Cairo: November 7, 2019The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) launched today a legal position paper rejecting the recurrent abuses and legal violations in the form of publishing pictures and recorded confessions of defendants and suspects in criminal or political cases after their arrest and before or during the Public Prosecution investigations, and before convicting them with final verdicts, because this constitutes a flagrant violation of the law.

The publication of the legal position paper, entitled “A crime that must be stopped:
Publishing pictures or confessions of suspects and defendants in the media before they are convicted” illustrates examples of instances in which statements or confessions of defendants or suspects in cases not yet on trial before the courts were made public, without the presumption of innocence, and what this means in terms of tarnishing their reputation, or violating their rights by publishing statements or confessions, or forcing them to make them in the media. Although the Ministry of Interior itself often hides their identities, yet allowing the publication of their photos or confessions or forcing them to make such confessions is usually done with the Interior Ministry’s approval, since the defendants or suspects are in its custody.

The goal of the paper is for the Public Prosecutor to exercise his legal powers to put an end to this recurrent and ongoing violation, pursuant to the rule: “The accused is innocent until proven guilty”, whether by issuing an order to stop the publication of these pictures and confessions, or by punishing those who violate the rights of the accused and suspects, because they are still innocent citizens and fall under the jurisdiction of the Public Prosecution.

To read the legal paper:
A crime that must be stopped: Publishing pictures or confessions of suspects and defendants in the media before they are convicted