Press release
Geneva – August 10, 2024
The “Committee for Justice” (CFJ) has monitored that the “Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression” has filed a legal challenge against the Egyptian Ministry of Interior’s decision to prevent researcher Ahmed Samir Abdelhay Santawy from traveling abroad to continue his studies. The ministry has blocked Santawy’s travel on three separate occasions without providing any legal justification.
The lawsuit, registered as Case No. 79439 for the Judicial Year 78, has been filed before the Administrative Court. It names the Minister of Interior, the Director of the Passports and Immigration Department, and the Director of the National Security Sector as the primary officials responsible for the travel ban.
Since August 2022, Santawy has attempted multiple times to travel to Vienna to complete his master’s program in anthropology at Central European University in Austria. However, security authorities at Cairo Airport have repeatedly barred him from leaving the country without an official ban order or listing his name on the travel prohibition lists.
Santawy, a researcher whose work has focused on reproductive rights and the status of abortion in Egypt within the context of law, religion, and society, was arrested in February 2021 while on vacation in Egypt. He spent over a year in prison and was later convicted of spreading “false news,” receiving a four-year prison sentence. He was released in late July 2022 after receiving a presidential pardon.
CFJ condemns the ongoing arbitrary measures against Santawy and calls for their immediate cessation. CFJ also urges that he be granted the freedom of movement and travel, rights enshrined in numerous international treaties and covenants to which Egypt is a signatory and is obligated to uphold.