Mohamed Mahsoob, former Minister of State for Legal Affairs and Parliamentary Councils during President Mohamed Morsi’s rule, announced that the Egyptian authorities prevented his two daughters from travelling to him on the first day of Eid Al-Fitr, and withdrew their passports.
Mahsoob, a leader in the current opposition Al-Wasat Party, has lived outside Egypt since the military coup in July 2013. He has been targeted by the Egyptian regime for opposing the current authorities.
On Twitter, Mahsoob shared the details of the incident in Cairo Airport, saying “They prevented my daughters from travelling. They have been preventing them for four years, only for being my daughters. I heard them crying saying “they prevented us again father. They told us if you issue new passports, we will confiscate them like the ones before.”
He pointed out that his sister, Hassiba Mahsoob, “has been imprisoned for the third year without charge,” adding: “We hoped they dealt with the matter with honour.”
The Egyptian businesswoman, Hassiba Mahsoob, from Alexandria, was arrested in November 2019. She was subjected to enforced disappearance for 67 days, before appearing in the Public Prosecution on January 27, 2020. The Public Prosecution ordered her detention for investigation on a fabricated charge used against opponents of belonging to a “terrorist group”.
The Egyptian regime uses collective punishment against dissidents and their families as a means of harassing them and silencing their critical voices about the violations of the regime.
Since President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi assumed power in Egypt, the Egyptian authorities have been launching campaigns of arrest against thousands of opponents who have been tried in unfair trials and sentenced on baseless, terrorism related charges.
