The Egyptian businessman, Safwan Thabet, has completed two years of arbitrary detention (pre-trial detention), during which he was interrogation only once.
Thabet has completed the maximum period of “pre-trial detention” in the Egyptian law, a period that has already been criticized by many human rights organisations.
Safwan Thabet, 76, is the founder and CEO of Juhayna Food Industries, the largest dairy and juice company in Egypt, and he owns most of its shares.
On December 2, 2020, the Egyptian authorities had arrested Thabet for allegedly financing opposition groups that the regime classifies as “terrorist.” Sources close to the “Juhayna” company confirm that a senior official had asked Thabet, shortly before his arrest, to donate part of his company to an entity owned by the Egyptian government.
In February 2021, the Egyptian authorities arrested his eldest son, “Saif,” 40, and pressured him to give up the company’s shares, but he refused to do so, and he is still being held in solitary confinement in conditions amounting to torture.
Safwan Thabet, who has been detained since the date of his arrest in solitary confinement, suffers from various health problems, especially stomach ulcers, high cholesterol, fatty liver, and shoulder injuries, in addition to having previously undergone surgery to replace two knee joints. The prison administration does not give him regular access tofood, medicine, and clothes.
A report by the The Economist said that the Egyptian regime is extorting businessmen and investors, in order to obtain stakes in their companies, as happened with the founder of Juhayna Dairy Company, Safwan Thabet, and his son Saif.
The magazine stated that the government arrested Thabet after he refused to agree to the extortion process to sell his company, which he founded.
