Pr Ahmed Tohamy Abdel Hay has been an assistant professor of political science at the Faculty of Economic Studies and Political Science at Alexandria University since 2014. His research focuses on democratic transition, including social movements and state-society relations in Middle East, youth movements and youth culture, and social media and networking technologies. He previously worked as a researcher and then as a professor at the National Institute for Social and Criminal Research in Cairo from 2000 until 2014, and as a researcher at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies from 1996 to 2000. In 2019 he was a visiting professor at the Free University of Berlin.
Pr Tohamy was arrested from his home by plain-clothed security officers on 3 June 2020. He remained under enforced disappearance for 17 days. The prosecution ordered his imprisonment pending the Supreme State Security Case 649/2020 and charged him with joining a terrorist group, spreading false news, and misusing social media. Since then, his pre-trial detention has been continuously renewed 45 days at a time.
The questioning of Pr Tohamy focused on his academic research and his alleged collaboration with the US-based activist Mohamed Sultan regarding a lawsuit the latter filed in the US against former Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawy (2013-2014). In his lawsuit, Sultan accused Beblawy of being responsible for his torture during his imprisonment in Egypt.
Pr Tohamy denied the allegations and denied that he wrote a research paper criticizing Beblawy, as the prosecution claimed during the investigations. He said the real reason behind these accusations was his academic research papers, especially those related to the Arab Spring, human rights and democracy. The Egyptian authorities have a tendency of arresting and harassing academics for their opinions critical of the government and its policies.
Pr Tohamy suffered from poor detention conditions for seven months, as he was held in a poorly ventilated cell with 30 other inmates. He was denied physical exercise, and his family was banned from visiting him until October 2020. He was also prevented from appearing before the court, which would renew his detention, or meeting his lawyer. His lawyer was denied access to the case papers for nearly seven months.
A full list of Tohamy’s publications and academic achievements is available here.