Since President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi took power in the country, arrest campaigns continued to take place against all activists and dissidents and even random people in order to undermine freedom of opinion and expression.
The Egyptian State Security Prosecution decided to detain Karim Safwat, 20, for 15 days pending investigations, for “joining a terrorist group and spreading false news”. These alligated charges came after his arrest from the administrative capital, while taking photos in the garden of the President Palace in the new capital.
Karim’s older brother owns a contracting company in the administrative capital for larger companies, and from time to time he accompanies his brother to help him work.
On September 3, he took gardeners to work in the garden of the presidential place. At the end of the three days work, Karim took pictures and a video of the presidential palace being built.
Once he finished taking the video, the security forces arrested Karim from the vicinity of the palace, detained him in a security room inside, and then took him to an unknown destination. He remained under enforced disappearance until he appeared before the State Security Prosecution last Monday, which ordered the detention of the young man who did not publish the video of the presidential palace on any social media account.
It is worth noting that the Egyptian authorities are holding thousands of people in politically motivated arrests, many of whom have been convicted, sentenced in unfair trials, or held without trial for years on baseless terrorism-related charges, and in extremely poor detention conditions.
