The German-Egyptian doctor and activist, Fajr Al-Adly, revealed that the Egyptian authorities extended the detention of her father, Aladdin Al-Adly, for another 15 days, after his arrest upon his arrival at Cairo International Airport on August 18, coming from Frankfurt, Germany.
In a Facebook post, Fajr said that her father was finally able to meet with his lawyer for the first time since last Sunday, saying that there was an intention to extend his detention before undergoing the interrogation via video conference.
His lawyer asked the investigation officials about the reason for her father’s arrest. However, they refused to respond.
“We, as a family, will stay in Egypt to support my father, and we will discuss the next decisions,” she wrote.
Fajr earlier revealed that the family was able to visit her father, indicating that “it was not for a long time, but he told them that he spent the first five days in very difficult detention conditions, where he was forced to sleep on the floor without a bed, doctors, or medicine.”
Fajr quoted her father as saying that “he was then transferred to another room with other people, and he was prevented from contacting any lawyer,” adding that “he was deeply affected by meeting other elderly detainees who were suffering in detention.”
Al-Adly was detained on August 18, 2023, when he arrived at Cairo Airport from Germany and was charged with “spreading false news” and “joining a terrorist group. The Egyptian government regularly uses these accusations against its dissidents and their relatives.
Al-Adly’s arrest came as part of the Egyptian regime’s revenge policy against its opponents and their families, as his daughter, Fajr, had interrupted Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s speech in Germany, and chanted against him during a press conference he held with Angela Merkel in Berlin in June 2015.
Over the past few years, the Egyptian authorities have started targeting exiled dissidents and arresting them upon their return in order to exact revenge on them for their activism against the government.
These actions flagrantly violate the international humanitarian standards that strictly prohibit collective punishment policy.
