Egypt: Walid Al Ghunaimi Al Maghazi reappears as a detainee in "Abu Zaabal" prison after weeks of enforced disappearance
Human rights sources reported that the forcibly disappeared Mr. Walid Fouad Al Ghunaimi Al Maghazi appeared before the State Security Prosecution on 27 October 2022 who decided to detain him in Abu Zaabal prison. His family was unable to visit him or access to his criminal case file.
Alkarama and the Najda Organization for Human Rights launched, on 4 October 2022, an urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearances regarding the situation of Mr. Al Maghazi after his arrest by several members of the Egyptian security services.
This was the fourth case of enforced disappearance submitted by Alkarama to the Working Group since the beginning of this year, although in reality many cases were not reported to NGOs. All disappearances brought to the attention of UN mechanisms follow the same pattern: victims who are arrested without any explanation are transferred by the security forces to unknown destinations, they are held incommunicado for different periods of time -always beyond the legal time limit for police custody- and are systematically tortured.
Many victims of abduction were also summarily executed by the police or army, particularly in the Sinai region, and presented as "terrorists shot by the security services" in armed confrontations.
On 17 September 2022, at exactly 1 am, several security members arrested Al Maghazi in front of his house in Giza Governorate (southwest of Cairo). Eyewitnesses reported that security personnel in civilian clothes were waiting for him there. When the victim arrived, he was brutally arrested after being handcuffed without any explanation and forced into one of their cars before being taken to an unknown destination.
After the victim disappeared, his family went to the local police station to inquire about his fate. However, the police, who denied holding him, refused to register her complaint. Therefore, Al Maghazi’s wife approached to the Ministry of Interior and the General Prosecutor of Giza, but to no avail.
On behalf of the victim's family, Najda for Human Rights and Alkarama adressed the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearances to locate Mr. Al Maghazi and immediately place him under the protection of the law.
Egypt ratified the Convention against Torture on 25 June 1986 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on 14 January 1982, and thus is obligated to respect its commitments.