News briefing
Translated and edited by: Committee for Justice
Geneva: 15 July 2021
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, has expressed her dismay at the continued widespread detention and prolonged pretrial detention of human rights defenders in Egypt, calling for their immediate release.
No justification for Egypt’s actions:
In a statement published by the media center of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the UN rapporteur said that the activists were detained without arrest warrants, held incommunicado, and then accused of committing multiple false crimes.
“Exercising one’s right to freedom of expression, association or peaceful assembly is not a crime. Everyone has the right to promote and protect human rights. There is no justification for the actions being taken against human rights defenders by the Egypt authorities,” said Lawlor.
Result of CFJ complaint:
This move from Lawlor was based on the communication sent by CFJ in the global survey conducted by the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders in the world who are subjected to prolonged detention.
CFJ had sent a list of the names of 11 human rights defenders detained in Egypt, explaining that the cases it sent concerned Egyptian human rights defenders who are currently being held pending trial, and accused of politically motivated preliminary charges, most of which are terrorism charges.
The organization indicated in its letter that over the past several years, Egyptian authorities have increasingly transformed pretrial detention from an exceptional legal measure into a punitive tool that is used systematically against human rights defenders, who find themselves accused in a new case before the release order is issued or during the completion of the release process. Authorities are also increasingly detaining human rights defenders pending multiple separate cases, in what is known as the phenomenon of “recycled detention” or “renewed detention”
Egypt’s misuse of exceptional laws:
The UN Rapporteur added that “In January 2021, I expressed my dismay at the misuse of anti-terrorism and national security laws to criminalise the work of human rights defenders in the country. Since then, more defenders have been placed in pre-trial detention under investigation for crimes under these provisions, which carry aggravated sentences. Many of those who were detained continue to be held in deplorable conditions in prison with seriously negative impacts on their physical and mental health.”
Lawlor also highlighted a common trend across many of the cases she recently raised with the Egyptian government, whereby human rights defenders are often arrested without a warrant, held incommunicado in an unknown location and subjected to enforced disappearance, before being brought before the Supreme State Security Prosecution. They are then ordered to serve pre-trial detention pending investigations into the alleged acts criminalized under vague provisions of the Penal Code, the Anti-Terrorism Law, and the Anti-Cybercrime Law.
“While initially placed in pre-trial detention for periods of 15 days, human rights defenders routinely see their detention renewed thereafter, with these periods of detention without trial commonly stretching to two years,” Lawlor said.
The UN rapporteur stressed that during that period, human rights defenders are at high risk of being prosecuted for alleged crimes under the same legislation, a practice particularly common in cases where human rights defenders have seen their release by court order.
“This practice of attaching human rights defenders to multiple spurious cases, in some instances in parallel, represents the flagrant disregard by Egypt of the international human rights obligations it has signed up to. It is a practice designed to prevent defenders from promoting human rights in the country and it spreads a chilling effect among civil society.
“I urge the Egyptian authorities to re-think their approach to human rights defenders and to take steps to ensure the national framework of criminal and anti-terrorism provisions is not employed to target them.”
Call for immediate release and review:
The UN rapporteur urged the Egyptian authorities to rethink their approach towards human rights defenders, and to take steps to ensure that the national framework for criminal sentences and combating terrorism is not used to target them, stressing at the same time “the vital role that civil society plays in Egypt,” ensuring that she will continue to follow up on cases of detained human rights defenders brought to her attention, and calling for the immediate release of the following defenders:
Mr. Mohamed Ramadan, human rights defender and lawyer
Mr. Mohamed El-Baqer, human rights defender and lawyer
Mr. Ezzat Ghoneim, human rights defender and lawyer, director of Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF)
Ms. Aisha El Shatr, human rights defender and ECRF board member
Mr. Mohamed Abo Horira, human rights defender and ECRF board member
Ms. Hoda Abdel Moneim, human rights defender and ECRF board member
Mr. Ibrahim Ezz El-Din, human rights defender and researcher
Mr. Ramy Kamel Saied Salib, human rights defender and head of Maspero Youth Foundation
Ms. Mahienour El-Masry, human rights defender and lawyer
Mr. Amr Imam, human rights defender and lawyer at the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information
Mr. Walid Ali Saleim Mohammed Hamada, human rights defender and lawyer