El Nadeem Center against Violence and Torture

Release Amal Fathy, victim of the state’s widening prosecution to silence human rights defenders

The undersigned rights organizations condemn Amal Fathy’s referral to trial in case no. 7991/2018. Fathy is the wife of human rights defender Mohamed Lotfy, the director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF). The Maadi Misdemeanor Court held the first hearing in her trial this morning, August 11, 2018, and adjourned the case until next month, on September 8th.  We believe the charges brought against Fathy, both in the current case and in case no. 621/2018, for which she remains in custody pending…

Detention of Amal Fathy is state retribution for exercising the right to free speech

The undersigned human rights organizations condemn arrest of Amal Fathy on May 11th and call for her immediate release. Egyptian state security forces arrested Fathy, a member of the April 6th movement, and raided her home after she posted a video on Face book critical of the government’s role in failing to prevent sexual harassment in Egypt. Yesterday May 13, Fathy was referred to the High State Security Prosecution for questioning in Case no. 621 of 2018, a case based primarily on the recent presidential election. Fathy’s…

A life in Danger

The undersigned rights organizations strongly condemn the practice of intentional medical neglect in Egyptian prisons and detention facilities. The medical neglect of Dr. Abdel Moneim Aboul –Fotouh, the head of the opposition party Strong Egypt, is just one of many cases amounting to a slow death sentence, a further escalation in reprisals against political dissidents. Although Aboul-Fotouh has suffered from four heart attacks in less than three months, the Tora Prison administration refuses to transfer him to a hospital for…

On World Press Freedom Day, the Egyptian government should allow journalists to work

The 28th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, May 3 each year, marks the first anniversary of the Egyptian authorities’ massive campaign to block press and media websites, which reached 98 blocked sites, according to the latest survey by the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE). The Egyptian authorities continue their refusal refused to disclose the body responsible for the blocking operations and the legal framework regulating them, while parliament is engaged in eager attempts to legalize the…