Press Release
Brussels, 2 August 2018
EuroMed Rights is extremely concerned about yesterday’s arrest of former Egyptian Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Mohamed Mahsoob in Italy.
He is an opposition figure and an academic. He has a French travel document and is a member of the French lawyers’ association. He is currently being held in Comiso – Ragusa near the city of Catania.
Mahsoob is accused of “incitement to violence”. If he were to be deported to Egypt, he is likely to be at risk of receiving the death penalty, which would mean that Italy would violate article 3 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture, establishing the principle of ‘non-refoulement’, and the European Convention on Human Rights’ article 2, protecting the right to life. It would also send a signal that any form of opposition to the Egyptian regime is not safe in the European union.
Egypt currently conducts a generalised crackdown on human rights defenders and anyone who dissents with the official line of the Egyptian government.
We call upon you to raise our concerns and call for his immediate release, or at the very least, to ensure that he is not extradited to Egypt.