United Nations Human Rights: Press Briefing Note on Egypt
Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Ravina Shamdasani
Location: Geneva
Date: 5 June 2018
Subject: (1) Egypt, (2) United States and (3) Ethiopia
(1) Egypt
A spate of arrests, interrogations and detentions of activists, bloggers and journalists in Egypt over the last few weeks appears to indicate a significant escalation in the crackdown against the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly in the country.
Among those detained just in the month of May are prominent blogger Wael Abbas; lawyer and civil society activist Haytham Mohamadein on charges including calling for illegal protests; Shady al-Ghazaly Harb, following tweets he had posted criticising the President’s plan to cede two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia – he has reportedly been charged with spreading false news and joining an illegal group; blogger Mohammed Oxygen; activist Sherif al-Rouby; activist Amal Fathy, who has been charged with using the internet and social media with the intention of promoting ideas and beliefs calling for the commitment of terrorist acts through spreading false news, among other charges; and comedian Shady Abu Zaid. These are just some of the emblematic cases, from just last month.
In many of these cases, the individuals were not presented with a warrant. Charges they face carry long prison terms. For example, journalist Ismail Alexandrani, who has been held in custody since November 2015, was on 22 May this year sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by a military court in Cairo on charges of belonging to an illegal group and disseminating false information.
The recent wave of arrests comes after a statement in February by the General Prosecutor ordering prosecutors to monitor social media sites that “spread lies and fake news”.
Also last month, on 3 May, the Supreme State Security Prosecution decided to renew the detention of Gamal Abdel Fattah, Hassan Hussein and Ahmed Manna for yet another 15 days. The three men have been in detention for more than three months after they called for a boycott of the presidential elections that were held in Egypt in March.
We are extremely concerned that arrests like this, often followed by harsh sentences, and often for simply exercising the rights to freedom of opinion, expression and assembly, have become commonplace. Arbitrary detention has become a chronic problem in Egypt. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention regards the deprivation of liberty as arbitrary when it results from the exercise of certain rights and freedoms, including the rights to freedom of expression and assembly. It is important that civil society, including human rights defenders, journalists and others, is able to highlight issues of concern and serve as watchdogs. But instead they are being jailed, including for mere tweets critical of the authorities, as well as being subjected to other reprisals, such as travel bans, freezing of assets, intimidation and harassment, and an extremely restrictive legal environment in which to operate.
We call on the authorities to fully ensure the rights of all detainees to their physical and psychological integrity, and to due process.
We call unequivocally for the immediate and unconditional release of all those currently being held by the Egyptian authorities for the legitimate exercise of their human rights.