The suffering of Egyptian lawyer and human rights advocate Hoda Abdel Monem (67) continues inside Egyptian prisons. She recently informed the judge that she has been unable to leave her bed in detention for nearly 20 days due to her chronic illnesses, which prevent her from moving. She requested that her husband, lawyer Khaled Badawi, be permitted to attend court sessions on her behalf.
This request followed the physical strain of her transfer from her place of detention in Sharqia Governorate to the courtroom at the Bader Security Complex, a journey posing serious health risks for an elderly woman suffering from multiple medical conditions.
Abdel Monem suffers from chronic deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolisms, high blood pressure, and severe joint inflammation. Since her detention, she has also experienced angina, complete failure of her left kidney, and reflux in her right kidney, making her continued imprisonment a direct threat to her life.
She was arrested in 2018 from her home and remained in pretrial detention for more than four years in violation of the law, an extended period without a proper trial, breaching fundamental principles of justice and international human rights standards.
Abdel Monem is currently being tried in two separate cases on charges related to her work defending detainees and advocating for public freedoms. This constitutes a clear violation of Articles 454 and 455 of the Egyptian Code of Criminal Procedure, which prohibit trying an individual more than once for the same act, reflecting a pattern of ongoing judicial harassment incompatible with her right to a fair trial.
Her continued detention without regard for her deteriorating health, and in violation of fair trial guarantees, represents a serious breach of international standards, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right to liberty, the right to a fair trial, and protection from arbitrary detention. It also violates the state’s obligation to provide adequate medical care to detainees.
This case reflects the ongoing repression of dissent in Egypt, where health violations intersect with legal abuses, posing a serious risk to the lives of elderly detainees and those with chronic illnesses. It underscores the urgent need to review detention and prosecution practices in line with international law.
Hoda Abdel Monem is not merely a name in security records, but a stark example of the challenge facing Egyptian authorities in reconciling domestic laws with international obligations, and a case that warrants clear and unequivocal condemnation from all those concerned with the misuse of the judiciary as a tool against political opposition.
