Abdallah had been arrested in the middle of the night by police officers who had raided his flat in Madinat an-Nasr, an eastern suburb of Cairo, searched it without presenting a judicial warrant and confiscated his ID and telephone before forcing him into a minibus which had left for an unknown location. His relatives were particularly worried over his fate because of his diabetes which requires regular medical attention. In view of the silence of the authorities regarding their inquiries, they had turned to Alkarama, who had subsequently sent an urgent appeal to the UN Working on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) to ask the authorities to release Abdallah.

If Abdallah's release is good news, Alkarama does not forget the hundreds of other people who are still disappeared in Egypt, including 41-year-old tutor, Samir Mohamed Abbas Al Hity and 19- and 20-year-old students, Omar Abdelwahab Hussein and Omar Essam Abdelfattah Al Fayoumi, who went missing respectively on 9 January 2015, 16 December 2014 and 1 March 2015 and whose cases had been sent jointly to the UN Working on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) together with Abdallah's. Once again, Alkarama urges the Egyptian authorities to immediately release all people missing since their abduction by the security services and to take appropriate steps to put a definitive end to this practice.

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