Human rights organizations demand release of Egypt activist Ibrahim Metwally

Amnesty Worldwide, along side quite a few nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), launched an announcement Monday calling for Egyptian authorities to right away let out lawyer and activist Ibrahim Metwally after almost seven years in pre-trial detention.

The assertion recounted the sequence of injustices which have befallen Metwally since his arrest. NGOs claimed Metwally has been tortured, mistreated by police, and denied entry to his household and authorized illustration:

Following his arrest, he was held incommunicado for 2 days till he appeared earlier than the Supreme State Safety Prosecutor (SSSP) in Cairo. He instructed his attorneys that in this era, Nationwide Safety Company (NSA) officers stripped him bare, gave him electrical shocks in varied components of his physique, doused him in water, and beat him, in violation of absolutely the prohibition of torture and different ill-treatment.

The SSSP, a department of the Egyptian authorities, has additionally allegedly subjected Metwally to “rotation” — a follow that retains arrestees in pre-trial detention by a sequence of dropped costs adopted by new costs on comparable grounds. That is regardless of a prohibition of the follow within the Felony Code of Egypt. NGOs state that the SSSP charged Metwally with speaking with overseas entities and spreading false data in 2017 then dropped costs in 2019. SSSP then allegedly charged him with the identical offense and repeated the cycle in 2020.

In response to the launched assertion, a brand new trial started on June 1, and prosecutors now declare Metwally has funded terrorism actions. Up to now, his attorneys haven’t been granted entry to case recordsdata. The trial will proceed on June 11.

The Egyptian authorities arrested Metwally in 2017 at Cairo Worldwide Airport en path to a speech at a convention in Switzerland about shedding his son to enforced disappearances in 2013. He was initially held in solitary confinement for 2 years.

Final month, UN Particular Rapporteur on the scenario of human rights defenders Mary Lawlor commented on the human rights violations suffered by Metwally, calling for adherence to worldwide legal guidelines and authorities accountability. Lawlor pressed the Egyptian authorities to abide by the Common Declaration of Human Rights and the Worldwide Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, each of which assure the rights of arrested individuals and the appropriate to a good listening to.

The particular rapporteur contended that Metwally’s arrest and detention are haphazard, illegal, and exhibit Egypt’s penchant for retaliation in opposition to people who cooperate with the UN and different worldwide organizations. Lawlor based mostly her critique partially on the findings of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

Metwally, 61, is at the moment detained in Badr 3 jail and suffers from a number of well being situations. In December 2024, his household requested his switch to a specialised hospital to endure doctor-recommended surgical procedure. The Egyptian authorities has not but responded to the request.