Egypt: Abduction and Enforced Disappearance of a Muslim Brotherhood Member

On 17 October 2014, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) to bring to their attention the case of Mohamed Abdulhamid Ali, a 32 years old Egyptian citizen disappeared since his abduction by the National Security Forces on 24 September 2014.

The Egyptian security forces arrested Abdulhamid Ali without any arrest warrant, as he was on the main avenue of the 6th of October City, in the Giza Governorate, part of the urban area of Cairo. Despite his family's repeated calls to the Ministries of Justice and Interior, as well as to the Attorney General, his family has not heard from him since. The Egyptian authorities have all denied his detention, even though former detainees reported having seen Adbulhamid Ali in the 6th of October City's Interior Security facilities.

His relatives believe that his political affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, whose members have been subject to unprecedented harassment and repression for over a year, be the cause of his abduction and disappearance. They also fear that this reason will lead the authorities, who detain him incommunicado, to torture him.

Fearing that Abdulhamid Ali becomes the victim of a new case of enforced disappearance, Alkarama asked the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) to call upon the Egyptian authorities to reveal his whereabouts immediately and to allow his family and his lawyer to see him. The Egyptian authorities must take urgent steps to stop the resurgence of this practice by the security services in its territory, including by ensuring prosecution for the perpetrators of those crimes.

For more information or an interview, please contact the media team at media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1007 Ext: 810)