# CE2004088EN.01064701.xml

| 8.4.2004 | EN | Official Journal of the European Union | CE 88/647 |
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8.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 88/647

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(2004/C 88 E/0663)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3380/03

by Christos Zacharakis (PPE-DE) and Konstantinos Hatzidakis (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(14 November 2003)

Subject:   Representations to the Egyptian authorities to implement the principles of democracy and the protection of human rights

Subject:

In 1989 the Egyptian Government arrested in Suez and sentenced to death three Greek seamen from the ‘Thanassis’ on charges of smuggling, even though their guilt was never proven. After pressure from prominent European personalities, these sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment.

This affair received widespread media coverage, and many Greek radio and television programmes were broadcast on the subject. A book was also published describing the unwarranted sentences handed down on them and the wretched conditions of detention in Egyptian prisons. Two of the three seamen have already died in Egyptian prisons, while the third, Konstantinos Kastanias, is seriously ill and is slowly dying in al-Qanatir prison.

The European Parliament has repeatedly expressed the need to strengthen democracy in Egypt (Resolutions P5_TA(2002)0378, P5_TA(2002)0410) and has referred to the specific case of the wretched conditions of detention of Konstantinos Kastanias, calling on the Egyptian authorities to permit him to be transferred to Greece on humanitarian grounds (Resolution P5_TA-PROV(2003)0192, 10.4.2003). It will also be recalled that Article 2 of the Cooperation Agreement between Egypt and the European Union calls for respect for human rights and the principles of democracy and that Commissioner Chris Patten made a statement before the plenary of the European Parliament on 5 September 2002 urging Egypt to adopt the highest judicial and democratic standards if is to achieve its developmental and political ambitions. Particularly in view of its cooperation with Egypt and the above statement, will the Commission say what immediate measures it intends to take to prevail upon Egypt to heed the European Parliament's request and allow Konstantinos Kastanias who is dying to be transferred to Greece, in accordance with the above European Parliament Resolution P5_TA-prov(2003)0192 of 10.4.2003?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(11 December 2003)

(11 December 2003)

The Commission is aware of the detention of Mr Konstantinos Kastanias in an Egyptian prison for drug trafficking and his sentence to death (subsequently commuted to life imprisonment). The Commission is aware that on humanitarian grounds, the Egyptian authorities in 1996 repatriated Mr Nikos Zagelidis, one of two other persons charged with the same sentence.

The Commission is following this case and has been in contact with the Greek and the Egyptian authorities.

The Commission is prepared to support any further diplomatic effort by Greece or by the Union Presidency for the transfer on humanitarian grounds of Mr Kastanias to Greece by virtue of the existing bilateral agreement on the exchange of detainees.

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