Karim Ahmed Tawfik Ahmed, 28, salesman

Karim was arrested by members of the intelligence and counter-terrorism services (namely Egypt's Homeland Security) on 22 April 2015, during a meeting with a friend in the Mastarod area of Shubra Al Kheima, the fourth largest city in Egypt situated on the northern border of the Cairo Governorate. According to his friend, the Homeland Security officers who arrested him did not show an arrest warrant and forced him into a police car that left for an unknown location. In 2014, Karim had been sentenced in absentia to 10 years of prison in 2014 because of his peaceful activism with the Muslim Brotherhood. Worried over his fate, his family sent telegrams to the Attorney General and the Ministry of Interior on 26 April, but to no avail.

Ibrahim Motamid Amine Inani Al Jundi, 25, student at Ains Shams University

Bystander to a peaceful protest that came down his street in Medinet El Khosous, in the Giza Governorate on 8 May 2015, Ibrahim was arrested when the security forces violently dispersed the demonstrators. Two days after his arrest, several Homeland Security officers went to his home and, without any warrant, started searching for Ibrahim personal items. They left when they found his identity card, without giving Ibrahim's parents any information on their son's fate. Despite sending telegrams to the Egyptian authorities, including to the Public Prosecutor of Al Khankah, in the Qalyubia Governorate on 10 May 2015, his relatives have not heard from him since the day of his arrest and are still unaware of his whereabouts.

Mohammed Gamal Mohammed Mohammed Shehata, 31, student at Cairo University

Mohammed was in Cairo's Ramses train station on 23 May 2015 when he was approached by several members of the Homeland Security who – although Egypt's domestic law does not allow Homeland Security officers to perform arrests – handcuffed him, searched his luggage, taking out his laptop, phone, money and identity card and took him with them before leaving for an unknown location. Given his affiliation to the Muslim Brotherhood – a group that continues to be severely repressed by the authorities – his family fears that he will be tortured during his secret detention. Despite sending telegrams to the Attorney General of Cairo on 24 May 2015 inquiring about his whereabouts, and nearly three months after his disappearance, his relatives have not yet received an answer.

Ammar Adel Zeanelabedin Mohammed Mohammed Omar, 23, student at Ains Shams University

On 28 May 2015, around 5:30pm, Ammar's house was raided by several men in civilian clothes that claimed that they were working for the Homeland Security and that they were looking for him because of his political activities. As soon as the officers identified him, they arrested him and forced him into a civilian car that left for an unknown location. The two telegrams sent by his family to the Attorney General and the Ministry of Interior two days after his abduction have not been answered, leaving his relatives extremely concerned over his fate.

In the past two years, human rights organisations have documented an increasing number of enforced disappearances in Egypt, as illustrated by the 21 cases of enforced disappearances documented by Alkarama's Egypt Country Officer, Ahmed Mefreh, between January and April 2015 (see four enforced disappearances in Shubra El-Kheima in January, enforced disappearances of four Muslim Brotherhood members, including two students between January-March, seven more cases of enforced disappearances in March, enforced disappearance of a father and son in April and the present cases).

The practice of enforced disappearances seems to have become one of the Homeland Security's favourite tools to implement the authorities' repressive policies and is left to operate with total impunity. "Since the beginning of 2015, and as we had already started to witness it in 2014, hundreds of individuals have been abducted in Egypt and most have not reappeared since," explains Rachid Mesli, Alkarama's Legal Director. "It is high time for the international community to understand that there will not be social and political stability in the country so long as grave human rights abuses persist, and ends its complicit silence regarding the situation of human rights in Egypt. If terrorism is real threat in Egypt, more violence cannot be the solution to the country's current issues."

In light of the recent cases of enforced disappearances documented, and of the incapacity for the victims' relatives to obtain any form of redress at the local level, Alkarama called upon the WGEID to intervene with the Egyptian authorities to ask them to immediately release the four men. Alkarama also suggested to the Working Group to ask for a country visit in order to assess the level of compliance of the authorities with their international obligations so that they take appropriate measures to end them durably.

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