20 April 2015

Egypt: Student Arbitrarily and Secretly Detained for Political Reasons

On 17 April 2015, Alkarama sent a communication to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) regarding the arbitrary detention of Ahmed Magdy Atya Alwahsh, a 23-year-old student at Mansoura University who was arrested in March 2014. Secretly detained and tortured in retaliation for his affiliation to the Muslim Brotherhood, Ahmed has still not been presented to a judge, more than a year after his arrest.

On 31 March 2014, several Security Forces officers raided Ahmed's home in Al Mahallah Al Kubra – a large industrial and agricultural city located 120km North of Cairo in the middle of the Nile Delta, the largest city in the Gharbia Governorate, in which Alkarama has already documented cases of enforced disappearances of members of the Muslim Brotherhood by the security forces. After violently assaulting him, they forcibly took him to the State Security facility in Al Mahallah where he was secretly detained for three days and reported having been tortured by means of kicks and punches on the entire body.

He was subsequently brought before the Public Prosecutor of Al Mahallah, who officially charged him with "joining a banned organisation" and "possession of cartridges" and renewed his detention for 15 days, not taking into account the visible signs of torture on Ahmed's body. His detention was renewed twice and Ahmed remained in the State Security facility before being moved to the General Prison of Tanta, 55km northwest of Cairo, where he was jailed with convicted criminals.

His ordeal continued until the Public Prosecutor requested his release on 29 December 2014 because the authorities had not been able to gather sufficient evidence against him. Ahmed was, however, moved to another detention facility in Mansoura and then back to Mahallah Security Forces camp. When his family came to visit him on 1 January 2015, they were invited by a guard to come back later, allegedly because his release papers had not been finalised.

A day passed and Ahmed was not released. To the contrary, his family lost contact with him and after days without news they filed complaints on 13 January 2015 before the Public Prosecutor of Al Mahallah and of Cairo as well as before the Ministry of Interior, to be replied that Ahmed had been released but that he had been put back in detention because the authorities had charged him with a new accusation of "having participated to a demonstration" under the restrictive law n°107 of 2013 on the "Organization of the Right to Public Assembly, Processions and Peaceful Demonstrations in Public Places." Ahmed remained detained incommunicado until the Public Prosecutor of Tanta requested his release again on 16 January 2015 and dropped the second charges held against him.

Once more, the prosecution's decision was not implemented by the security forces who unlawfully kept Ahmed in detention. The authorities eventually told his family that he had been released and re-arrested near Al Gomhoria Street in Mansoura, as a new arrest warrant had been issued against him regarding the first charges pressed against him. His family contested the authorities' version, asserting that he had never been released and that the authorities were just inventing charges to keep him in detention indefinitely. As a consequence, Ahmed was transferred to Damietta prison is still detained there since, while the alleged investigations into his case are ongoing.

His case is symptomatic of the absence of control of the Prosecution over the Security Forces, and the total impunity with which the authorities are acting, from fabricating charges against citizens in retaliation for their political affiliations to secret detention and torture. Contacted by his family, Alkarama sent a communication to the WGAD asking them to recognise the arbitrary nature of Ahmed's detention and to ask the authorities to release him immediately. Alkarama invites the authorities to engage in a transparent dialogue with the opposition and to release all citizens who have been arrested and are detained under political motives.

For more information or an interview, please contact the media team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Dir: +41 22 734 1007 Ext: 810)

Egypt - HR Instruments

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

ICCPR: Ratified on 14.01.1982
Optional Protocol: No

State report: Overdue since 01.11.2004 (4th)
Last concluding observations: 28.11.2002

Convention against Torture (CAT)

CAT: Accessed on 25.06.1986
Optional Protocol: No
Art. 20 (Confidential inquiry): Yes
Art. 22 (Individual communications): No

State report: Due on 25.06.2016 (initially due in 2004)
Last concluding observations: 23.12.2002

International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance (CED)

No

Universal Periodic Review (UPR)

Last review: 02.2010 (1st cycle)
Next review: 2014 (2nd cycle)

National Human Rights Institution (NHRI)

National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) – Status A

Last review: 10.2006
Next review: Deferred