Egypt: 29-year-old Islam Khalil disappeared since March 10 arrest in Aswan, Alkarama requests urgent intervention of UN Working Group
On March 10, 2018, Islam Elsayed Mahfouz Salem Khalil, a 29-year-old sales manager from the Gharbia Governorate, was abducted while driving his car in the city of Aswan. He remains disappeared to date.
Prior to his abduction, Khalil called a family member at 8 p.m. to inform him that he was in Aswan. It is believed that he was abducted at one of the numerous checkpoints in Aswan under the control of both the police and the military.
On March 18, 2018, Khalil was seen by a detainee in the Aswan Central Security Camp – also known as the “Shallal Military Camp”. However, when Khalil’s lawyers enquired about him, the guards denied holding him in custody.
Following his disappearance, Khalil’s lawyer and relatives filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office and contacted the Shallal Military Camp to obtain information about his fate and whereabouts. As they never received any answer from the authorities, his relatives expressed serious concern about his safety. They believe that his abduction is a consequence of his peaceful activism, for which he had been arrested and disappeared previously in 2015.
On May 24, 2015, Khalil was arrested and secretly detained in a state security facility for 122 days, during which time his family filed numerous complaints with the Attorney General and the Ministry of Interior. Khalil was then accused of “joining a banned group” and subjected to severe acts of torture in order to force him to confess to the accusations against him. After having been charged in a mass prosecution case, he remained in pre-trial detention until August 21, 2016, when he was released on bail.
On the day of his release, he was threatened with re-arrest if he informed the media or NGOs about the violations to which he was subjected. Nevertheless, Khalil contacted the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), reporting the violations and requesting that the NCHR call on the Attorney General to carry out an investigation. Despite the lack of response from the NCHR, Khalil’s father was harassed by the state security forces in order to withdraw the complaints and testimonies.
On March 21, 2018, Alkarama submitted the case of Islam Elsayed Mahfouz Salem Khalil to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), asking the independent experts to call upon the Egyptian authorities to immediately release Khalil or, at the very least, to put him under the protection of the law.
For more information or an interview, please contact media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1006).