scandal/h6hy
Mohamed Abdel Salam is a researcher for the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression in Cairo. The views expressed are the author's own and do not reflect the views of the Association.
This article was translated from Arabic.