Human Rights Defender and Lawyer Nasser Amin, who is member of the state-affiliated National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), was banned from travelling by Cairo airport security on Thursday evening. The ban is a result of the investigation in case 173/2011, known as the NGO foreign funding trial, which targets NGOs that receive funds from abroad. EuroMed Rights is particularly worried at this news as the ban could result in criminal charges for which Amin incur up to 25 years in prison.
The latest hearing in this case was scheduled on Sunday 17 July, but was adjourned for the fourth time since March to 15 August. Most recently, authorities seized the assets of the Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies. In addition to Amin, prominent human rights defenders Mozn Hassan, Hossam Bahgat and Gamal Eid have received travel bans and additional sanctions on their assets.
EuroMed Rights calls on Egypt to close the “foreign funding” case 173/2011 and withdraw all measures of harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders, including travel bans, asset freeze orders and trumped-up tax investigations.