The Egyptian regime continues its violations against lawyers and human rights activists through long-term detention and harsh judicial rulings against them.
The Cairo Criminal Court decided to renew the detention of lawyer Ibrahim Abdel Moneim Metwally, one of the founders of the Association of Families of the Forcibly Disappeared, and lawyer Hoda Abdel Moneim, for 45 days in two separate cases.
The routinely decisions to renew the detention were made via video conference without the presence of the defendants or conducting new investigations, and they were not allowed to meet with the defence team.
Ibrahim Abdel Moneim Metwally is under investigations in Case No. 786 of 2020, regarding establishing a banned group. The defence renewed its request to release him, pointing out that the security authorities deliberately abused him and redetained him in three cases with the same accusations, despite having a release order in two previous cases. Thus, the authorities continue to keep their client in detention without legal basis or real evidence.
The defence stated that their client, Ibrahim Abdel Moneim Metwally, has exceeded his detention period of six years, as he has been redetained in different cases since 2017, which contradicts Egyptian law, which sets the maximum period of pretrial detention at two years.
The defence pointed out that the charges against him are based on security investigations only, without any evidence against him, and that the prosecution and the court did not allow him to view the details of the case or the security report on which he is being held, resulting in the renewal of detention without real investigations.
Likewise, the detention of lawyer Hoda Abdel Moneim, a human rights defender, was renewed pending case No. 730 of 2020, where she faces charges of joining a terrorist group.
The “Free Hoda Abdel Moneim” campaign and 19 human rights organisations expressed their concern about her continued arbitrary detention for more than six years, calling for her immediate release due to the deterioration of her health in prison.
Since her arrest on November 1, 2018, Hoda Abdel Moneim has been suffering from a severe deterioration in her health, as she suffered from severe osteoarthritis in the knee and cartilage erosion, which led to her inability to move or walk.
She suffered a heart attack, high blood pressure, a blood clot in her left leg, and her left kidney completely stopped working, amid the intransigence of the prison administration in transferring her to any external hospital to monitor her health condition. She faces many violations, following her transfer from her cell in Qanater Prison to the new Tenth of Ramadan Prison, where she was deprived of all her belongings and medications before being transferred to her new cell.
Hoda Abdel Moneim is a 63-year-old human rights lawyer and human rights defender in Egypt, with four daughters. She previously worked at the National Council for Human Rights in Egypt and was a member of the Egyptian House of Representatives in 2012-2013. The Egyptian authorities banned Abdel Moneim from travelling since 2013.
The violations faced by the lawyers Ibrahim Metwally and Hoda Abdel Moneim confirm the urgent need to promote human rights in Egypt and ensure its respect, adhere to international human rights standards, and cooperate with civil society organisations to ensure the protection of human rights defenders, lawyers, and prisoners in general. It calls for the international community to demand the necessary improvements and continuous monitoring of human rights in the country.
It is noteworthy that the Egyptian authorities are detaining thousands of people in politically motivated arrests, where many of them have been convicted and sentenced in unfair trials, or have been detained without trial for years on baseless terrorism-related charges, in extremely poor detention conditions.
