Articles for Egypt

On 5 February 2016, the Egyptian authorities arrested three men in El Beheira and Kafr El Sheikh Governorates. While their families were trying to locate them, Abou Obeida Said Ahmed Al Amoury, Islam Ibrahim El Tohamy Ibrahim and Mohammed Gommaa Mahmoud El Safty were in fact secretly detained by the Homeland Security and the police. Tortured for several days, they were forced to sign confessions that they could not read. Accused of being members of an active terrorist group, they now face trial and remain detained to date.

Alkarama has just solicited the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) to urgently ask the Egyptian authorities to end the judicial harassment against 14-year-old Ibrahim and 17-year-old Ahmed Shaaban Youssef and to release the latter.

On 3 December 2015, on the basis of a submission from Alkarama, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) adopted Opinion n°49/2015, in which it recognised the arbitrary nature of the detention of prominent Egyptia

In a letter addressed to the Egyptian authorities and published in the recent communications report of special procedures for the 31st session of the Human Rights Council, David Kaye, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion a

On 12 January 2016, Asser Mohammed Zahr Aldeen Abdelwarth, a 15-year-old boy, disappeared after the police arrested him at his home in Giza, leading Alkarama to send an urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID).

Between late December 2015 and early February 2016, members of the Homeland Security and of the police arrested another three men for no apparent reason. Two young brothers, Abdelmoneim and Abdelrahman Nasr Kotb Mousa and father-of-four Mohammed Gommaa Mahmoud El Safty, have been missing since and their respective families remain unaware of their fates and whereabouts, despite having solicited various official bodies.

Despite documenting an increasing number of cases of enforced disappearances in the hands of all kinds of government forces in the country, the international community has continuously failed to address this issue with the Egyptian government.

Alkarama calls upon the Egyptian authorities to revoke the procedure launched on 17 February 2016 to close the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture. Founded in 1993, the Nadeem Center is a well-known Egyptian clinic that has provided professional council and assistance to thousands of victims of torture and other forms of violence since its creation.

A 48-year-old lawyer and member of liberal political party Al Dostour, Raafat Faisal Ali Shehata − also known as Ahsraf Shehata − disappeared in the hands of the Egyptian Homeland Security more than two years ago, on 13 January 2014. While the authorities continue to deny his detention claiming that Ashraf left Egypt, his wife was told by several former detainees or families of detainees that he was effectively detained.

In early February 2016, the Homeland Security arrested another two young men for no apparent reason. 25-year-old real-estate agent, Abo Obida Sayed Mahmoud Abdelhameed and 28-year-old imam, Islam Ibrahim Eltohamy Ibrahim have both been missing since, and despite having solicited various official bodies, their respective families remain unaware of their fates and whereabouts.