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Farmers of Sarando village Help us from the tyranny of Damanhour police station
The Land Center has received complaints from the people of Sarando village – Damanhour station – El Behira province where more than 150 families live in, who depend on farming rice and wheat, are calling for help from the tyranny of the chief of police of Damanhour police station and his officers, as in the morning of last Wednesday he plunged into their homes, terrified the women, children and old people of the village, arrested tens of them for two days and presented six to the prosecutor in the police report no. 766 for the year 2005 misdemeanor at Damanhour police station, and they are:
1. Abo Zeid Mahmoud (still detained).
2. El Sayed Kamal Mostafa El Hosary (still detained).
3. Qotb Mahmoud Qotb Helal 17 years old (released with a bail).
4. Ibrahim Mohammad Ragab El Sayed 16 years old (released by the prosecution, but still detained at the police station).
5. Amr Samir Mohammad Qotb (detained for 2 days and then released).
6. Samir Mohammad Qotb Helal (detained for 2 days and then released).
This action was done to put pressure on the farmers so that they leave their lands and takeover their plantations for the benefit of an ownership claimer, the police forces have attacked the village and practiced group punishment on the farmers without a legal instrument or executing judgment decisions of eviction from the lands or homes.
When the farmers met with the Centers’ lawyers and researchers last Sunday in the village, they confirmed that the officers of the police station threaten them to force them to leave their lands to the ownership claimer, as the informers confirmed to them that one of the big officers at the police station and the ownership claimer are relatives of the governor.
One of the farmers described to the Center that the practices of the chief of police against the people carry hatred and tyranny on the farmers and their families, saying:
“At about 2:30 of Wednesday morning 5/1/2005 we were surprised with hard knocking on the doors of some farmers, the police forces broke into their homes after breaking six doors –these doors are still left broken the way the police forces left them
– abusing and violating the privacy of their homes, not paying any attention to the entreating of of the women and old people and didn’t listen to the children’s cries, even some children were stricken by epilepsy and are still treated in hospitals as a result of this monstrous attack, and if someone asked about what is going on, the answers were always curses and insults”.
The mother of Ibrahim Mohammad Ragab says:
“My son is 16 years old, he has been arrested and detained without pressing any charges against him depriving him of attending his exam last Thursday, and he is in the second grade of the Azharic secondary school, when I demanded the officer to show me the prosecutors’ warrant and asked him about why is all that happening?, he answered with a lot of insults and indecent names, he took my son and told me: when your husband comes home, send him to us, and tell him that he will leave the land”.
The people add in their complaints that some of the officers have arrested tens of people, blindfolding and handcuffing them from their homes and weren’t untied till they were inside the cells of Damanhour police station, then they fabricated a number of charges for some of them, several farmers are still detained, like: (Abo Zeid Mahmoud - El Sayed Kamal Mostafa El Hosary).
Some of the charges were contradicting and not reasonable, like: acquirement of weapons, ruining plantations, bullying, attempted murder), after it has been confirmed that these two persons don’t have possession over the lands of disputation, the rest of the villagers were released, but the chief of police gave them a message for the village people saying: “you must tell everyone what happened to the farmers, as you will be an example to all of those who refuse to handover the land to hag Salah, and the charges are ready for everyone of them, this was just a warning, we will do the rest if you didn’t evict the land and leave the plantations”.
At the same time, the chief of police detained (Ibrahim Mohammad Ragab El Sayed - Qotb Mahmoud Qotb Helal) although the prosecutor decided to release them, as he denied their existence when some of the villagers protested and presented complaints to the prosecution, and transferred them from the cells to one of the investigation rooms, insouciant with Ibrahims’ begging to release him to attend his exams that have started on Thursday, saying to him: “what exams you son of a (and mentioned indecent words) when your father comes and signs a cession of his land, I will let you go”.
It is worth mentioning that farmers problems in Sarando village go back to more than 50 years when the agrarian reform law was implemented, and by that, lands owned to the state were distributed on the farmers (about 30 feddans for each farmer) so that they and their children after them could farm them, the people have continued to farm the land and pay the rent to the institution of the agrarian reform, till the ownership claimer appeared and demanded the farmers to handover the land after receiving a decision to have it, which is estimated to be 5000 feddans “as the people say” in El Gorongy, Hafez, El Aamereya and Nadema villages, this family has been able to force a number of farmers to pay rents for them and at the same time they were paying rents to the agrarian reform and tolls to the real estate taxes as they are the owners of these lands, the farmers continued to have possession over their lands and paying the rents to the agrarian reform or to the ownership claimer or to any other governmental institution, till they were surprised with the attacks of the officers of Damanhour police station who ruind their plantations and homes to force them to leave the land without having judicial decisions, but by using the wealth and power of the ownership claimer, as some of the members of this family work in some of the governmental executive institutions “as the farmers mentioned” and they are continuing to pressure the farmers to leave the land. On Monday 3/1/2005, some of the executives along with local governmental leaderships and the ownership claimer have sent for a number of farmers to the police station in attempt to compromise the situation peacefully, 9 farmers went to the police station, and they are:
1. Ahmed Mohmoud Qotb Helal.
2. Mohammad Mohmoud El Feqy.
3. Khamees Mohammad Hesein El Feqy.
4. Abdel Kareem Mohammad Hesein El Feqy.
5. Mohmoud Ramadan Hashem.
6. Gamal Abdel Men’em Qabeel.
7. Naser Abdel Gawwad Aamer.
8. Abdel Razzeq Abo El Ela.
9. Abdel Maalek Abdel Hameed .
They were surprised, when the chief of police forced them to sign some papers, stating that they were acknowledgment papers to stay away from the ownership claimer, and although they didn’t read the papers, they were compelled to sign them, then he demanded them to send the rest of the farmers to do the same with them, but they refused to go to the police station for that reason, which made the chief of police make a disciplinary campaign and order the attack on the village, break into several homes, arrest some farmers and fabricate charges to others to pressure them so that they handover their lands that they have been farming for tens of years without having a court decision in favor of the ownership claimer or compensating the farmers for reclaiming the lands and the improvements that they have made in maintaining the lands… .
In addition to the provocations and problems made by the ownership claimer using his wealth and power to prevent the water of the waterways from reaching the lands or disconnection electricity from their homes, one of the farmers say: “a case have been made against Qotb Mahmoud, he has been beaten and humiliated and then got out of the prosecution with a bail of 50 pounds, but he is still detained in the police station”, another farmer said: “the officer and the soldiers broke the door and took Abo Zeid from his bed”, another has confirmed that they knocked on his mothers’ door, the soldiers entered and took him without a warrant from the prosecution and the little children were struck with epilepsy.
Most of the farmers have confirmed that investigators are in the lands to stop the farmers from farming for about a week now, they have also confirmed that when they went to the land registry office to make proxies to the Centers’ lawyers, they were arrested, humiliated, beaten up and tortured, the farmers have confirmed that when the chief of police arrested the 6 farmers, he didn’t even wait for them to put on their clothes, he blindfolded them, tied their hands and legs and took them like that from their homes to the police station after breaking and ruining several homes, which weren’t fixed, as the villagers don’t own the price of their daily food, so, who fixes what these officers and the men of the ownership claimer have ruined?, and when one of the farmers brought them some clothes, he was arrested by the policemen and the clothes were thrown into the street.
The villagers confirm that some officers beat up and kicked a sick and pregnant woman, she was taken to Hosh Eisa hospital then she was transferred to Damanhour central hospital, she is called (Khayreya Abdel Me’em Mostafa Abdel Rahman) she is the wife of the arrested Abo Zeid, without considering her condition or her calls for help, at the hospital, we asked Khayreya about what happened, she said: “what happened has happened, and I’m contented with Gods’ judgment, may God help the people and the village”.
Therefore, the Center came forward with a report (complaint) to the desk of the general prosecutor to investigate these events and make the necessary procedures to interrogate the officers of Kafr El Dawar police station, to protect the peoples’ rights in the personal safety, stop violating the privacy of their homes and release the detained people from Damanhour police station.
The Center has also came forward with the farmers complaints to the minister of agriculture to protect their plantations and stop their eviction from their lands without any judicial decisions against them.
The Land Center adjures all national forces, political parties, associations and foundations working in the field of human rights to demand the Prime Minister, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Agriculture, El Behera Governor, the General Prosecutor and the General Attorney of Damanhour prosecutions to make the necessary procedures toward the officers of Damanhour police station, interfere to stop the violations against the people of Sarando village, protect their rights in safety, respect their dignity and humanity, stop their eviction from their lands and the ruin of their plantations to guarantee their rights in a decent and suitable life.