Case history: Mina Thabet
Mina Thabet was arrested in his home in Cairo on 19 May early morning by plain-clothed police and transferred to an unknown location.
Mina was released on bail of 10 000 LE on 19 June 2016.
Mina Thabet is a human rights lawyer and marginalized groups program director at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms. Thabet’s latest research was published in March 2016, and included a policy paper recommending annulment of the Orthodox Church’s current restrictive marriage laws.
Between April and May 2016, scores of arbitrary arrests, abusive detentions, unlawful house raids, enforced disappearances, violence and unfair trials targeting civil society and human rights defenders have taken place in Egypt. With over 300 arrests in Cairo, Alexandria and other governorates, repression and human rights violations committed by the authorities have reached an unprecedented level. They were triggered by a recent call made by several civil society actors to protest on 25 April 2016 against human rights abuses and crimes committed by the security forces, the ruling regime's policies and the recent government decision to cede the sovereignty of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. As a result, on 14 May 2016, Egyptian courts sentenced, in a single day, 152 pro-democracy activists to up to five years imprisonment.
Read also: Escalating judicial harassment against human rights defenders
Human rights defenders, including Negad El Borai, Mohamed Nagui, Sanaa Seif, Malek Adly and Haytham Mohamadeen have been direct targets of the security forces and were accused in separate cases of, inter alia, “insulting a public official, deliberately spreading false information with the purpose of harming public order or public interest, calling for protests to overthrow the regime and participation in an illegal demonstration”.
Human rights lawyer and programme director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms Mina Thabet was arrested in his home in Cairo on 19 May early morning by plain-clothed police and transferred to an unknown location.
Front Line Defenders reiterates its deep concern about the Egyptian government's crackdown on human rights defenders and the criminalisation of civil society, and calls for an immediate end to the persecution of human rights defenders.
