Human rights defender released after receiving a pardon
On 12 April 2022, human rights defender Ibrahim Ezz El-Din was released after nearly three years in detention. Ibrahim Ezz El-Din’s release was part of a number of pardons of human rights defenders issued by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and was not related to his previous release order issued by the Criminal Court of Cairo on 27 December 2020, which was never implemented.
On 2 January 2021, the State Public Prosecutor ordered the detention of human rights defender Ibrahim Ezz El-Din for an additional 15 days.
On 5 May 2020, the Criminal Court of Cairo renewed the detention of human rights defenders Ibrahim Ezz El-Din, Mohamed El-Baqer, Mohamed Ibrahim, and woman human rights defender Mahienour El-Masry for an additional 45 days.
On 4 March 2020, the Supreme Public Prosecution of Cairo renewed the preventive detention of human rights defender Ibrahim Ezz El-Din for an additional 15 days. His detention has been repeatedly renewed since 4 December 2019.
On 4 December 2019, the Supreme Public Prosecution of Cairo renewed the preventive detention of human rights defender Ibrahim Ezz El-Din for 15 days.
On 26 November 2019, Ibrahim Ezz El-Din appeared before the State Public Prosecution in Cairo, more than 167 days since his enforced disappearance.
On 3 September 2019, the Administrative Court of Cairo rescheduled the first session of the case initiated by the organisation ECRF to determine the whereabouts of human rights defender Ibrahim Ezz El-Din to 16 November 2019. Ibrahim Ezz El-Din is forcibly disappeared since 12 June 2019.
On 12 June 2019, human rights defender Ibrahim Ezz El-Din was arrested by the Egyptian security forces in Mokattam area and taken to an unknown location.
Ibrahim Ezz El-Din is an architectural planning engineer and researcher at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) who worked on the right to housing and forced evictions in Egypt.
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- 28 April 2022 : Human rights defender released after receiving a pardon
- 8 January 2021 : Human rights defender Ibrahim Ezz El-Din accused in new case
- 7 May 2020 : Detention sentence of HRDs renewed in absentia
- 9 December 2019 : Ibrahim Ezz El-Din’s preventive detention renewed for the first time
- 28 November 2019 : Human rights defender Ibrahim Ezz El-Din found
- 17 June 2019 : ECRF researcher Ibrahim Ezz El-Din detained in unknown location
On 12 April 2022, human rights defender Ibrahim Ezz El-Din was released after nearly three years in detention. Ibrahim Ezz El-Din’s release was part of a number of pardons of human rights defenders issued by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and was not related to his previous release order issued by the Criminal Court of Cairo on 27 December 2020, which was never implemented.
In late November 2019, the State Public Prosecutor linked the human rights defender to case No. 488 of 2019, on charges of 'spreading false news', 'belonging to a terrorist group' and 'the misuse of the social media'.
On 2 January 2021, the State Public Prosecutor ordered the detention of human rights defender Ibrahim Ezz El-Din for an additional 15 days. Despite the release order which was approved and issued for the human rights defender by the Criminal Court of Cairo on the 27 December 2020, he remained in detention and was not released. Ibrahim Ezz El-Din is facing the charge of 'belonging to a terrorist organization' after the State Public Prosecutor linked him to case No. 1018 of 2021.
Ibrahim Ezz El-Din is an architectural planning engineer and researcher at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) who has worked on the right to housing and forced evictions in Egypt.
On 12 June 2019, Ibrahim Ezz El-Din was arrested by Egyptian Security forces and taken to an unknown location. The Egyptian police denied any knowledge of his whereabouts. On 26 November he appeared before the State Public Prosecutor in Cairo, more than five months after his enforced disappearance. The State Public Prosecutor linked the human rights defender to case No.488 of 2019, on charges of 'spreading false news', 'belonging to a terrorist group' and 'the misuse of the social media'. Ibrahim Ezz El-Din is being detained in inhumane conditions, with limited access to required medical treatment. The human rights defender’s lawyer has reported that Ibrahim Ezz El-Din is suffering from severe depression and asthma. During the past number of months his detention was renewed in absentia without his presence or that of his his lawyer.
Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned regarding the contined detention of human rights defender Ibrahim Ezz El-Din. Front Line Defenders believes that the defender is being solely detained as a result of his peaceful and legitimate human rights work.
On 5 May 2020, the Criminal Court of Cairo renewed the detention of human rights defenders Ibrahim Ezz El-Din, Mohamed El-Baqer, Mohamed Ibrahim, and woman human rights defender Mahienour El-Masry for an additional 45 days.
The renewal session was held in absentia, without the human rights defenders or their lawyers present. The human rights defenders are being held in prison in inhumane conditions, placing them them at high risk in the context of COVID-19.
The decision to hold the renewal hearing without the presence, even by video link, of the human rights defenders or their lawyers due to COVID-19 restrictions is clearly an attempt to use such restrictions as a way to deny human rights defenders due process.
On 4 December 2019, the Supreme Public Prosecution of Cairo renewed the preventive detention of human rights defender Ibrahim Ezz El-Din for 15 days. This is the first time Ibrahim Ezz El-Din’s preventive detention has been renewed since his re-appearance on 26 November 2019. Previous to this, he had undergone 167 days of enforced disappearance.
In Egypt, human rights defenders can remain for up to two years under preventive detention, as the Public Prosecution can request a renewal every 15 days or 45 days.
On 26 November 2019, Ibrahim Ezz El-Din appeared before the State Public Prosecution in Cairo, more than 167 days since his enforced disappearance. The human rights defender disappeared on 11 June 2019. The Egyptian authorities denied arresting him or having any information as to his whereabouts.
During his disappearance Ibrahim Ezz El-Din did not have any contact with his family, and he was physically abused. The Public Prosecution accused him of “spreading false news” and “joining a terrorist organisation”.
On 12 June 2019, human rights defender Ibrahim Ezz El-Din was arrested by the Egyptian security forces in Mokattam area and taken to an unknown location.
Ibrahim Ezz El-Din is an architectural planning engineer and researcher at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) who worked on the right to housing and forced evictions in Egypt. ECRF’s staff members have been subject to continuous harassment by the Egyptian authorities for reporting on human rights abuses and crimes committed by Egyptian authorities. ECRF has campaigned extensively against the systematic use of enforced disappearance in Egypt, accusing the National Security Agency and the Military Intelligence Service of abducting political activists and holding them under incommunicado detention in secret detention centres.
On the morning of 12 June 2019, Egyptian security forces arrested Ibrahim Ezz El-Din from the Mokattam area and took him to an unknown place. The Mokattam police station denied his presence within their premises.
The arrest of the human rights defender came after his criticism of governmental policies towards shanty urban areas, the manner in which the government has managed slums, certain mega projects in Egypt and their feasibility. The human rights defender’s mother sent a telegraph to the Attorney General and the Minister of Interior, documenting the arrest of her son and demanding they reveal his whereabouts. ECRF’s lawyers have also submitted a communication to the Attorney General.
This comes shortly after the arrest of ECRF lawyer Haytham Mohamadeen, a labour rights lawyer and human rights defender. On 13 May 2019, he was forcibly disappeared for three days following his summons to Saf police station, in Giza governorate, after being wrongfully accused of violating his probation terms. When he went to the police station, the police arrested him and held him without access to his lawyer or family until 16 May 2019. Haytham Mohamadeen was previously arrested at his home on 22 April 2016 on charges of “joining a banned group, participating in an illegal protest and plotting the overthrow of the state.” for which he served nearly two years in prison. He was released on 29 October 2018, on precautionary measures, 18 days after the Criminal Chamber of the Fifth Compound Courts Complex ruled in his favour.
Front Line Defenders strongly condemns the arbitrary arrests and repression by the Egyptian authorities of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedom’s staff members.
