Jun 23, 2021 | Human Rights Council, News, Work with the UN
The Egyptian authorities systematically abuse “counter-terrorism” laws against human rights defenders, setting a dangerous model for other countries around the world to follow.
On 23 June, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) jointly organized an online event on the sidelines of 47th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council to denounce Egypt’s targeting of human rights defenders through the country’s “counter-terrorism” laws.
Titled ‘Weaponizing Counter Terrorism Laws to Silence Human Rights Defenders’, the interactive online webinar aimed to highlight how the Egyptian authorities use “counter-terrorism” laws to target human rights defenders, including by placing lawyers and human rights activists on Egypt’s “terrorist list”, a recent practice resulting in serious human rights violations.
The event was moderated by Bahey Eldin Hassan, CIHRS Director, who stressed that the abuse of the “counter-terrorism” laws was not only employed against human rights defenders, and is not a phenomenon limited to Egypt.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, pointed out that repressive regimes take advantage of the lack of a globally agreed definition of terrorism when legislating for counter terrorism purposes. As a result, they get to place whomever they like under the “terrorism label” at the national level, with no meaningful oversight or penalties.
“The United Nations Security Council has taken on a massive legislative role on counter terrorism, which has given cover to and enabled State repression at the national level,” Ní Aoláin noted addressing the role of the international community.
“This is not an accident or a ‘bad apple’ problem, the misuse of counter-terrorism is embedded in the practised national legal systems,” Ní Aoláin added. “That abuse is part of the DNA of State practice in many countries.”
“We are at a pivotal moment. States must ask themselves what 20 years of abuse of counter terrorism laws have done,” Ní Aoláin urged. “It has weakened protections and made us less safe in many ways. This is a time for States to stand up and ensure pressure for change of this situation.”
Brian Dooley, Senior Advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, noted that for authorities to imprison a human rights defender “with a straight face” for a long period of time, they have to use major accusations such as terrorism.
“The Egyptian authorities know that these human rights defenders are not terrorists,” Dooley said. “In most of the cases we have seen, where defenders were sentenced to ten years or more in prison, the relevant authorities use some sort of anti-terrorism, national security, or treason laws to justify putting a human rights defender away in prison for 10 or more years.”
Said Benarbia, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Director, began by naming some of the most prominent human rights defenders who remain in pre-trial detention facing “terrorism-related charges” in Egypt.
Among those Benarbia mentioned are: Alaa Abdelfattah, a blogger and a human rights activist; Mahienour al-Masri, a human rights lawyer; Mohammad al-Baqer, a lawyer and the director of the independent NGO, Adalah; and Amr Imam, a lawyer at the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information.
“In most of the cases the ICJ documented human rights defenders face charges of ‘joining a terrorist group’,” but the State security prosecution has consistently failed to even name the terrorist organization or group concerned,” Benarbia said. “In most of the cases, prosecutions were initiated with the sole purpose of intimidating and silencing human rights defenders.”
Benarbia emphasized that prosecuting individuals despite a total lack of evidence to support the charges is contrary to both the Egyptian and international law and standards.
“Any country that, like Egypt, uses ‘counter terrorism’ legislation to clamp down on basic freedoms and retaliate against human rights defenders and create open-air prisons should not have a say in setting international standards on terrorism,” Benarbia added.
Human Rights Defender, Celine Lebrun Shaath, delivered a passionate statement about her husband, Ramy Shaath, an Egyptian Palestinian human rights defender who has been detained since July 2019. Shaath, who herself was deported from Egypt in the wake of her husband’s arrest, mentioned that the online event was taking place on Ramy Shaath’s birthday; the second since his imprisonment. “I would rather not be here today,” she added, lamenting what had happened to her husband.
“We do not know to what terrorist group Ramy is supposed to be belonging,” Shaath said. “He is accused of spreading ‘fake news’, but we don’t know which news or where he had spread them.”
Shaath expressed her hope that the Egyptian government would heed the call for her husband’s release and free Ramy and all the political prisoners.
“[Human Rights Defenders] should be looked at as a wealth for this country. They are the future, they are not a threat, dissent is not terrorism, dissent is a vibrant part of democracy that should be cherished and protected,” Shaath underscored.
On 12 March 2021, 31 UN Member States signed a joint declaration condemning the human rights situation in Egypt, which Finland delivered on their behalf at the Human Rights Council’s 46th session. The joint letter focused primarily on “the restrictions on freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly, the constrained space for civil society and political opposition, and the application of terrorism legislation against peaceful critics.”
The event was cosponsored by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the International Service for Human Rights and the International Federation for Human Rights.
You can watch the entire event here.
Contact:
Said Benarbia, Director, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme, t: +41-22-979-3817; e: said.benarbia(a)icj.org
Asser Khattab, Research and Communications Officer, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme, e: asser.khattab(a)icj.org
Jun 1, 2021 | News
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt should immediately end a crackdown on freedom of association, independent groups, and peaceful dissent, 63 organizations, including the ICJ, said today.
هذا البيان الصحفي متوفر باللغة العربية أيضاً
The groups issued the following public statement recommending a series of actions Egypt should take to make tangible improvements in the human rights situation in Egypt and to ensure that Egypt complies with its international obligations:
We the undersigned 63 organizations call on the Egyptian authorities, including President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, to take immediate action to end the Egyptian authorities’ wholesale crackdown on independent organizations and peaceful dissent.
More than 30 countries at the United Nations Human Rights Council issued a joint statement on 12 March 2021 expressing their deep alarm over “the trajectory of human rights in Egypt and share[d] the concerns expressed by the [UN] High Commissioner for Human Rights and [UN] Special Procedure mandate holders.”
Our organizations have been calling for the establishment of a monitoring and reporting mechanism on Egypt at the Human Rights Council and will continue to do so until there is meaningful and sustained improvement in the country’s human rights situation.
We remain greatly concerned over the arbitrary arrest, detention, and other judicial harassment of human rights defenders. Those held unjustly include NGOs directors Mohamed al-Baqer and Ezzat Ghoniem, human rights researchers Patrick George Zakiand Ibrahim Ezz el-Din, and lawyers Mahienour al-Massry, Haytham Mohamdeen, and Hoda Abdelmoniem. The founder and director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) Bahey Eldin Hassan was handed down an outrageous 15-years imprisonment sentence in absentia.
Other attacks against human rights defenders include travel bans, asset freezes, additions to the “terrorists list” in arbitrary proceedings, protracted criminal investigations under case No. 173 of 2011, and reprisals for their engagement with UN mechanisms. We share concerns by seven Special Procedures mandate holders – United Nations experts – about Law No. 149/2019 on Non-Governmental Organizations, as it fails to meet Egypt’s international obligations to ensure the right to freedom of association.
We also have serious concerns over the overly broad definition of terrorism in Law No. 94 of 2015 on counterterrorism and in the Penal Code that contravenes international standards and allows for the criminalization of acts falling within the scope of the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, as well as the misuse of “terrorism circuits” of criminal courts and the Supreme State Security Prosecution to target human rights defenders and other peaceful critics in order to silence dissent.
We are also deeply concerned over the crackdown on independent journalists and media, as hundreds of websites remain blocked and at least 28 journalists remain behind bars for simply doing their work or expressing critical views, including Esraa Abdelfatah and Ismail Iskandarani.
We share the assessment of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that arbitrary detention is a systematic problem in Egypt. Since President al-Sisi came to power, Egyptian security forces, with the complicity of prosecutors and judges, have arbitrarily arrested and detained thousands of people on the basis of unfounded terrorism-related charges. They include human rights defenders, religious minority rights activists, peaceful protesters, journalists, academics, artists, lawyers, opposition politicians, and relatives of dissidents forced into exile.
Egyptian security forces routinely subject those in custody to enforced disappearance and torture, which the UN Committee against Torture concluded to be “a systematic practice in Egypt.” Those disappeared and tortured are then routinely convicted in grossly unfair mass trials, in some cases before military courts.
Since 2014, hundreds have been sentenced to death and dozens executed after trials that rely on torture-tainted “confessions.” Thousands of others are being held in prolonged pretrial detention without the opportunity to meaningfully challenge the lawfulness of their detention, sometimes for periods exceeding the two-year maximum permissible under Egyptian law.
Even when prosecutors and judges order their release, the National Security Agency (NSA), with prosecutors’ complicity, routinely accuse them of similar charges in new cases to keep them detained indefinitely without trial, in the practice known as ”rotation.”
We also share the UN experts concerns over cruel and inhuman prison conditions, and the deliberate denial of adequate medical care that has led or contributed to preventable deaths in custody and serious damage to prisoners’ health. In 2020 alone, at least 35 people died in custody or shortly after following medical complications. The health and human rights crisis in prisons was further exacerbated by the authorities’ failure to adequately address Covid-19 outbreaks.
We share the High Commissioner’s concerns regarding worrying patterns in the Sinai peninsula of forcible displacement, enforced disappearances, and torture and other ill-treatment of detainees. We note her call to the Egyptian authorities “to recognise that, as in all countries facing security challenges and violent extremism, depriving people of their rights will not make the State safer, but more unstable.”
Discrimination against women and girls remains entrenched in law and practice. The authorities have not only failed to address pervasive sexual and gender-based violence, but have also targeted women’s human rights defenders and campaigners against sexual violence and harassment through arrests, harassment, threats, and other reprisals. The authorities have also used morality and debauchery laws to arbitrarily arrest, detain, and prosecute survivors and witnesses of sexual and other gender-based violence, women social media influencers, and LGBTQI+ people and activists.
This catalog of serious violations continues as a result of endemic impunity that prevails in Egypt, as highlighted by UN experts and the UN Committee against Torture.
We urge President al-Sisi to order and ensure full implementation of the following recommendations in order to secure tangible improvements in the human rights situation in Egypt and to ensure that Egypt complies with its international obligations:
- Immediately and unconditionally release anyone held solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly; and release others detained arbitrarily, including those held in prolonged pretrial detention without trial or the possibility to challenge the lawfulness of their detention; cease the practice commonly called “rotation”, and protect those in custody from torture and other ill-treatment and ensure their regular access to their families, lawyers of their choosing, and adequate medical care;
- Publicly condemn and order independent, impartial, thorough, and effective investigations into extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and other serious human rights violations and crimes under international law, including those committed in custody and in the context of counterterrorism operations in Sinai, with a view to bringing those responsible to justice; and guarantee the victims’ rights to truth, justice, and reparation;
- Establish a moratorium on executions, pending the abolition of the death penalty;
- Create a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders, including by effectively protecting them from arbitrary arrest, detention, and other forms of reprisal or harassment; instructing the public prosecution to close Case No. 173 of 2011; removing all arbitrary measures including travel bans and asset freezes against human rights defenders and their families; quashing verdicts against human rights defenders including those sentenced in their absence; and removing human rights defenders from the “terrorists list”;
- Prevent sexual and gender-based violence and prosecute offenders; put a stop to the policing of women’s bodies and behavior as well as prosecutions over vague charges of “indecency”, “violating family principles and values”, and “debauchery”;
- End arbitrary arrests and prosecutions against LGBTQI+ people, including police entrapment of LGBTQI+ through dating apps or social media and quash the verdicts of anyone already convicted; instruct officials to end forced anal examinations and sex determination tests as they can amount to torture; and
- Amend Law No.94 of 2015 on counterterrorism, Law No.8 of 2015 on terrorist entities, Law No.175 of 2018 on cybercrime, and Law No. 149 of 2019 on NGOs to bring them in line with Egypt’s international obligations.
Signatories:
Access Now
Amnesty International
ANKH (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human rights)
Association Beity (Tunisia)
Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI)
Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Morocco (ADDHOM)
Baytna
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
CELS Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales
Center for Reproductive Rights
Center of Studies and Initiatives for International Solidarity (CEDETIM, France)
CNCD-11.11.11
Committee for Justice
Committee for the Respect of Liberties and Human Rights in Tunisia (CRLDHT)
DefendDefenders (East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project)
Democratic Association of Tunisians in France (ADTF)
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
Dignity – Danish Institute Against Torture
Egyptian Human Rights Forum
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)
EgyptWide (Egyptian-Italian Initiative for Rights and Freedoms)
English PEN
EuroMed Rights
Freedom House
Front Line Defenders
Geneva Bridge Association
Global Voices
Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
Hassan Saadaoui Association for the Defense of Democracy and Equality (Tunisia)
humanrights.ch
Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Initiative Franco-égyptienne pour les Droits et les Libertés
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
Karapatan Alliance Philippines Inc.
Lawyers for Lawyers (L4L)
Legal Resources Centre
Mawjoudin Initiative (Tunisia)
MENA Rights Group
Minority Rights Group International (MRG)
Mwatana for Human Rights
Nachez (Dissonance), Tunisia
The National Union for Tunisian Journalists (SNJT)
Odhikar, Bangladesh
PEN Norway
People in Need
Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED)
REDRESS
Réseau des Organisations de la Société Civile pour l’Observation et le Suivi des Élections en Guinée (ROSE)
Robert F Kennedy Human Rights
South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO)
The Freedom Initiative
Tunisian Association of Democratic Women
Tunisian Association for Democracy and Civic State (AVDDH)
The Tunisian Association for the Defense of Academic Values (ATDVU)
The Tunisian Association for the Defense of Individual Liberties (ATDLI)
Tunisian Center for Press Freedom (CTLP)
Tunisian Coalition Against Death Penalty
The Tunisian Federation for Citizenship on both Shores (FTCR)
The Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH)
UIA-IROL (Institute for the Rule of Law of the International Association of Lawyers)
Vigilance for Democracy in Tunisia (Belgium)
Contact:
Said Benarbia, Director, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme, t: +41-22-979-3817; e: said.benarbia(a)icj.org
Asser Khattab, Research and Communications’ Officer, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme, e: asser.khattab(a)icj.org
Mar 16, 2021 | News
On the first day of the trial before the eastern Cairo criminal military court of those accused in connection with the 2016 explosion in the Haram district of Giza, the ICJ calls on the Egyptian authorities to: investigate allegations of torture and other ill-treatment; ensure reparation for those arbitrarily detained; and end the trials of civilians before military courts.
“The case has been under investigation by the State Security Prosecution for more than five years, involving prolonged pre-trial detention and severe restriction on the right to legal counsel, in a flagrant violation of Egyptian and international law,” said Said Benarbia, the ICJ’s MENA Programme Director. “Detaining people pending trial for that length of time makes this case yet another example of how the authorities are using pre-trial detention as a tool of repression and to punish, in violation of Egypt’s obligations under international human rights law”.
In January 2016, hundreds of people were arrested, and some forcibly disappeared in connection with an explosion in the Haram district of Giza that killed seven police officers and four civilians, and injured 15 others.
A number of those detained have reportedly been subjected to ill-treatment and denied fair trial rights guaranteed by Egyptian and international law, including the right to receive family visits. In addition, to the ICJ’s knowledge, while all the accused may have briefly met their lawyers in highly restrictive circumstances at the state prosecution office each time they have been remanded into custody, over the years, they have been denied their right to legal counsel before trial as their lawyers have not been allowed to visit them in prison.
The ICJ calls on the Egyptian authorities to investigate the incidents of enforced disappearance, ill-treatment and other human rights violations with a view to bring those responsible to justice.
“Notwithstanding the gravity of the charges involved, civilians should not be brought before military courts,” said Benarbia. “the jurisdiction of military courts should be limited to trials of military personnel in cases of strictly military offences; it should not extend to crimes over which civilian courts have jurisdiction, human rights violations or crimes under international law,” he added.
Contact
Said Benarbia, Director, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme, t: +41-22-979-3817; e: said.benarbia(a)icj.org
Asser Khattab, Research and Communications’ Officer, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme, e: asser.khattab(a)icj.org
Download
Press release in English and Arabic.
Mar 12, 2021 | News
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world expressed their strong support today for a joint declaration by UN member states condemning the human rights situation in Egypt which was delivered at the UN Human Rights Council.
In the declaration governments expressed “deep concern” for widespread human rights violations committed with impunity by the Egyptian authorities.
The joint declaration, signed by 31 states and delivered by Finland at the Council’s 46th session highlighted “restrictions on freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly, the constrained space for civil society and political opposition.” It also condemned the use of counter-terrorism laws to punish peaceful critics.
“The March 12 declaration ends years of a lack of collective action at the UN Human Rights Council on Egypt, despite the sharply deteriorating human rights situation in the country,” said Bahey Hassan, Director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies. “Countries should continue to make it clear to the Egyptian government that it will no longer have a carte blanche to arbitrarily imprison, torture or violate the right to life or unlawfully kill people.”
More than 100 NGOs from around the world wrote to UN member states in early 2021, warning that the Egyptian government is attempting to “annihilate” human rights organizations and eradicate the human rights movement in the country through sustained, widespread, and systematic attacks.
The organizations had asked UN member states to adopt a resolution establishing a monitoring and reporting mechanism on Egypt. The declaration delivered on March 12 is a significant step and should be followed up by concrete action toward achieving this goal, the organizations said. The declaration was on the Council’s agenda under Item 4, which provides a space to raise concerns about grave and systematic human rights violations, including country-specific situations.
The last joint declaration on the human rights situation in Egypt at the Human Rights Council was delivered by Iceland and co-signed by 26 countries in March 2014.
Since that time the human rights situation in Egypt has deteriorated dramatically. The Egyptian authorities have virtually obliterated almost all space for free expression, peaceful assembly, and association. Under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s rule security forces, with the complicity of prosecutors and judges, have arrested, detained or prosecuted thousands, including hundreds of human rights defenders, religious minorities’ rights activists, peaceful protesters, journalists, academics, artists, politicians and lawyers.
Many have been forcibly disappeared, tortured or otherwise ill-treated, and detained for months or years in inhumane conditions without trial. Those detained are regularly held on the basis of unfounded terrorism-related charges. If referred to trial individuals are often convicted in grossly unfair proceedings before military courts and through mass trials. Many have been sentenced to death and executed after unfair trials that have relied on statements likely obtained through torture. The authorities have also used morality and debauchery laws to arrest and detain women influencers, sexual violence survivors and witnesses, and LGBTI individuals and activists.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has found that arbitrary detention is a systematic problem in Egypt. The UN Committee against Torture said in 2017 following an inquiry on Egypt that the facts gathered by the committee “lead to the inescapable conclusion that torture is a systematic practice in Egypt.”
“Today’s declaration sends a clear message to the Egyptian authorities that the world will no longer turn a blind eye to their relentless campaign to crush peaceful dissent. The authorities must take urgent action to comply with their obligations under international law, starting by releasing the thousands of men and women arbitrarily detained, protecting those in custody from torture and other ill-treatment, and ending the crackdown on peaceful activism, ” said Kevin Whelan, Amnesty International representative to the UN in Geneva.
In the March 12 joint declaration governments called for “accountability and an immediate end of impunity” for abuses. Governments also called on Egypt to cease “abuses of due process,” the excessive use of “extended pre-trial detention,” and “the practice of adding detainees to new cases with similar charges after the legal limit for pre-trial detention has expired.”
Governments that have joined the declaration, led by Finland, include: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Other governments can join the declaration until two weeks after the end of the current Human Rights Council session.
“Bringing the human rights situation in Egypt to the attention of the Human Rights Council and properly addressing these abuses is of fundamental importance to ensure Egypt’s long-term stability and the dignity of its people,” said John Fisher, Geneva Director at Human Rights Watch.
The Co-signing organizations to this statement include:
Amnesty International, Arab Network for Knowledge and Human Rights (ANKH), Artists at Risk (AR), Association of juridical studies on Immigration (ASGI), The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), le Comité de Vigilance pour la Démocratie en Tunisie, Committee for Justice, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against Torture, The Egyptian Front for Human Rights, Egyptian Human Rights Forum, EuroMed Rights, The Freedom Initiative, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch (HRW), humanrights.ch, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), MENA Rights Group, Minority Rights Group International, MTÜ Andalus Institute for Tolerance and anti-Violence Studies, The Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), Réseau des Organisations de la Société Civile pour l’Observation et le Suivi des Elections en Guinée, PEN International, People in Need, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Tunisian Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Download
Press release in English and Arabic.
Q&A in English.
Contact
Said Benarbia, International Commission of Jurists (Geneva) – said.benarbia@icj.org
Jeremie Smith, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (Geneva) – jsmith@cihrs.org
Neil Hicks, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (New York) – nhicks@cihrs.org
John Fisher, Human Rights Watch (Geneva) – fisherj@hrw.org
Amr Magdi, Human Rights Watch (Berlin) – magdia@hrw.org
Kevin Whelan, Amnesty International (Geneva) – kevin.whelan@amnesty.org
Sara Hashash, Amnesty International (London) – Sara.Hashash@amnesty.org
Rasmus Grue, Christensen, DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against Torture – rgc@dignity.dk
Antoine Madelin, International Federation for Human Rights (Paris), amadelin@fidh.org
Mohammed Soltan, The Freedom Initiative – Soltan@thefreedomi.org
Feb 19, 2021 | News
The Egyptian authorities’ targeting of families in Egypt of activists and human rights defenders living abroad has been escalating, demonstrating a clear pattern of intimidation and harassment, 22 Egyptian, regional, and international organizations said today.
Since August 2020, the authorities have targeted the families of four critics who live in the United States, as well as one in Turkey, one in Germany, and one in the United Kingdom.
These cases are among dozens reported in recent years. The authorities try to intimidate critics with unlawful home raids, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and prolonged detention of family members without trial or charges.
“The Egyptian families of dissidents abroad have been increasingly caught in President al-Sisi’s government web of oppression,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “President al-Sisi should immediately rein in his security forces and end these hostage-like arrests.”
On February 13, 2021, the authorities raided the homes of six members of the extended family of Mohamed Soltan, a US-based human rights advocate. Soltan, the director of the Freedom Initiative, an independent human rights group, and two other sources with direct knowledge of the arrests told Human Rights Watch that security agents arrested two of his cousins, Mostafa Soltan and Khairi Soltan, at their homes in the Menoufiya governorate. The two sources also said security authorities arrested a third relative of Soltan’s, Mahmoud Yousri al-Naggar.
Officers told another cousin to turn himself in once a cast on his broken leg was removed. Three of Soltan’s other cousins whom officers wanted to arrest were not at home during the raids; their families were told that the cousins were wanted by the National Security Agency. Those detained were interrogated mainly about Mohamed Soltan and his activities. On the evening of February 17, authorities released Mostafa and Khairi, following their detention and interrogation by National Security officers, the two sources said.
Security agents had previously arrested five of the six targeted cousins in June 2020 and detained them without trial until shortly before Joe Biden won the US presidential election in November. Soltan has been a prominent target of Egyptian government and pro-government media defamation campaigns because of his human rights work, most recently because of his organization’s support for the establishment of the Egypt Human Rights Caucus in the US House of Representatives.
The authorities disappeared Soltan’s already-jailed father, Salah Soltan, on June 15, 2020, when officers escorted him from Wadi al-Natrun prison to an unknown destination. Since that time, the authorities have refused to provide his family and lawyers information about his whereabouts. Soltan said that Egyptian intelligence agents in Washington, DC have harassed him with “bump-ins” at the local mall, at a Freedom Initiative’s Egypt advocacy event, which Human Rights Watch and the Project on Middle East Democracy co-sponsored in March 2019, and with threatening phone calls, telling him that he should “be careful” for his father’s sake. Soltan said he reported all incidents to the US authorities and his lawyers immediately.
Aly Hussein Mahdy, a University of Illinois at Chicago graduate student and video blogger with over 400,000 followers on Facebook, was ridiculed by a pro-government TV outlet on January 17. Between January 28 and February 2, National Security officers raided the homes of several of his family members in Alexandria and arrested his father, uncle, and cousin because of his videos, Mahdy told Human Rights Watch.
“They raided the home at dawn,” Mahdy said in a Facebook video on February 11. “They took my father from his wife and my younger siblings, terrifying them. They messed up the whole house and stole everything they found.” He told Human Rights Watch that his family has not been able to learn the whereabouts of the three family members arrested.
Download
Egypt-Arrests-Joint-Press-Release-2021-ENG (full statement in English)
Egypt-Arrests-Joint-Press-Release-2021-ARA (full statement in Arabic)
Contact
Asser Khattab, Research and Communications’ Officer, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme, e: asser.khattab(a)icj.org
