The Guardian view on the release of the al-Jazeera journalists

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/15/guardian-view-release-al-jazeera-journalists

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The release of the two al-Jazeera journalists who had remained in detention after Peter Greste, their Australian colleague, was freed and then deported, is good news for them and for their families. But the good news ends there, because anybody who thinks that this is an indication that the Egyptian legal system under President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi is about delivering justice needs to look beyond this high-profile case at the plight of the thousands of men and women in Egypt whose chances of any redress for false arrest, trumped-up charges, puffed-up evidence and mistreatment by the police or the military are remote or non-existent.

Bent law is bent law, and the fact that law that has been bent to send innocent men to jail can later be bent back to get them out is not justice, but expediency. The international outcry at their arrest and detention meant that the diplomatic costs had become so high that the Egyptian regime needed to get them out of prison, and out of the media spotlight, as soon as possible. This does not mean that the appeal court, which took the decision, did not act correctly. The point is that it did so knowing in advance that it was a decision the government would welcome.

This is the same legal system that has dismissed or overturned all the convictions of the former president, Hosni Mubarak, his sons and many of his close allies and advisers. It is the same legal system that has sent hundreds to jail for taking part in peaceful protests. It is the same legal system that, in other cases where there had indeed been violence, has used that fact to charge and detain many whose involvement was taken as given on the flimsiest of evidence. It is the same legal system that itself pre-emptively uses violence, firing on protesters, and in some instances killing them, when they gather in the streets. The death last month of the young leftist poet Shaimaa el-Sabbagh, as she walked in a peaceful procession toward Tahrir Square, was the product of such police tactics. But, even though an inquiry has been announced, where are the police officers who should be before the courts for the reckless and unprovoked use of firearams, or at least under suspension until the inquiry is complete?

Once in prison, the average detainee faces a standard routine of abuse, beating and sometimes torture, as well as dismal physical conditions. This is forbidden by the Egyptian constitution. It is a crime, but not a crime that often comes before the courts. Those courts once had a reputation for independence, but that changed under Mubarak, who made changes to personnel and to the rules on the appointment of judges which over time left mainly pliant men on the bench, ready either to take “guidance” on cases or to accommodate what they imagined would be the government’s desires. They were also ready to accept evidence from police witnesses without questioning its veracity.

The released journalists were VIP detainees. Their treatment was bad, but bearable. The situation of more ordinary detainees is worse. Very few of them can look forward to being rescued in the way in which the al-Jazeera three have been.