Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution has ordered the detention of 17 Egyptian citizens for 15 days pending investigation, following their sudden appearance after varying periods of enforced disappearance, with some cases lasting several years.
Enforced disappearance has become one of the most alarming human rights violations in Egypt, widely used as a tool to silence dissent. Under international law, enforced disappearance constitutes a crime against humanity when practiced systematically, as outlined in the United Nations Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which Egypt has not signed.
The detainees face politically motivated charges, including “spreading false news,” “joining a terrorist group,” and “misusing social media”—repetitive allegations frequently used against political opponents, often without substantial evidence.
Among those detained are prominent academics, signalling an increasing crackdown on academic freedoms in Egypt. The list includes:
- Sayed Mohamed Abu Shaisha’, Assistant Lecturer at the Department of Radio and Television, Faculty of Mass Communication, Cairo University
- Abdullah Mohamed Azazi, Assistant Lecturer at the Faculty of Education, Benha University
The remaining detainees come from various social and professional backgrounds, including:
- Ahmed Mohamed Al-Hawi
- Ahmed Hamed Hamza
- Ahmed Mamdouh Mohamed
- Islam Omar Mohamed
- Al-Baraa Ahmed Gouda
- Gamal Abdel Azim Al-Khawaja
- Abdel Baset Ahmed Mahmoud
- Eid Roubi Ahmed
- Mohamed Khaled Gomaa
- Mohamed Morsi Ibrahim
- Mohamed Sayed El-Sayed
- Mostafa Wael Mohamed
- Hesham Ahmed Abdel Samee’
- Yassin Saad Mahmoud
The list also includes Khaled Al-Shahat Al-Husseini, who was previously acquitted in 2014 by the Assiut Criminal Court in case No. 8106/2014, where he had been accused of belonging to a banned group, protesting, and assaulting police forces. Despite his final acquittal, he was continuously rotated into three new cases and has been detained for over a decade without conviction. During this period, he was forcibly disappeared multiple times, including one instance where he vanished for three years. His reappearance today in a new fabricated case reflects Egypt’s systematic practice of ‘prisoner recycling’, where detainees are arbitrarily charged with new offenses to extend their detention indefinitely.
Families of the detainees had previously filed multiple complaints to the Public Prosecutor regarding their enforced disappearances, yet no action was taken.
The recurring appearance of forcibly disappeared individuals in new cases raises serious questions about the Egyptian authorities’ adherence to constitutional and legal safeguards, which guarantee fair trials and prohibit arbitrary detention.
