On 9 December 2010, Alkarama sent Mr Abdelhalem‘s case to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, requesting its intervention with the Egyptian authorities to immediately release Mr Abdelhalem and to take the appropriate measures against those who deprived him of his liberty.

In May 2010, Mr Abdelhalem was urgently summoned to the State Security Intelligence (SSI) Services in Nasr city. On 29 May 2010, Mr Abdelhalem presented himself to the SSI in Nasr City where he was immediately arrested. He was then held incommunicado for nearly six months and tortured on several occasions. He was subjected to various acts of torture, such as electrocution and severe beatings. It appears that he was tortured in order to extract information regarding his alleged relations with a terrorist group.

Mr Abdelhalem was then transferred, on 29 July 2010, to Torah Prison where he remains detained incommunicado, in spite of two judicial orders from competent jurisdictions for his release. The first one was on 13 July 2010 from the Emergency Supreme State Security Court and the second order was, on 7 August 2010, from the Prosecutor-General of the above Court. However, the Ministry of Interior, rather than releasing Mr Abdelhalem, issued a further administrative detention order against him.

Alkarama will continue to follow developments regarding his case and send updates to the United Nations human rights Special Procedures.