His abduction by Egyptian intelligence services comes in the wake of numerous acts of enforced disappearances perpetrated in recent months by those same government forces, in particular against the Muslim Brotherhood. Without news since his disappearance and fearing that he may be subjected to torture during his detention, his family filed a complaint with the Prosecutor against the intelligence services. Despite several testimonies of his detention, the Public Prosecutor has refused to follow up on it.

Fouad Kandil is now part of the thousands of silent victims of the repression taking place in Egypt and bringing the country back to the most severe human rights abuses from the Mubarak era. Subjected for years to systematic violations of their most fundamental rights, Egyptian citizens hoped that the revolution would break with these practices. Torture, arbitrary detention and extrajudicial executions have, however, quickly become commonplace again. As for the practice of enforced disappearances, it comes to complement this long list of violations committed by the authorities with total impunity.

Since the beginning of the year, Alkarama has observed a strong increase in cases of enforced disappearances, and expresses its deepest fears that this practice becomes systematic again. The fight against this particularly serious crime continues to be a priority for our organization. In this sense, Alkarama has submitted an urgent appeal to the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances calling on the Egyptian authorities to release Fouad Kandil immediately or to place him under the protection of the law.