Judicial harassment and travel ban against Malek Adly

On 2 November, Egyptian authorities issued a travel ban for human rights defender Mr Malek Adly at the Cairo International Airport, preventing him from boarding his flight to Paris.

Download the Urgent Appeal (PDF)

An immigration officer at the airport gave the human rights defender an exit stamp. After his passport was stamped, however, a member of the Egyptian National Security interrogated him about the purpose of his travel, cancelled the exit stamp in his passport and informed him that he is under a travel ban. There was no explanation given as to the reasons for the travel ban.

On 25 August 2016, Malek Adly was released after 114 days in detention in Torah prison for charges related to a call to protest on 25 April 2016. While the charges remain pending, his release did not have restrictions on travels or other conditions attached. This call to protest condemned the recent Egyptian government’s decision to cede sovereignty of two Red Sea islands, administered by Egypt, to Saudi Arabia as well as human rights abuses and crimes committed by the Egyptian security forces. The human rights lawyer has been the target of judicial harassment and physical attacks by the Egyptian authorities since early March 2015, when he and roughly 100 other lawyers participated in an anti-torture protest in Cairo.

Travel bans have become common practice in the crackdown against human rights defenders in Egypt in the last year. Egyptian authorities have been increasing pressure on human rights defenders and journalists through arbitrary detentions, travel bans as well as freezing the personal and organisational bank accounts of human rights defenders.

Front Line Defenders condemns the travel ban imposed on Malek Adly as it believes it to be in retaliation to his legitimate and peaceful human rights activities.

Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in Egypt to:

1. Immediately and unconditionally remove the travel ban imposed against Malek Adly and all other human rights defenders facing travel restrictions in Egypt, as Front Line Defenders believes that they are being restricted solely as a result of their legitimate and peaceful work in the defence of human rights;

2. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in Egypt are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions.

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”.

Upon his arrest in Cairo’s Maadi district on 5 May 2016, Malek Adly was charged with attempting to overthrow the regime and transferred to Tora prison, Cairo where he is currently detained. An interrogation session was scheduled for 18 May 2016 but was postponed to 1 June 2016. There are reports that he was mistreated and beaten in detention, and that he was denied family and lawyer visitation rights. The human rights defender was brought food, clothes and medication by his family as the prison was not providing them, but he was not allowed to receive them. His health is reported to be rapidly deteriorating.

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.

On 5 May 2016, Egyptian security forces arrested lawyer and human rights defender Malek Adly in Cairo’s Maadi district and brought him to Shubra al-Kheima police station in northern Cairo. He appeared before the public prosecutor of Shubra al-Kheima following an arrest warrant issued against him on 23 April 2016.

Malek Adly was questioned by the chief prosecutor, the public attorney and the prosecutor assigned to the case on 5 May 2016. After questioning, which lasted overnight from 3am to 7am, the prosecutor ordered the detention of Malek Adly for fifteen days pending investigation. He has been charged with, inter alia, attempting to overthrow the ruling regime, affiliation to a banned organisation, and broadcasting false news, all of which he denied during questioning. This follows an arrest warrant issued against him on 23 April 2016, in connection with a call to protest on 25 April 2016, condemning the recent government decision which cedes the sovereignty of two Red Sea islands, administered by Egypt, to Saudi Arabia and against President Al Sissi's policies, human rights abuses and crimes committed by the Egyptian security forces. The continued repression and mass arrest of human rights defenders in Egypt has escalated following this call to protest.

Also arrested in relation to the call to protest on 25 April 2016 was human rights defender and journalist Amr Badr. The human rights defender was arrested after security forces stormed the Journalists’ Syndicate headquarters on 1 May 2016, following an arrest warrant issued against him on 23 April 2016. Amr Badr is facing several charges including “calling for protests to overthrow the regime, distributing flyers to protest, affiliation to a banned organisation, and promoting false news.”

Front Line Defenders strongly condemns the arrest of Malek Adly and Amr Badr, and the criminalisation of civil society in Egypt, and calls for an immediate end to the persecution of human rights defenders, reiterating the essential role of their work in the development of just and equal society.

Egyptian authorities summoned human rights defender Malek Adly and five other lawyers for interrogation on 29 April 2015, following an anti-torture protest in Cairo in early March 2015.

The summons' against Adly and his colleagues are in connection with a peaceful protest staged by over 100 lawyers outside the Office of the General Prosecutor in central Cairo on 1 March 2015. Protestors denounced the torture of lawyer Karim Hamdy, who died after suffering "blows to several parts of his body with a blunt object"in North Cairo's Matareya police station in February, Hisham Abdel Hamid in an interview with the AFP. Later that month, Egypt's prosecution service ordered the arrest of two policemen accused of torturing and beating Hamdy to death.

In July 2014, Al Jazeera reported that cases of torture inside Egyptian prisons have “reportedly increased since a security crackdown began on supporters of former President Mohamed Morsi and other dissidents.” According to a report released last week by The El-Nadeem Centre for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, the organization documented“hundreds” of torture cases inside prisons in April 2015 alone.

Following Hamdy's murder, the Egyptian General Prosecutor implemented a ban on media coverage of the investigation into the death. During the protest on 1 March, Adly and other lawyers submitted a petition to General Prosecutor to lift the media ban and urged him to allow human rights lawyers to monitor the investigation.

On 29 April, the Cairo Appeal Prosecutor summoned the six lawyers on the grounds of 'taking part in an illegal demonstration' and 'insulting state institutions'. Adly and his colleagues abstained from attending the first interrogation session, scheduled for 3 May 2015, at the request of the Bar Association. The Cairo Appeal Prosecutor postponed the interrogation to 16 May 2015.