On 26 August, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called on Egyptian authorities to immediately end the abusive practice of “rotation” and release all those arbitrarily detained under it.
The “rotation” system enables authorities to prolong the detention of critics, human rights defenders, activists, lawyers, and journalists by filing new, often baseless charges—typically under counter-terrorism laws—at the moment they are due for release. These charges frequently mirror earlier accusations and lack a solid legal basis.
Türk’s intervention follows the case of Egyptian poet Galal El-Behairy, who faced new charges on 19 August 2025, despite completing his sentence in July 2021. Instead of being freed, El-Behairy has been subjected to successive prosecutions on nearly identical charges, keeping him behind bars for more than four years beyond his official prison term.
The High Commissioner also highlighted other emblematic cases, including Alaa Abdel Fattah, Hoda Abdel-Monei, Ibrahim Metwally Hegazy, and Mohammad Adel Fahmy Ali, all of whom remain arbitrarily detained under similar practices.
“The Egyptian Government must immediately stop this practice of ‘rotation’ and release all those who have been subjected to it. It appears to be used to circumvent the rights of individuals to liberty, due process and equality before the law,” Türk said. He also stressed that many detainees should never have been jailed in the first place, as the charges relate to the peaceful exercise of freedom of expression and assembly.
We echo the High Commissioner’s call for Egyptian authorities to release all those targeted by “rotation” and to end the misuse of counter-terrorism legislation against peaceful critics. Rotation has become one of the government’s most insidious methods for silencing dissent through indefinite arbitrary detention.
