That day, while coming back home from Cairo, where he went with his wife to undergo medical treatment, members of the Ministry of Interior's police forces stopped his car and abducted him in Mit Ghamr, Dakahlia Governorate. They took him to an undisclosed location and the family lost contact with him ever since.

Despite his family's efforts to try to locate him, his whereabouts remain unknown so far, and Egyptian authorities continue refusing to provide information on his case.

This case is only the last of the recurrent and ever-increasing practice of enforced disappearances in the country, which sees the Egyptian authorities arbitrarily arresting citizens, detaining them in secret, while denying their responsibility in the victims' disappearances, which at last qualify such acts as 'enforced disappearances'.

"This patterns of enforced disappearances is reaching unprecedented levels and is extremely worrisome," said Simone Di Stefano, Alkarama's Regional Legal Officer on the Nile, adding that "Egyptian authorities must end this practice immediately."

Therefore, Alkarama has again solicited the WGEID to promptly intervene with the Egyptian authorities requesting clarification of the fate and whereabouts of the victim. This follows other recent cases reported by Alkarama, namely concerning four individuals who were forcedly disappeared and that were referred to the WGEID last month. Furthermore, in April 2016, Alkarama had sent a general allegation to the WGEID to raise its concern over the systematic character of this practice.

Alkarama thus urges the Egyptian authorities to release all individuals secretly detained and to place them under the protection of the law; it further calls on them to immediately halt this systematic practice that constitutes a crime against humanity when practiced in a systematic and generalised manner; and to urgently open prompt, independent and impartial investigations into every report of enforced disappearance, while prosecuting and punishing its authors accordingly.

For more information or an interview, please contact media@alkarama.org (Tel: +41 22 734 1008).