Press briefing notes on Egypt

Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Liz Throssell
Location: Geneva
Date: 20 August 2013

GENEVA (20 August 2013) - We remain alarmed at the continuing violence in Egypt and echo the Secretary General’s strong condemnation of the ambush in the Sinai peninsula in which 25 Egyptian police officers were killed.

The deaths on Sunday night of 36 prisoners, who were in police custody, are also deeply disturbing and need to be fully investigated.

Hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood members are reported to have been detained in recent days – among these are some of its leaders.

Everyone deprived of their liberty must be treated humanely and afforded all judicial guarantees under international law.

We are reiterating our call to the Egyptian authorities to allow us to deploy human rights officers from the OHCHR so that we can assess the situation on the ground.

ENDS

For further information and media requests, please contact Liz Throssell (+ 41 22 917 9434 / ethrossell@ohchr.org)

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