A busy year on all fronts and I will therefore divide each section into its own post. This one is for human rights.
Human rights:
6 new prisons have been built at the beginning of the year in Cairo alone.
Arrests and human rights violations:
Ahmed Geeka, Moaz al Sharkawi, and Mahmoud Mohamed [who was known as the torture t-shirt prisoner] were all re-arrested for no reason. Journalist Ahmed Mohammed Saad was arrested from his home. A man was arrested for talking about his brother’s torture in prison. A 70 year old woman was arrested for talking about high prices in a video she posted online. A girl holding a banner about the sale of the Suez Canal was arrested and then released.
In addition, there were a few high profile cases:
Hisham Qassem: arrested: convicted of slander, defamation and verbally assaulting a police officer which, of course, he did not do.
Yehia Abdel Hadi arrested and released on bail pending lawsuit:
“Cairo’s Court of Misdemeanours sentenced Yahya Hussein Abdel Hadi, co-founder of the Civil Democratic Movement, to four years in prison, for disseminating false news, his lawyer, Khaled Ali said. The prosecution argued that Abdel Hadi had “deliberately disseminated false news inside and outside” Egypt and demanded he be punished. Abdel Hadi’s lawyer said the case is related to an article written and published by Abdel Hadi, noting that the case was investigated in 2018 by the Nasr City Prosecution, and his client was released on bail. Ali added that Abdul Hadi has been imprisoned pending investigations and spent more than two years in pretrial detention.” Source: Middle East Monitor
In August, there was a list of all releases by presidential pardon:
A group called ‘Our kitchen’ [matbakhna], who cooked meals to send to prisoners have been arrested.
Nabil George, a journalist who founded the group Mastaddaksh [Don’t believe] which monitors social media and other sources for fake news, has been arrested from his home and then later released on bail. He was accused of ‘belonging to a banned group.’
Mohammed Zahran, founder of the group Teacher Independence has been arrested for speaking out at the alleged ‘National Dialogue’, and was accused of ‘joining an inciting group’.
Street musicians, a new phenomena in Egypt, have been arrested in Heliopolis for ‘begging’.
Manal Agrama, vice editor of the gov-owned magazine Al Izaa Wal Television, has been arrested for posts she made on FB.
Shaimaa al Shimi, an Egyptian model and blogger who had been arrested last year for posing ‘provocatively’ has been sentenced to p2 years in prison in September 2023.
Comedian and tik tok-ers Basma Hegazi and Mohamed Hossam have been arrested. A particular clip raised the ire of Egyptian authorities which depicts a comedy scene, which sparked criticism on social media after they were charged with terrorism. The authorities ordered the detention of Mohamed Hossam El-Din, known as “Bassa,” and Basma Hegazy, known as “Warda,” for 15 days pending investigation.
There were several high profile releases as well:
Baqer had been in prison for 5 years after he went to the police station with Alaa as his lawyer. Douma has been in prison for 10 years since the 2011 Revolution. Patrick Zaki’s release came after Italian pressures and he travelled to Italy following his release to receive an award.
hakawi from the east - حكاوى من الشرق 