Reminder

On 3 July 2009, en route to his son's wedding in Turkey, Dr Ghaffar was arbitrarily arrested at Cairo airport and held for four days before being transferred to al-Marg prison. Held by State Security forces at Cairo airport, he spent the first 48 hours incommunicado, during which he was forced to sit in a chair without food or water - and prevented from taking his prescription medicine to treat his hepatitis C.

Dr Ashraf Abdel Ghaffar is the Vice-Secretary General of the Egyptian Medical Association and is a Rapporteur for the Cairo based Human Relief Agency. He has been targeted by the Egyptian authorities for his work as a union and community leader and is accused of belonging to the "International Organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood".