Two detained Egyptian lawyers, Haitham Mohamadin and Mohamed al-Baqer have won the 2022 International Ebru Timtik Award.
The European Bars Federation granted Mohamadin and al-Baqer the award in light of their continued imprisonment without fair trials, and the conditions of their detention.
The two face similar charges, of joining a terrorist group and promoting its ideas and publishing false news and statements, which the Egyptian regime uses against its critics in often farcical trials.
Egyptian authorities arrested Mohamadin on 13 May 2019 whilst he was under observation in a police headquarters, after which he disappeared for three days. Only then was a state security case, number 741 of 2019, opened against him.
On 8 March of last year Mohamadin was released, though a second case, number 1956 of 2019, was opened against him.
Mohamed al-Baqer was arrested on 29 September 2019 whilst he was defending political activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah. Al-Baqer was arrested whilst attending a session at the state security prosecution’s headquarters, as part of state security case 1356 of that same year.
After, following an unfair trial, in December 2021 an emergency state security court handed a four-year prison sentence to al-Baqer, for charges including “spreading false news that harms state security”.
