"We have identified the hideout of Abu Musa, the most ruthless, powerful and well-organized Bedouin smuggler of human beings operating in Egyptian Sinai."
The announcement was made by Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro and Dario Picciau, co-presidents of the human rights group EveryOne. "Abu Musa is currently holding 59 Eritrean migrants hostage in two rooms (37 in one, 22 in the other). In the room with 37 refugees, aged between 17 and 38 (with whom we are in constant telephone contact) there are 8 women, some of them pregnant.
The hideout they are being detained in is situated in Ferah, a village near Mount Sinai, just an hour's drive from Israel, in the St Katherine Protectorate of South Sinai. After speaking directly to the hostages themselves, and the uncle of one of the migrants who lives in Germany and acts as interpreter for us in the Tigrinya language," say the activists," and thanks to investigations in the area, we now know the exact location where the Eritreans are are being held, chained up in an underground shipping container three and a half metres deep.
The main structure is similar to a hotel surrounded by tukuls. It has two red entrance doors and is guarded round the clock by four armed men. There are three other modern buildings with red roofs under construction nearby. Abu Musa lives in a three-storey house not far from the hideout, with a warehouse at the back, a pine tree and several prickly pears. To get about, the traffickers drive a 2011 Toyota pick-up (probably a Toyota Cruise).
The vehicle is white and blue with a red stripe, and a number 5726 licence plate. "The co-presidents of EveryOne Group have also sent the Egyptian and international police a profile of the trafficker and a possible photo of the smuggler, picked out by the hostages: "Abu Musa is between 45 and 50 years old, he is lean and swarthy and is related to the Muzeina Bedouin tribe.
Originally from Wadi Saal he speaks English and works as a tourist guide in the desert with his father and brothers. His friends and family call him "Samih" or "El Baah" which in the Bedouin dialect means “The Deep One”. He is respected by the local community and considered one of the best guides in the whole of Southern Sinai .Youssuf, Abu Musa's 19-year-old brother, has already killed at least 4 migrants. Three young men of 18 were murdered at 7 pm on November 9th and another young man last night. Another prisoner was taken away by the traffickers some days ago and has not been heard of since.
EveryOne Group reports episodes of beatings and torture of the detained migrants every day. A 22-year-old was given electric shocks to his feet and is now paralyzed, another had his little finger amputated, while the remaining prisoners have been burned on the back with molten plastic. The women have been repeatedly raped and burned with cigarette ends. All prisoners have infected wounds.
"The latest threat is that if the prisoners' families do not pay the ransom very soon (with sums that vary from between 25 and 30,000 dollars per person) the refugees will be killed. We are launching an urgent appeal to the Egyptian police, but also to the United Nations and the European Union" write EveryOne Group in a report sent to all the Egyptian diplomatic missions throughout the world. "We are asking that Abu Musa be immediately arrested, and the young African migrants released and protected according to their fundamental rights to life, health and freedom."
Rome, November 28, 2011. The human rights organization has sent the Egyptian and international institutions and the media the personal data of the notorious trafficker in human beings who is holding 59 Eritrean migrants hostage and torturing them every day with his brothers. A photo of Abu Musa has been sent to the Egyptian authorities and the UN.
"We have identified the hideout of Abu Musa, the most ruthless, powerful and well-organized Bedouin smuggler of human beings operating in Egyptian Sinai."
Sinai. EveryOne Group locates the hideout of the trafficker Abu Musa
http://www.everyonegroup.com/EveryOne/MainPage/Entries/2011/11/29_Sinai._EveryOne_Group_locates_the_hideout_of_the_trafficker_Abu_Musa.html
The hideout they are being detained in is situated in Ferah, a village near Mount Sinai, just an hour's drive from Israel, in the St Katherine Protectorate of South Sinai. After speaking directly to the hostages themselves, and the uncle of one of the migrants who lives in Germany and acts as interpreter for us in the Tigrinya language," say the activists," and thanks to investigations in the area, we now know the exact location where the Eritreans are are being held, chained up in an underground shipping container three and a half metres deep. The main structure is similar to a hotel surrounded by tukuls.
It has two red entrance doors and is guarded round the clock by four armed men. There are three other modern buildings with red roofs under construction nearby. Abu Musa lives in a three-storey house not far from the hideout, with a warehouse at the back, a pine tree and several prickly pears. To get about, the traffickers drive a 2011 Toyota pick-up (probably a Toyota Cruise). The vehicle is white and blue with a red stripe, and a number 5726 licence plate. "The co-presidents of EveryOne Group have also sent the Egyptian and international police a profile of the trafficker and a possible photo of the smuggler, picked out by the hostages: "Abu Musa is between 45 and 50 years old, he is lean and swarthy and is related to the Muzeina Bedouin tribe.
Originally from Wadi Saal he speaks English and works as a tourist guide in the desert with his father and brothers. His friends and family call him "Samih" or "El Baah" which in the Bedouin dialect means “The Deep One”. He is respected by the local community and considered one of the best guides in the whole of Southern Sinai .Youssuf, Abu Musa's 19-year-old brother, has already killed at least 4 migrants. Three young men of 18 were murdered at 7 pm on November 9th and another young man last night. Another prisoner was taken away by the traffickers some days ago and has not been heard of since.
EveryOne Group reports episodes of beatings and torture of the detained migrants every day. A 22-year-old was given electric shocks to his feet and is now paralyzed, another had his little finger amputated, while the remaining prisoners have been burned on the back with molten plastic. The women have been repeatedly raped and burned with cigarette ends. All prisoners have infected wounds.
"The latest threat is that if the prisoners' families do not pay the ransom very soon (with sums that vary from between 25 and 30,000 dollars per person) the refugees will be killed. We are launching an urgent appeal to the Egyptian police, but also to the United Nations and the European Union" write EveryOne Group in a report sent to all the Egyptian diplomatic missions throughout the world. "We are asking that Abu Musa be immediately arrested, and the young African migrants released and protected according to their fundamental rights to life, health and freedom."
Rome / Arish, December 23rd, 2011. Hundreds of sub-Saharan refugees have been released by the smugglers and allowed to reach Israel following the campaign against the smuggling of migrants and human organs in the Sinai, led by Everyone group, New Generation Foundation for Human Rights, ICER, Coalition for Organ-Failure Solutions, Eritrean Concern and other NGOs, and following the CNN documentary "Death in the Desert", which was broadcast for the first time on November 5th, 2011.
Sinai, slave trade: 32 more refugees released source http://www.everyonegroup.com/EveryOne/MainPage/Entries/2011/12/25_Sinai%2C_slave_trade__32_more_refugees_released.html
At the same time, several prominent members of the Bedouin tribes have begun, together with the police and the Egyptian military, to combat the trafficking, freeing several groups of sub-Saharan migrants and causing some traffickers to stop their criminal activities. On December 22nd, a well-known chief smuggler of the Sawarka family, harassed by the authorities and the Bedouin security force, has decided to release 32 young prisoners, mostly Eritreans, without the payment of a ransom. The group is now in Israel. According to the New Generation Foundation for Human Rights, there are still three prison camps in Sinai being run by Bedouin smugglers. According to the same organization, in the early months of 2012 the last camps will also be dismantled and the most important Bedouin tribes will act as guarantors of the end of slavery and trafficking in human organs in the Sinai.
EveryOne Group and the network of NGOs working against trafficking, however, is completing a report that identifies the traffickers still active, those responsible for dozens of murders, and episodes of violence, rape and brutal acts against migrants. The main perpetrators of these atrocities are Abu Musa and Abu Abdullah. The report will accompany a complaint for crimes against humanity initiated by EveryOne Group and its partners to the Egyptian, Palestinian and international authorities, as well as the International Criminal Court.
Hundreds of Refugees Held Hostage in Sinai Torture Camps Need Rescuing
http://www.asmarino.com/press-releases/1274-hundreds-of-refugees-held-hostage-in-sinai-torture-camps-need-rescuing
Agenzia Habeshia - Italy וו Release Eritrea – United Kingdom
International Commission on Eritrean Refugees (ICER) – United States
Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights (EMDHR) - Sweden
The America Team for Displaced Eritreans – United States
Physicians for Human Rights - Israel וו Hotline for Migrant Workers - Israel
Hundreds of Refugees Held Hostage in Sinai Torture Camps Need Rescuing
Claims that a large number of refugees have been released from Sinai camps following media reports represents only a partial picture of the current situation on the ground. Human rights organizations worldwide have come together to publish up-to-date information in their possession which shows that the smuggling networks are still up and running and that hundreds of refugee hostages are being tortured by human traffickers in the Sinai.
For more than 18 months, the chilling evidence of horrors inflicted by human traffickers on refugees as they are on their way to Israel through the Sinai desert has been published and broadcast in Israel and throughout the world. During the past year, the organizations signed on this document have provided detailed information, systematically collected, regarding smuggling networks operating in the Sinai and beyond (Israel, Ethiopia, and Sudan) to influential bodies in the international arena including diplomats, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and the Israeli authorities. Despite these numerous appeals, and the concrete nature of the information that was transferred, the detention camps, the extortion, and the torture continue.
Throughout the past year, Israeli, American, and European human rights organizations have been in continuous contact with Eritrean and Sudanese refugees held in the torture camps in Sinai. Refugee hostages use cellular telephones provided by their captors to extort large sums of ransom money from their relatives and friends. Despite recent reports in the media regarding the release of hundreds of refugees held captive in the Sinai, and their arrival in Israel, it is apparent – from the information gathered by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and the Hotline for Migrant Workers in Israel, Agenzia Habeshia in Italy, Release Eritrea in the UK, the International Commission on Eritrean Refugees (ICER), the America Team for Displaced Eritreans and the Swedish Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights (EMDHR) – that hundreds of refugees are still being held captive in the Sinai, some of which are experiencing physical abuse, torture, systematic rape, and even death, all with the objective to obtain tens of thousands of dollars in ransom money in exchange for their release. Heinous methods of torture and extortion, as previously reported, including in a recent report by Amnesty International include prolonged group bondage, electroshock, suspension by the limbs, burns from white-hot irons, starvation, severe sexual abuse, etc.
Information presented in this document shows that despite recent reports, the people smuggling, trafficking, and torture in the Sinai desert continue to operate as usual.
Updated Information on Groups Currently Held in Egypt
Group of Approximately 165 Hostages
On the 16th and 17th of November, 2011, rights organization The Hotline for Migrant Workers was contacted several times by 3 hostages that are part of a larger group of 165 Eritrean refugees currently being held hostage. According to their reports, they are under the control of a trafficker named Samieh, nicknamed Abu Musa, who leads a group of 8 smugglers in this compound. According to the prisoners, the group includes 13 women and 15 unaccompanied minors, ages 14 to 16. The group reports that they are not being held in Sinai but rather in a bunker in a secluded area north of the city of Mansoura, 120 kilometer north of Cairo and a 4 hour drive from Ismaila, Egypt.
According to the refugee held in the bunker, some of whom have been held hostage for several months, the smugglers beat and electroshock them as a way to pressure them into raising the ransom money. The male hostages have not left the bunker since they arrived, but every night the smugglers forcibly take the women outside and rape them. According to their reports, in the last week alone, 5 people have died by electrocution, among them one woman. On November 17th, they reported that an additional 2 refugees were electrocuted. They informed the Hotline for Migrant Workers that some of the hostages arrived at the compound after being sold to Samieh's group after paying large ransoms to other traffickers in separate locations. They are currently being ransomed for 30,000 dollars. The contact information for the refugee hostages in this camp can be provided by the organizations signed on this document.
Group of 59 Hostages:
On the 17th of November, Father Mussie Zerai of the organization Ageniza Habeshia was contacted by several hostages that are part of a larger group of 59 Eritrean refugees, which include 8 women, 2 in late-term pregnancy. The refugees told Father Mussie Zerai and Swedish journalist Meron Estefanos, representative of the EMDHR organization, that the smugglers are demanding 23,000 dollars for the release of each one of the hostages. People from this group have repeatedly contacted Ms. Estefanos and have told her about one woman hostage who is 7 months pregnant and is in this Sinai compound after being kidnapped in Sudan by smugglers who then raped her many times. The smugglers in Sudan demanded 3,000 dollars for her release, and when she could not pay this money, she was sold to other smugglers. The current smugglers are demanding 23,000 dollars and have made it clear that if she does not come up with the money by the time of her delivery, she will be forced to pay an additional 23,000 dollars for the infant. On the 18th of November, Ms. Estefanos was informed that a 22 year-old male hostage from this group died by electrocution. According to information gathered by Father Mussie Zerai, two weeks ago 22 refugee hostages have joined this group.
The 59 hostages are being guarded and tortured by 4 smugglers. According to reports from the hostages, the smugglers are also led by a man named Samieh, nicknamed Abu Musa, meaning he is probably the same smuggler leading the group of 165 hostages described above. The group is supposedly being held hostage in a compound in the north of Sinai, not far from the city Rafah. Refugees reported that while they were outdoors, they heard aircraft engine sounds and saw lights from what appeared to be control towers, leading them to conclude that they are in proximity to an airfield. They report that alongside where they are being held are 3 luxurious houses, a large yard, and a tall tree. Two of the homes are striking in their appearance as they are painted red and constructed like a Chinese pagoda.
Group of 111 Hostages:
On the 16th of November, additional hostages made contact with Meron Estefanos, from the EMDHR in Sweden. They report that on the 8th of November, they were transferred from Sudan to the Sinai by smugglers that are demanding 28,000 dollars in ransom from each person. According to the information gathered, this is a group held separately from the previous 2 groups and as of the time of publication their approximate whereabouts and information about their captors remain unknown.
Group of 17 Hostages:
A Sudanese refugee from Darfur, currently residing in Israel, told a Physicians for Human Rights-Israel activist that he is in contact with a group of 17 Sudanese refugees, mostly from Darfur, that are currently being held in the Sinai. The smugglers, led by a man known as Mohammed (nicknamed Abdallah) from the Sawarka tribe, are torturing the refugees and demanding from each of them 5,200 dollars. The hostages report that they are being held near Al Jorra village, which is located 60 kilometers south of Sheikh Zewaid and 30 kilometers from Bagdad, Sinai. The 17 Sudanese refugees are the remaining hostages of a larger group that was released after they paid the ransom money. Some of the refugees released from this group are currently in Israel. The contact information of the smuggler can be obtained from the organizations.
370 Additional Refugees:
A representative of the EMDHR received information that on the 12th of November 170 Eritreans and on the 15th of November another 200 Eritreans were transferred from Sudan to the Sinai.
Current Information about Smugglers and Collaborators
In testimonies collected by human rights organizations over the past year, the names of several prominent smugglers have been continuously repeated, among them, Abu Abdullah, Abu Musa, Abu Ali, Ibrahim, Khaled and Ahmed.
In the group of the 165 refugees that are currently being held in the area of Mansoura, Egypt by Abu Musa, the refugees reported that seven additional smugglers are guarding them, including Abu Musa’s bothers – Ali Hamed and Salim. The place is frequented by a smuggler named Abu Hamed; it is unclear whether this is an additional smuggler or Abu Musa’s brother, Ali Hamed. Refugees who were sold by Abu Hamed to Abu Musa informed us that Abu Hamed runs several additional chambers each holding dozens of refugees and they are located a few kilometers away from where they are currently being held. Reports collected by human rights groups indicate that Abu Musa works with the assistance of an Eritrean living in Israel. The Israeli police have been officially informed about this suspected cooperation.
Abu Abdullah is another smuggler that is continuously mentioned in refugee testimonies and is described as a large man in his mid-thirties that works with his brother out of Sinai. Abu Abdullah works closely with an Eritrean man nick-named Cornell who is responsible for collecting ransom money sent to Egypt by hostages' relatives and for managing a network of collaborators in Israel. According to victim's testimonies, these smugglers use Israeli cell phone numbers to be in contact with relatives of the hostages.
Additional testimonies collected by the organizations indicate that an Eritrean man named Angosom, based in Khartoum, Sudan, is responsible for kidnapping hundreds of Eritrean refugees from Shagarab and Kassala refugee camps in Sudan and from May Aini and Shimelba refugee camps in Ethiopia and then selling them to human traffickers in Egypt.
Over the past year, the Open Clinic of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel interviewed about 800 patients that arrived to Israel via the Sinai. 78% of interviewees described being subjected to torture by smugglers that threatened them at gunpoint while locking them up in chains.
In addition to the horrid testimonies of torture and captivity, 39 people reported to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel that they were kidnapped by the smugglers and arrived at Israel against their will. On November 7, 2011, a Hotline for Migrant Worker's volunteer interviewed an Eritrean refugee who was held for six months until he managed to raise and pay the smugglers 10,000 dollars. He reported that he had no desire to go to Israel but that he was kidnapped in February 2011 in Kassala, Sudan along with another 84 Eritrean refugees. The refugee explained that while the group was on their way to Shagarab refugee camp, they were kidnapped and sold to smugglers who took them to the Sinai desert. Meron Estefanos, from the organization EMDHR, spoke to members of the kidnapped group and confirmed this report. In February 2011, Father Mussie Zerai from Agenzia Habeshia spoke to one of the hostages that reported being chained to an 11-year-old that recently had his arm broken by the smugglers. The child cried in pain but the smugglers refused to let him go. In the past two months, a few refugees from this group have arrived in Israel, after being tortured and held hostage for months and after gathering the ransom which ranged from a few thousand dollars to $35,000 per person from their families around the world. The fate of the 11 year old child, as well as the fate of many others, is unknown.
One week ago, Egyptian media reported about violent confrontations between tribes in central Sinai after accusations of being involved in trafficking of refugee organs. The media claims that one of the main smugglers was killed during the fighting.
Information transferred to the Israeli authorities regarding collaborators with smuggling networks that are based in Israel
While the Israeli police do not have the mandate to directly investigate individuals that are suspected of committing crimes in Egyptian territory, the Israeli police are obligated to act regarding operatives that are based in Israel. The Israeli organizations who wrote this report have transferred a great deal of information about suspected criminals that collaborate with the human traffickers, by extorting and collecting ransom money inside of Israel. The activists in these organizations have even met several times with representatives in the relevant police unit. Eritrean refugees living in Israel joined these meetings, following requests by the organizations, and they provided valuable information about human trafficking operatives in Israel. None of the suspected criminals have been detained by the police.
On December 12, 2010, activists from the Hotline for Migrant Workers managed to orchestrate the arrest of 2 Eritreans while they collected ransom money from a relative of a refugee held hostage. Even though the two were caught while conducting the transfer, they were soon released from prison and not put on trial. Inquiries from an Israeli human rights group as to whether charges will be pressed have yet to be answered.
On July 31, 2011, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and the Hotline for Migrant Workers sent a joint letter to the police with the phone numbers of 12 suspected collaborators living in Israel that are under suspicion of assisting the human traffickers in Sinai, as well as the license plate number of a car driven by of one of them. No reply has been received to this appeal.
On August 17, 2011, a Hotline for Migrant Workers staff member sent an e-mail to the Israeli police asking them to follow a suspect who was about to collect ransom money in Tel Aviv. Despite attempts to reach the relevant police unit via telephone, the ransom money was given to the suspect without the Israeli police being present during the transaction.
On September 5, 2011, two more complaints were filed with the Israeli police. The first complaint involved three refugees who were kidnapped from Israel and taken to Egypt (last week it was reported in Israel that one of the refugees had been killed and the other two are being kept in an Egyptian prison where they face deportation orders back to Eritrea). A relative of one of the kidnapped refugees who lives in Israel filed a complaint with the police. A second complaint was filed by an Eritrean refugee regarding the entry of an Eritrean smuggler into Israel who was involved in the torture and rape of refugees in Sinai. On the same day, an activist from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel provided the police with information about additional suspected collaborators that operate within Israel to help the human traffickers in the Sinai Peninsula.
On September 18, 2011 another complaint was filed by an Eritrean refugee regarding an Israeli citizen to whom he paid money in order to free his relative that was being held hostage in Sinai.
The organizations Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Hotline for Migrant Workers, Agenzia Habeshia, International Commission on Eritrean Refugees, The America Team for Displaced Eritreans, Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights, and Release Eritrea call again on the Egyptian and Israeli authorities and the international community to act quickly in order to free the refugees held hostage in the Sinai, to prosecute the smugglers and those that assist them, to bring an immediate end to the torture camps and the network of human trafficking, and to provide care for the torture survivors.
For more information please contact:
Shahar Shoham- Physicians for Human Rights-Israel:
shahar@phr.org.il
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Sigal Rozen- Hotline for Migrants Workers:
sigal@hotline.org.il
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Meron Estefanos- Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights (EMDHR):
meron.estefanos@gmail.com
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John Stauffer- The America Team for Displaced Eritreans:
john@eritreanrefugees.org
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Dr. Yonas Mehari- International Commission on Eritrean Refugees (ICER):
YMehari@gmail.com
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Father Mussie Zerai - Agenzia Habeshia:
agenzia_habeshia@yahoo.it
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Selam Kidane - Release Eritrea:
S.Kidane@release-eritrea.com
Rome / Arish, November 26th, 2011.
EveryOne Group has received dozens of phone calls and emails over the last few days from relatives of the last prisoners in Northern Sinai.
Sinai - An Important Step in the Campaign against the Slave Trade and Human Organs Trafficking
http://www.everyonegroup.com/EveryOne/MainPage/Entries/2011/12/2_Sinai_-_An_Important_Step_in_the_Campaign_against_the_Slave_Trade.html
Once again, we have reported the presence of chained-up refugees to the CNN's Freedom Project. Local sources have confirmed that the police of the North Sinai Governorate, together with the Bedouin security force, are carrying out searches in the detention camps and identifying the traffickers, the latest in Taba, after our report. The notorious robber, Abu Musa, is still at large and is holding a group of about 40 young Eritreans prisoner, but we believe that if the police operations continue, his reign of terror will also come to an end. Our partner, Hamdy Al-Azazy, the president of the New Generation Foundation for Human Rights in Arish (North Sinai) is currently in Cairo, after receiving serious threats from the traffickers.
For our part, after reporting his condition to FrontLine (an international organization that defends activists throughout the world) and the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, we are in constant contact with Hamdy, offering what support we can. Hamdy is a candidate for the Makwan Prize, a symbolic recognition that EveryOne Group awards each year to a human rights defender. New Generation Foundation for Human Rights has confirmed that the Bedouin special force (which acts together with the Egyptian police and intelligence services) is continuing its security operations against the smugglers in an attempt to stop the trafficking of migrants. "Previously there were 30 leaders of this criminal trade," says Hamdy, "but currently only 6 remain, and they have pledged to stop the slave trade by January 1, 2012. However, we must continue our humanitarian campaign to ensure that the criminals do not feel safe to resume their terrible trafficking. If we, EveryOne Group, along with the other NGOs continue to work hard, this tragic phenomenon will stop completely."
The humanitarian results achieved so far and the prospects that lead us to believe that the Sinai traffickers can no longer operate with impunity, should not make us forget that the smugglers are still holding several groups of sub-Saharan refugees prisoner. EveryOne is in contact with a group of 37 young prisoners in the hands of Abu Musa, and with another group of 79 refugees, mostly Eritreans, who have been the hands of traffickers for over three months. The smugglers torture, beat and humiliate the boys daily, and submit the girls to rape and ill-treatment. Those who have paid at least $10 000 of the 25,000 ransom (33,000 until a few days ago) are better fed and treated less ruthlessly. Those who do not have relatives able to pay the ransom, however, suffer all kinds of abuse. The smugglers threaten them with a tragic end on the human kidneys black market. We are implementing humanitarian actions to support the authorities in an attempt to put an end to the ordeal of these young refugees.
In the picture, Hamdy in Arish with a refugee from Eritrea who was freed by the traffickers, but shot in the stomach by the Egyptian border police. The young woman later died.
Thursday, November 17, 2011 (CNN). Hundreds of African refugees have been released from captivity in the Sinai Peninsula and allowed to cross from Egypt into Israel, shortly after a CNN documentary aired detailing the horrendous conditions the migrants face.
http://www.everyonegroup.com/EveryOne/MainPage/Entries/2011/11/18_Slaves_freed_after_CNN_documentary.html
Slaves freed after CNN documentary
While in captivity the refugees are enslaved, many of the women raped and some even killed. The CNN crew even found evidence that some victims had organs extracted, a practice known as organ harvesting, and were later found dead in the desert.
Shortly after the documentary aired, more than 600 African refugees were released in Sinai, says Hamdi al Azzazy, an activist for the New Generation Foundation for Human Rights who has worked for years in the region, fighting to improve the plight of the African refugees.
His account was backed up by a press release from the EveryOne Group, an Italian non-governmental organization, which has also been raising public awareness about the refugees.
It said that after the CNN documentary aired "many chief-traffickers were afraid of being pursued by the authorities and on Wednesday, November 9th, 2011 decided to release most of the groups of refugees they were holding prisoner."
The Sinai Desert is a vast and lawless area where the Egyptian state has virtually no presence and it is nearly impossible to fully verify the accounts.
CNN has contacted a chief of the Sawarka Bedouin tribe. Some rogue members of this tribe have been implicated in the imprisonment of African refugees and in the organ harvesting scheme.
The chief, who has asked not to be named said: "I heard the Sawarka's members involved in this dirty business released more than 600 Africans without them having to pay the ransoms and sent them to the Israeli border due to pressure from the intelligence service, including hundreds who were freed from the house of the assassinated dealer in Nekhel. He has been selling their organs and they found lots of weapons."
EveryOne Group says the alleged trafficker in people and human organs - known as "The Sultan" - was killed in a shootout with some Bedouins of another tribe, who were attempting to free a group of Eritrean refugees.
An Egyptian general, who asked not to be named, told CNN that Egypt's national security agencies were "tracking the rings of organized criminals involved in human trafficking but remain perplexed regarding who exactly is harvesting the organs and where they have been sold."
He said the investigation included "both the Egyptian intelligence and the National Security apparatus because it involves several countries and is not just an internal issue."
The UNHCR, which attempts to keep track of refugees crossing from Egypt to Israel, has confirmed that about 650 refugees have recently crossed the border.
Peter Deck, the Senior Protection Officer for the UNHCR in Tel Aviv, said it was impossible to tell why so many refugees were suddenly crossing the border or what role CNN's Freedom Project program may have played in people getting released from Bedouin detention camps, but he added that November was on track to becoming a record for the most crossings by refugees from Egypt to Israel.
He said that aside from the sheer numbers, the conditions had also changed. Many of those who crossed into Israel had stayed in Sinai for about a week, whereas usually the African refugees are held in Bedouin camps for months, and that most had paid substantially less to be allowed to pass then is normally the case.
Another change he noted was: "We didn’t have any refugees complain of severe physical abuse or violence… something seems to be different in those Bedouin camps."
The American University in Cairo is hosting a conference this weekend at which a delegation from The International Criminal Court will address human trafficking through Africa, Sinai, and Israel.
"Death in the Desert" showed the remarkable risks Africans were prepared to make to try to get to Israel. Watch the documentary online in three parts. It will be re-aired this weekend on CNN International.
CNN's Tim Lister contributed to this report.
Related links:
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/11/17/cfp-pleitgen-sinai-desert-update.cnn
http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/category/life-in-slavery/
In the photo, from left, Hamdy Al-Azazy and a co-operator with the body of a Eritrean victim