Human rights organizations condemn attacks against activists in Egypt
In a letter to ambassadors, they claim the arrest of the president of a human rights NGO shows that the country is facing an “unprecedented escalation”
Nearly 50 human rights organizations from around the world have condemned, this Friday, November 20, the “unprecedented escalation” by Egyptian president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi against critics and activists in the country. In just five days, three employees of the organization EIPR (Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights) were arbitrarily arrested.
In a letter addressed to Egyptian ambassadors, the organizations are asking for help to secure the immediate and unconditional release of Mohammed Basheer, Karim Ennarah and Gasser Abdel-Razek and the dismissal of the case filed against them.
Ennarah, Director of EIPR’s Criminal Justice Unit, was arrested on Wednesday the 18th at a restaurant in Dahab, a resort town in the southeast of the country, while on vacation. Security forces also broke into his home in the capital Cairo and confiscated his laptop, phone and personal belongings. Ennarah is being held at an unknown location and there are no formal charges against him.
Basheer, EIPR’s Administrative Manager, was arrested by heavily armed security forces at his home in the early hours of Sunday the 15th and held incommunicado for 12 hours before being transferred to the State Security Prosecution’s Office. He was questioned without the presence of his lawyer and accused, without any evidence, of joining a terrorist organization.
On Thursday the 19th, EIPR reported that security forces also arrested Abdel-Razek, the organization’s executive director, from his home in Cairo and took him to an unknown location. The organization learned that Razek was later taken to the headquarters of the Prosecution’s Office where he was questioned without the right to a lawyer and also charged with joining a terrorist organization.
“We believe that Karim Ennarah, Mohammed Basheer and Gasser Abdel-Razek are being targeted solely because of the legitimate work of EIPR, in order to intimidate EIPR staff members and the Egyptian human rights community at large and, therefore, that their detention is arbitrary,” said the organizations in the letter. “We are also increasingly concerned about the ever-tightening space for organizations like EIPR and others that choose to carry out their work publicly in Egypt, and that are being punished for trying to uphold human rights and constitutional norms in the country,” they concluded.
