The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) condemns yesterday’s travel ban on Mohamed Lotfy, Executive Director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedom (ECRF), in larger growing crackdown to stifle dissent.
On his way to Germany, Mr. Lotfy was held by the police at Cairo Airport for three hours before being told by a plainclothes officer that he was denied the right to leave the country for “security reasons’’ and his passport was confiscated.
Ironically, Mr. Lotfy was meant to speak at a public event at the German parliament during an Egyptian presidential visit to Berlin. Supporters of President Sisi were allowed to travel, including TV presenter Ahmed Moussa, even though he has been given a two-year prison sentence.
Enquiring if he was on a travel ban list, Mr Lotfy was told that he would know “in due time” and that he would be contacted on 3 June in the morning for an explanation, but he has not.
This is only the latest incident of harassment against human rights defenders in Egypt. Following their testimony as witnesses to the fatal police shooting of political activist Shaimaa al-Sabbagh, Azza Soliman, a leading women’s rights lawyer and director of the Centre for Egyptian Women’s Legal Aid (CEWLA), and 16 others were charged for participating in an illegal protest. A judge acquitted Ms Soliman and the 16 members of al-Sabbagh’s Socialist Popular Alliance Party on 23 May, but prosecutors have appealed the acquittal and continue to seek jail sentences for the peaceful activists.
Ahmed Samih, Director of the Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies (AITAS) and Chief Editor of the Radio Horytna was briefly arrested in April and is being prosecuted on charges related to broadcasting an online radio without a license, when such a license is not needed under Egyptian Law. Similarly, Lawyer Negad El Borai, director of civil society organisation United Group, is currently being questioned for cooperating with two judges to draft an anti-torture law. These are but some examples of large and systematic crackdown on dissent and activism.
EMHRN urges the Egyptian authorities to immediately stop their ongoing harassment and repression against human rights defenders and independent human rights organisations aimed at shrinking further the remaining space for freedom of assembly, expression and association in Egypt.
In a letter addressed to Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, EMHRN and other international human rights organisations called on the Chancellor to take the opportunity of President Sisi’s visit to condition closer ties between Germany and Egypt on the latter’s willingness to address pervasive human rights violations in the country, including the growing crackdown on dissent and human rights defenders.
To read the letter, click here.