The Supreme Public Prosecution ordered the detention of 20 young men who have been forcibly disappeared for different periods. They appeared at the prosecution headquarters and were ordered 15 days of detention pending investigation.
The State Security Authority charged them with publishing false news, joining a terrorist group, misusing social media and the Internet, and financing and promoting violence. Such charges are usually raised by the Egyptian regime against its opponents with the aim of silencing them.
The list of detainees who appeared after their forced disappearance included two girls, Sahar Ahmed Ali and Seham Ahmed Mohamed, in addition to 20 other young men, Ibrahim Abdel Hakim Abdel Qader, Ahmed Amin Haridi, Ahmed Sharif Ramadan, Ahmed Abdel Warith Al-Farmawi, Hatem Mohamed Abdullah, Samir Seris Mikhail, Adel Abdel Khaleq Ahmed, Azmi Khairi Ibrahim, Omar Ahmed Mohamed, Mohamed Al-Sayed Shahib, Mohamed Abdel Nasser Youssef, Mohamed Ali Shaaban, Mohamed Mahmoud Suleiman, Mahmoud Al-Sayed Abdel Hiher, Marwan Nasef Al-Sayed, and Bill Abdel Moati Ahmed, Walid Anwar Ibrahim, Walid Mahmoud Ahmed, Yasser Ibrahim Al-Masry, and Yasser Mohamed Mahrous.
The families of the detainees submitted complaints to the public prosecutor on their enforced disappearance following their arrest by the Egyptian authorities.
The arrest of these young people reflects the extent of the oppression, and restriction to the right of freedom of opinion and expression in Egypt, which requires the attention of the international community and human rights organisations to such cases, and shedding light on the violations that occur against lawyers and human rights activists.
The Egyptian authorities are detaining thousands of people on politically motivated charges, many of whom have been sentenced in unfair trials, or remained in detention without trial for years on baseless charges of combating terrorism.
