New crackdown to terrorise civil society

Former member of Parliament and human rights lawyer Zyad al-Elaimy was arrested on June 25, 2019 by adozen of plainclothes national security agents after leaving a friend’s housein Cairo’s Maadi district, around 2 a.m. Seven other political oppositionfigures were arrested on the same night. In a statement, the Ministry ofInterior abusively accused Mr. Zyad al-Elaimy and the other detainees ofinvolvement in a plan financed through leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood -which was banned and declared a terrorist organisation in Egypt in 2013 -abroad “to carry out violent and disorderly acts against State institutionssimultaneously with creating a state of revolutionary momentum”.

“Mr. Zyad al-Elaimy wasinvolved in the creation of a movement bringing together political parties andsocial movements on a pro human rights agenda”, said Neil Hicks, SeniorDirector for Advocacy at CIHRS. The Egyptian authorities, relayed by theofficial media, have renamed it the “Hope Plan”, and wrongly accused itsalleged supporters of terrorism and undermining State security.

The pre-trial detention of Mr. Zyadal-Elaimy and the other detainees has been renewed by the State SecurityProsecution since then, pending investigation into State Security case No.930/2019, in which the defendants face charges of “engaging with a terroristgroup to achieve its goals” and “spreading false news and statements”.

Mr. Zyad al-Elaimy was detained incommunicado for 14 daysfollowing his arrest, and is now detained in Tora prison, where his conditionsof detention negatively impact on his health: while being asthmatic and sufferingfrom high blood pressure and a rare immunity disease, he is currently held in a4.8m2 room with two other inmates, with only a small window in the cell,attached to the ceiling.

“We strongly condemn the arbitrary arrest and judicial harassment of Mr.Zyad al-Elaimy and other wrongfully detained activists, which seems to be onlyaimed at sanctioning them for the legitimate exercise of their politicalrights. We call on the Egyptian authorities to immediately release all thedetainees”, said GeraldStaberock, OMCT Secretary General.

Moreover, our organisations were also informed about the arbitraryarrest at the end of June/beginning of July of several human rights defendersunder StateSecurity case No. 930/2019: Mr. HassanBarbary, Executive Director of the Egyptian Labour Relations Forum, Mr. AhmadTaman, an ILO consultant and researcher at the Egyptian Labour RelationsForum, and Mr. Alaa Essam, accountant of the same organisation. Thethree are currently detained and under asset freeze. Ms. Fatma Ramadan,a researcher in labour affairs and independent trade unionist, is also underasset freeze.

“This new wave of arrest issymptomatic of the wider trend of harassment and arbitrary detentions targetingpolitical activists and human rights defenders in Egypt, which materializedover the past months with the re-arrest of Mr. Haytham Mohamadein, the arrestand subsequent release of Ms. Malak al-Kashif, the ongoing enforceddisappearance of Mr. Ibrahim Ezz El-Din and the ongoing arbitrary detention of,among others, Messrs. Mohamed Ramadan and Shadi al-Ghazali”,concluded Alexandra Poméon, Head of the Observatory for the Protection of HumanRights Defenders at FIDH.

Contacts:

• FIDH: Samuel Hanryon (French, English): +33 6 72 28 42 94
• OMCT: Iolanda Jaquemet (French, English): + 41 79 539 41 06 / +41 22 809 49 39
• CIHRS: Neil Hicks (English): +1 914 707 07 62