The Committee for Justice (CFJ) has released its periodic report for the third quarter of 2025 (July–September) under the “Justice for Human Rights Defenders” Project. The report documents the continued targeting of human rights defenders in Egypt through patterns of arbitrary arrest, prolonged pretrial detention, retaliatory dismissal from work, and deteriorating detention conditions.
According to the report, Egyptian security agencies expanded their crackdown during this period against activists, lawyers, journalists, and trade unionists, using broad and vague charges such as “joining a terrorist group” and “spreading false news,” amid a persistent lack of accountability and weak guarantees for fair trial rights.
Among the most notable cases documented were the arbitrary arrest of Sinai activist Saeed Ateek Hassan Ateek, the detention of Abdullah Mohamed, spokesperson for residents of Tosson in Alexandria, and the interrogation of journalist Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of Mada Masr, over a report on Badr 3 prison. The report also highlights the summoning of human rights lawyer Mahienour El-Massry and Karim Ennarah, research director at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), for questioning in new state security cases.
The CFJ report further stresses the continued use of prolonged pretrial detention as a tool of political punishment against defenders such as Marwa Arafa, Ibrahim Metwally, Sameh Zakaria, and journalist Medhat Ramadan, in clear violation of Egyptian law and constitutional limits on detention without trial.
In the section on detention conditions, the report raises concern over severe health deterioration among detainees — including Marwa Arafa, who suffered a pulmonary embolism; Hoda Abdel Moneim, still held despite completing her sentence; and trade unionist Hazem Farouk, denied family visits for eight years. The report also cites the unjust dismissal of labor leader Hisham El-Banna from the Samannoud Company following a peaceful strike.
The Committee for Justice calls on Egyptian authorities to immediately release all arbitrarily detained individuals, end the practice of case recycling, ensure adequate medical care in detention, and improve prison conditions, warning that the ongoing violations undermine the rule of law and Egypt’s international obligations.
