Arrest of Mr. Amr Tharwat with four other family members by Egyptian State Security forces: Written Question (Rule 110) to the European Commission by MEP Marco Cappato, ALDE group:



On Wednesday May 30th 2007, Mr. Amr Tharwat, an employee at the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, was arrested by Egyptian State Security at his families' residence in Cairo’s Matereya district. Mr. Tharwat was the major organizer of the recent Shura Election monitoring as well as the Ibn Khaldun public opinion polling that was carried out earlier this year. In addition to Mr. Tharwat, the Egyptian authorities arrested four other people staying at the house of Dr. Ahmed Sobhy (Adellatif Mohamed Saied, Ahmed Dahmash, Abdelhamed Abdelrahman, Ahmed El Sayed, Amr Tharwat) and confiscated files, books, and computers that were found on the premises.



Those arrested were originally taken to the Shubra El Khima police station, but in the seven days since their arrest nothing has been heard regarding there whereabouts or the nature of the charges filed against them. Although several human rights organizations as well as the team of lawyers working on this case have made repeated requests to the Egyptian government regarding this issue, they have received no response until now.



Can the Commission indicate:



1.whether it is aware of the above mentioned facts and whether it has formally requested clarification regarding this matter from the Egyptian authorities? If so, what replies have been received?

2.if it does not consider that these elements put at stake Egypt’s Government credibility in the light of its obligations to fulfil the terms set out in Article 2 of the EU-Egypt Association Agreement, concerning respect for human rights.

3.what action it has taken and/or it will take in order to induce Egyptian authorities to immediately disclose the location of those arrested and to allow them access to legal representation.