27 February 2025, GENEVA – A group of independent human rights experts* today urged the Government of Egypt to end the unlawful and arbitrary detention of activist and blogger, Alaa Abd El-Fattah, and release him without further delay.
El-Fattah has spent most of the last 14 years either in pre-trial detention or serving harsh sentences for terrorism and national security offences, which are widely used by Egyptian authorities to silence dissent, the experts said.
“Critical voices are not criminal voices, yet in today’s Egypt, to express views or post comments on social media that are perceived to be critical of the Government is to risk arrest, arbitrary detention, and possible torture and disappearance,” they said.
“Mr. El-Fattah remains in prison despite having completed his most recent sentence on 29 September 2024 because Egyptian authorities refuse to acknowledge the time he spent in pre-trial detention,” the experts said.
They recalled that Article 482 of the Egyptian Criminal Code requires that time served in pretrial detention is deducted from prison sentences. However, under a practice known as “rotation”, detainees are added to new cases under similar charges to indefinitely extend the detention of dissenting voices, journalists, human rights defenders and political opponents.
“We urge the Egyptian authorities to release Mr. El-Fattah immediately given the arbitrary and unlawful nature of his detention and the deteriorating health of his mother, who has been on hunger strike for almost five months to protest her son’s continued incarceration,” they said.
El-Fattah’s mother, Laila Soueif, was hospitalised on Monday 24February and her life is now thought to be at imminent risk.
The human rights experts have long called upon the Egyptian authorities to cease the misuse of counter-terror laws and vague offences of spreading false news, calling for the release of all those arbitrarily detained under such charges, whose rights to fair trial and due process have been violated.
In a statement in November 2022, the experts highlighted that El-Fattah had experienced multiple and sustained harms over the course of his arrest, trial and imprisonment.
Recently Egypt’s human rights record was scrutinised under the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review, in which El-Fattah’s case was raised. Egyptian authorities stated that he would not be released until January 2027. The process revealed continuing suppression of freedom of expression and prosecution of journalists, lawyers, writers, activists, scholars and students for expressing their opinions and political activities, the experts noted.
“Egypt must halt its flagrant crackdown on freedom of expression and respect its obligations under international human rights law,” the experts said.
The experts are in contact with the Government about this matter.
*The experts: Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism; Gina Romero, Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association; Margaret Satterthwaite, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.
Special Rapporteurs/Independent Experts/Working Groups are independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Together, these experts are referred to as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights office acts as the secretariat for Special Procedures, the experts serve in their individual capacity and are independent from any government or organization, including OHCHR and the UN. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the UN or OHCHR.
Country-specific observations and recommendations by the UN human rights mechanisms, including the special procedures, the treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, can be found on the Universal Human Rights Index https://uhri.ohchr.org/en/.
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