Egypt: Flood of prosecutions for violation of freedom of expression

(Beirut) – Egyptian authorities have arbitrarily arrested and prosecuted at least four government critics in recent weeks, based solely on their legitimate exercise of freedom of expression in the course of their work. This is a new attack on freedom of expression, eight organizations, including Human Rights Watch, said today. The defendants include two imprisoned journalists and an exiled researcher.

Authorities have used solitary confinement, abusive pre-trial detention and unproven terrorism charges against critics. The family of one detainee claimed he was tortured. Despite government claims of reform, freedom of expression and independent media have been hampered by harsh repression in recent years.

“Egypt cannot turn a new page without respecting freedom of expression, which is an essential part of promoting other political and economic rights,” said Bassam Khawaja, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Egypt must urgently stop targeting critics and immediately release those wrongfully detained.”

Authorities arrested Ashraf Omar, a political satire artist, on July 22, 2024. Al-Manassa, an independent news site where Omar publishes cartoons, and his family said that security forces from the Interior Ministry's National Security Agency (NSA) arrested him in a nighttime raid on his home. Omar's wife, Nada Moogheeth, said in public statements that surveillance camera footage showed a group of people in plain clothes and others in police uniforms arriving in two minivans, searching the house, and leaving 40 minutes later with Omar blindfolded. They then took him to an unknown location, where he was held for more than 48 hours. Omar's wife later stated that NSA officials tortured him, including by threatening him with electric shocks.

On July 24, security officials took Omar to the Cairo-based Supreme State Security Prosecutor's Office, a branch of the Egyptian public prosecutor's office known for its abuse of power practices and responsible for holding thousands of peaceful activists and journalists in pretrial detention for months or years without any evidence of wrongdoing. Omar's lawyer and prominent human rights activist Khaled Ali said prosecutors ordered Omar's detention on charges of “joining a terrorist organization,” “misusing social media” and “spreading false news,” all of which are charges often used by prosecutors to imprison actual or perceived critics.

On July 16, security forces raided the Cairo home of journalist Khaled Mamdouh and arrested him late at night. The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, an independent organization, said members of the security forces raided Mamdouh's home and confiscated his electronic devices without revealing their identities or presenting a judicial arrest warrant.

Mamdouh's lawyer, Fatma Serag, said authorities held Mamdouh in secret detention for five days and then brought him before prosecutors on July 20. He was officially arrested the same day. In a press conference on August 8, she said the search was “terrifying” and that security forces surrounded Mamdouh's home for six hours and briefly detained his son.

Prosecutors have held Mamdouh in custody since July 20. His lawyer said prosecutors had not presented any evidence of criminal wrongdoing, but accused Mamdouh of belonging to an unspecified “terrorist group” and “spreading false information.”

Serag said Mamdouh is being held in Abu Za'abal prison, where prosecutors' hearings on the extension of pre-trial detention are being conducted via a videoconferencing system. Human Rights Watch documented that this abusive method of extending pre-trial detention – without bringing the detainee before a judge – severely undermines due process. It prevents a judge from assessing the legality and conditions of detention and the detainee's well-being, and violates several fair trial guarantees, including the right to legal representation.

Human Rights Watch spoke to a third journalist who previously worked with Mamdouh for the Arabic Post. He said he fled the country in the last week of July for fear of arrest after Omar and Mamdouh were detained. He said security forces searched for him and searched his home after he fled. The journalist had already been arbitrarily detained for over two years in 2018 in a case stemming from his legitimate journalistic work.

In early July, prosecutors put researcher and journalist Abdelrahman Mahmoud Abdou, also known as Abdelrahman Ayyash, on trial. The indictment states that Ayyash and four others are charged with “leading a terrorist group,” while 41 others are charged with joining or financing the unspecified group.

Ayyash, who lives in exile, said lawyers from the Egyptian Front for Human Rights received the file and notified him, but he received no formal notification of the charges. The indictment refers to Ayyash as a “supervisor” at the Arab Post, although he says he quit his job there in 2018. Ayyash was employed as a senior research assistant at Human Rights Watch between August 2018 and September 2021. After leaving Human Rights Watch, Ayyash joined the Washington, D.C.-based Freedom Initiative and currently works as an independent consultant for the Middle East Democracy Center. Ayyash has also contributed to publications at several organizations, including the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Century International, and the Arab Reform Initiative.

Security forces had already raided Ayyash's family home in July 2022 and arrested his father after questioning him about Ayyash's human rights and political activism. His father was tried on unfounded charges of possessing unconstitutional printed materials and information and detained for several months. A court acquitted him in November 2022.

On July 16, the Interior Ministry said it had arrested a man allegedly responsible for displaying criticism of President al-Sisi on a billboard in Giza that went viral on social media. Such criticism is protected peaceful freedom of expression that should not be punished, the organizations said.

Under the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, freedom of expression, including freedom of the press, has been under relentless attack.S for years. Egypt is regularly among the countries with the most imprisoned journalists. The International Committee to Protect Journalists found that in 2023 it accounted for more than 13 percent of all journalists imprisoned worldwide. Mainstream media is heavily restricted in Egypt, and the few remaining media websites face government restrictions and harassment. Egyptian authorities have previously abused terrorism laws to prosecute journalists, activists and critics.

Egypt is a party to international instruments guaranteeing the right to freedom of expression, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 19) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (Article 9).

“The attacks on freedom of expression in Egypt must end,” said Said Benarbia, Middle East and North Africa director at the International Commission of Jurists. “Instead of silencing independent, critical and dissenting voices through arbitrary detentions and prosecutions, the Egyptian authorities must ensure that all people can participate in public debates and openly express their opinions and criticisms of state institutions and officials without facing intimidation or reprisals.”

Signatories:

1. Human rights monitoring
2. International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
3. DUSK
4. EuroMed Rights
5. International Commission of Jurists
6. FairSquare
7. IFEX
8. Middle East Democracy Center (MEDC)