In the twelfth issue of “Deleted Lines,” we track Egypt’s human rights and political developments during October. Retreating guarantees of justice and public freedoms are evident in passage of the Criminal Procedure Law amid widespread political and human rights opposition, while repression of opponents, journalists and human rights defenders continues. A recurring pattern of official neglect emerges in social and legal crises: customary reconciliation sessions in Minya leading to forced displacement and constitutional violations, systematic arrests of nonreligious people and atheists, deteriorating critical health conditions of detainees including Hoda Abdel Moneim and Marwa Arafa, increasing school violence and worsening healthcare for older people and kidney failure patients.
The Criminal Procedure Law
At its plenary session on 16 October, a majority in Egypt’s House of Representatives approved the new Criminal Procedure Bill after hours of sharply divided debate and objections from parties and rights organisations that saw some provisions as a retreat from criminal justice safeguards and public freedoms.
Approval followed reconsideration after the president objected to eight articles. Parliament amended only those provisions rather than reviewing the law comprehensively, which political and rights groups described as ignoring substantive comments previously submitted to authorities in a detailed working paper.
Disputed Article 48 grants public authorities entry into homes and inhabited premises in cases of distress or danger from fire, drowning “and similar circumstances.” Egyptian Social Democratic Party MP Sanaa El-Saeed requested deletion of the final phrase because it broadened application. Speaker Hanafy Gebaly rejected this, arguing deletion would be an unconstitutional restriction because constitutional provisions did not permit an exhaustive list.
The dispute arises in light of constitutional Article 58, protecting homes and permitting entry or search only in danger or distress, or through a reasoned judicial order specifying location, time and purpose, with occupants notified. Debate also intensified over Article 105, allowing prosecutors to question defendants without counsel when delay is feared. Opposition MPs and the Bar Association head rejected it as unconstitutional. MP Diaa El-Din Dawoud asked the speaker, a former Constitutional Court president, to assess its constitutionality, before Egyptian Social Democratic MPs walked out in protest.
Political parties and rights organisations rejected the latest amendments in a joint statement, describing a retreat from criminal justice principles and individual freedoms. Their working paper offered criticism, analysis and alternatives but was ignored as parliament passed the government draft despite drafting flaws and constitutional concerns. They regarded the president’s return of the bill as an opportunity for comprehensive review, but rushed amendment of only disputed provisions produced contradictions and loss of legislative coherence.
The statement highlighted unjustified delay in implementation, questioning without a lawyer and new language permitting defendants to be placed in correctional centres before interrogation. It described these as undermining defence rights and creating an unconstitutional alternative to pretrial detention. Signatories urged the president not to issue the current text and to refer it to the Senate for a report before balanced reconsideration by the next House of Representatives with respect for the Constitution and human rights.
Recommended reading: Criminal Procedure: A Parliament That Responds Neither to the People nor the President
Minya Again: Customary Sessions Entrench Forced Displacement and Sideline the Rule of Law
Forced displacement and collective punishment returned to prominence in Minya after sectarian events in Nazlet Galaf village, Beni Mazar, following rumours of a relationship between a Coptic man and a Muslim woman. Instead of legal resolution, a large customary session led by the village mayor and local arbitrators produced decisions rights groups described as unconstitutional: forcing the Coptic family to leave their homes, sell property and pay a substantial fine, recalling collective punishment.
The Egyptian Social Democratic Party condemned substitution of customary sessions for justice as violating the rule of law and equality, entrenching impunity and undermining coexistence. It said the incident was part of a recurring pattern requiring urgent investigation and accountability for those imposing displacement. It sought activation of the independent anti-discrimination commission under constitutional Article 53 to address discrimination and sectarian violence.
MP Maha Abdel Nasser described a serious sectarian incident affecting national unity. She told Zawia3 that the state must apply the law promptly instead of masking violations as reconciliation or prevention of strife.
She said reliance on customary practices reflects unwillingness to confront cultural and social causes, and urged urgent discussion of her anti-discrimination commission bill, submitted years earlier but never debated.
EIPR religious freedom researcher Ishak Ibrahim described Nazlet Galaf as a return to tribalism and blatant defiance of the Constitution. In a Facebook post, he said the family was forced to leave and pay EGP one million while the committee ignored assaults and intimidation against Copts. Such resolutions establish renewed tension rather than ending crises, requiring firm institutional action to restore the rule of law.
EIPR condemned the state response, describing customary settlements as a dangerous return to collective punishment, especially with security officials attending and sponsoring the session. Its two decades of documentation showed such sessions protect perpetrators and discriminate against Copts through predetermined decisions absolving aggressors and punishing victims.
It said forced displacement and collective fines violate constitutional Articles 53 and 63, prohibiting discrimination and forced displacement. The state must stop sponsoring unlawful mechanisms, apply law equally and protect women and girls used as instruments of sectarian conflict. EIPR demanded immediate investigation and accountability for imposing or executing unconstitutional customary decisions.
EIPR Condemns Arrest Campaign against Nonreligious People
EIPR condemned security arrests of nonreligious people, atheists and people holding differing religious views, beginning in mid-September and continuing through October. It described violations of constitutional freedoms of religion, belief, opinion and expression and of government commitments in the National Human Rights Strategy and reports to the UN and development partners.
Its statement said researchers documented at least fourteen arrests in recent weeks of people believed to hold views differing from prevailing religious beliefs, after expressing opinions and intellectual questions on social media.
Several were forcibly disappeared for days before appearing before Supreme State Security Prosecution, charged with joining a group established contrary to constitutional and legal provisions and publicly attacking a religion whose rites are performed. They were detained in Supreme State Security Case No. 6954 of 2025.
Rights Organisations Call for Hoda Abdel Moneim’s Release after Seven Years
Cairo — 2 November 2025
The “Freedom for Hoda Abdel Moneim” campaign, human rights organisations and her family demanded immediate, unconditional release of the prominent lawyer and defender, marking seven continuous years behind bars since November 2018 despite life-threatening chronic illnesses and deteriorating health.
In a new presidential appeal, her daughter Jihad Khaled, a former National Council for Human Rights member, sought medical or presidential pardon. In a letter obtained by Zawia3, she submitted a humanitarian petition to consider her 66-year-old mother’s critical condition, including recurring heart attacks and severe kidney impairment.
She said her mother completed a five-year sentence on 31 October 2023 for allegedly joining the Muslim Brotherhood but remained held in two new cases with identical charges, violating justice and compounding family suffering. Heart attacks on 23 and 30 August, pulmonary and deep-vein clots and declining kidney function nearing renal failure made continued imprisonment an immediate danger with potentially irreversible consequences.
The organisations described continued arbitrary detention as blatantly violating law, the Constitution and international standards, demanding release and necessary treatment.
Security forces raided her Cairo home before dawn on 1 November 2018 without a warrant and forcibly held her for 21 days before State Security Prosecution charged her with joining a terrorist group and publishing false news over her human rights work. Detention continued for more than five years. On 5 March 2023, an Emergency State Security Court sentenced her to five years following a trial organisations said lacked fairness and integrity.
Despite completion in October 2023, she was retried in two new cases on the same charges, which organisations regarded as violating protection against being tried twice for the same act.
Her condition has deteriorated dangerously: chronic deep-vein and lung clots, kidney decline leaving the left kidney nonfunctional, recurring heart attacks and severe joint pain requiring urgent surgery. Two heart attacks within one week in August indicate imminent danger amid detention and denial of specialist care.
The statement cited international support. UN special procedures expressed concern on 17 February 2022 about arbitrary detention and use of counterterrorism legislation to criminalise her work, demanding release. In January 2025, the UN human rights office renewed criticism of Egypt’s counterterrorism law being used to suppress independent voices and rights defenders.
Belgium’s federal parliament addressed her case in its 2023 Egypt human rights statement. A European Parliament draft resolution of 16 December 2024 expressed deep concern over increasing repression against her and urged immediate release and protection of physical and psychological safety.
Organisations see her case as part of wider targeting of human rights defenders, calling for an end to suffering and respect for international obligations.
The statement recalled that Abdel Moneim, a lawyer and former National Council for Human Rights member, received the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe’s 2020 Human Rights Award and defended victims of disappearance and arbitrary detention. It described her case as a symbol of rights defenders’ suffering and urged sustained international pressure for release and an end to exceptional courts’ use against independent voices.
Her family and organisations regard the case as a test of Egypt’s legal and humanitarian responsibilities amid growing calls to save her life.
Recommended reading: After Two Heart Attacks and Kidney Failure, Hoda Abdel Moneim’s Family Appeals for a Presidential Pardon
Urgent Request to Save Marwa Arafa’s Life
The Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders and Centre for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance urgently asked the National Council for Human Rights to intervene for researcher Marwa Arafa, held since 2018 in 10th of Ramadan Prison in Supreme State Security Case No. 570 of 2020. At the 18 October 2025 hearing, she appeared severely exhausted and short of breath, telling the judge she suspected a pulmonary clot, raising grave concerns and an urgent need for care.
EIPR also urged intervention, saying more than five years’ detention violates constitutional and legal safeguards and undermines fair trial guarantees. In August she suffered a suspected pulmonary artery clot, worsening health and mobility, while prison management ignored family and counsel’s requests for transfer to an equipped hospital or Badr Medical Complex.
Journalist Safaa El-Korbeigy Detained Pending Investigation
Security forces arrested journalist Safaa El-Korbeigy for a second time on 6 October. On 13 October, State Security Prosecution ordered fifteen days’ pretrial detention in Case No. 7256 of 2025 over Facebook posts, notably one on the Agiba chalet crisis in Marsa Matrouh, according to syndicate Freedoms Committee rapporteur Eman Auf’s announcement. The syndicate sought immediate release with consideration for her physical and mental health. Previously arrested on the same charges in April 2022 and released, she had been dismissed from Radio and Television Magazine in January 2021.
Dozens Accused of Palestine Solidarity Released in October
Prosecutors released 38 citizens during October, including eighteen held in Palestine solidarity cases, according to lawyer Khaled Ali. They included participants in the Egyptian Sumud Flotilla seeking to break Gaza’s blockade, each on EGP 1,000 bail after aid was delivered to the Egyptian Red Crescent.
Police officer Abdel Gawad Mohamed Abdel Gawad was also released after more than a year and a half in pretrial detention for raising a Palestinian flag. EIPR welcomed a step ending detention violations but urged broader releases in long-running cases, including journalist Nermin Hussein, still detained after more than four years without sufficient evidence.
Egyptian Academic Taqadum El-Khatib Referred to Trial in Absentia
Authorities referred Germany-based researcher and academic Taqadum El-Khatib to criminal trial in absentia in Case No. 29 of 2025, alongside 168 defendants including journalists and human rights defenders, notably photojournalist Hamdy El-Za’eem. Badr’s terrorism court will hear witnesses at the next session on 30 December.
Human rights organisations describe charges including joining a terrorist group and participating in a criminal agreement as politically motivated within increasing transnational repression. El-Khatib, holder of a joint doctorate from Freie Universität Berlin and Princeton, has faced harassment since 2017 including dismissal from Damietta University and denial of academic rights over documentation of Tiran and Sanafir, which organisations viewed as violating identity and nationality rights.
Criticism of Abdel Khalek Farouk’s Sentence and Calls to Release Refaa El-Tahtawy
Human rights organisations condemned a 2 October misdemeanour court judgment sentencing economist Abdel Khalek Farouk to five years for publishing false news. They described legal and procedural violations in a trial responding to critical articles on Egypt’s economic policies.
Arrested in October 2024, Farouk initially faced allegations of joining and financing a terrorist group, later dropped before referral to misdemeanours. Organisations cited inhumane detention, urged immediate release and a fair trial, and called the judgment an assault on expression.
EIPR also demanded immediate release of former ambassador Mohamed Refaa El-Tahtawy, 75, held for more than two years in Case No. 1097 of 2022 before Badr Criminal Court. It cited poor conditions and denial of visits and contact with family or defence for over seven years, violating law and minimum prisoner-treatment standards.
Across twelve years, he faced four cases and completed sentences totalling ten years in 2023, yet remains in pretrial detention in a new case for allegedly joining and financing a terrorist group despite being cut off from the outside world.
Recommended reading: Conflicting Signals: Alaa Abdel Fattah’s Pardon and Ismail El-Iskandarani’s Imprisonment
El Nadeem: 57 Cases of State Violence and Ten Killings in October
El Nadeem Centre for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture issued “Harvest of Oppression in October 2025,” documenting killings, violence, torture and enforced disappearance inside and outside detention.
Its statistical table recorded 57 state violence cases, ten killings, four deaths in detention, nine individual torture cases, sixty individual harassment cases and sixteen collective harassment cases in prisons and detention premises.
It recorded 21 cases of deliberate medical neglect, with basic care absent and hospital transfers refused despite serious conditions.
It also documented fifty new disappearances and 37 reappearances. October’s report continues the monthly series published for years to track state violations in prisons, police stations and raids.
Alarming Rise in Violence inside Egyptian Schools
The Egyptians without Borders for Development Foundation recorded increasing violence and educational crises since the school year began in September 2025. Early incidents included assaults on teachers, sexual harassment, student fights and pupils fleeing schools, raising questions about education-development policy and disciplinary rules.
It documented seven physical assaults on teachers across governorates, sexual harassment and safety threats including collapsing school structures, lack of safe transport and inappropriate conduct by school police.
The report recorded 51 incidents between July and September 2025, 34 in September alone. Attacks on teachers represented 69% and violence against students 31%, with Giza, Qalyubia and Cairo recording the most incidents.
Medicine Shortages and a Failing Automated System Deepen Kidney Patients’ Suffering
Kidney failure patients face overlapping crises: shortages of essential medicines, rising treatment costs and problems implementing the new automated dialysis system. Erythropoietin, used for anaemia, is notably scarce, forcing risky and expensive blood transfusions. Essential medicines including B-complex and L-carnitine have also disappeared, prompting patients to exchange medicines or buy at high prices.
Patient testimonies in Zawia3’s “Kidney Failure Patients in Egypt: A Double Tragedy of Medicine Shortages and Collapsing Care” describe additional problems, including unsuitable or locally manufactured filters. Transport allowances granted by court ruling have stopped, while travel and session costs rise to as much as EGP 900. Patients seek inclusion in the Integrated Services Card and Takaful and Karama pension schemes as a disabling illness.
Nephrology and internal medicine consultant Dr Hamed Ezzat El-Iraqi told Zawia3 that repeated erythropoietin shortages force transfusions despite risks, cost and difficulty finding compatible blood. Shortages relate to imported raw materials rather than brands, although available products are limited to options such as Epotin, Epiao and Recormon.
He also noted shortages of B-complex vitamins and L-carnitine, and sevelamer to lower blood phosphorus, which has been removed from health insurance coverage, adding to financial burdens.
Read the report and details: Medicine Shortages Compound the Suffering of Cancer and Kidney Failure Patients
Parliamentary Questions over Delayed Regulations for Older People’s Rights
A shocking assault on an older man in Suez prompted widespread anger after a video showed a young man violently attacking someone unable to defend himself.
Suez police identified and arrested the suspect. Investigations found an apartment rental dispute had escalated from argument to physical assault.
The following Saturday, MP and Egyptian Social Democratic Party deputy chair Freddy El-Bayady submitted an urgent briefing request to the Prime Minister and Social Solidarity Minister on delayed implementing regulations for Older Persons’ Rights Law No. 10 of 2022, more than two years after enactment.
He said the law was issued on 6 March 2022 and published in the Official Gazette, requiring regulations within six months, but government failure left older people without legislated protection. Parliament had fulfilled its role with provisions for dignity, health, social and psychological care and tougher assault penalties, while the government, he said, showed a lack of executive and political will.
Parliament completed Older Persons’ Rights Care Law No. 19 of 2024 on 4 April of the preceding year, and President El-Sisi ratified it. Rights defenders widely praised unprecedented gains in social, economic, health and psychological rights. The law aims to protect Egyptians aged 65 or older and guarantee comprehensive rights and dignified, safe lives. It also covers resident foreigners subject to reciprocity.
El-Bayady told Zawia3 the regulations should have appeared within six months. The law grants valuable rights and privileges as minimum recognition for older people who served the country, but without regulations remains ink on paper. He said the Suez incident highlights the danger of delay and asked what use laws have if unenforced, and whether older people’s dignity does not merit prompt implementation and accountability.
Recommended reading: Protection or Restrictions? Widespread Criticism of Egypt’s New Asylum Law
Nazlet El-Semman Residents: Pyramids Development Goes over Our Heads
Residents are anxious after a new map indicated demolition of around 4,819 square metres in phase three of development, despite earlier promises to renovate existing homes only. Demolitions cover 54 plots classified as imminent danger and others within widening of the ascending road to Khufu’s pyramid.
The Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, Defence Centre and lawyer Khaled Ali filed lawsuits to stop demolition and temporary acquisition and demand community dialogue. Lawyer Khaled El-Gamal said around a third of Nazlet El-Semman is targeted despite the new pyramids entrance already being developed. He warned of threats to residents’ stability and livelihoods and compensation below true property value. Proceedings remain pending without an official demolition decision yet.
Recommended reading: Nazlet El-Semman Residents: Pyramids Development Goes over Our Heads
Feminist and Rights Solidarity against Repression and Violence
Thirty-five civil society organisations expressed solidarity with three major Palestinian rights organisations after US sanctions: Al-Haq, Al Mezan and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. They called sanctions another attempt to silence independent Palestinian voices and directly target a movement documenting occupation violations and seeking accountability.
The New Woman Foundation expressed solidarity with the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women after authorities suspended its activities for a month, describing continuing restrictions on public space and systematic criminalisation of independent feminism.
The foundation also criticised the prosecution’s argument in the “Suzy the Jordanian” case as exceeding its legal role to impose moral and social guardianship on women, using vague provisions including Cybercrime Law Article 25 to criminalise unconventional online behaviour. It said the argument sought control over women’s bodies and financial conduct, reflecting patriarchal dominance in justice and turning law into a tool of control over women and vulnerable groups.
Rights Groups Condemn Faten Zaki Judgment: Incomplete Justice and a Complicit Law
Nineteen human rights organisations and a political party condemned Tanta Appeals Court’s seven-year sentence for the killer of child Faten Zaki. They saw continued mitigation for violence against women and judicial failure to protect women and girls. Penal Code Articles 17 and 60 contribute to impunity, particularly domestic and gender-based killings. They urged amendments and comprehensive protection mechanisms.
Bint El-Nil Foundation issued a statistical report showing gender differences in killings of minors. Boys were often killed over economic, family or revenge disputes, while girls faced sexual and financial violence. It said girls’ bodies are treated as objects of violation and control, boys as instruments of economic and social conflict, reflecting persistent structural discrimination and systematic violence against women and girls.
Environmental Concerns over Alexandria’s Green Cover
Residents voiced concern after palm removals on Abu Qir Street, following similar work in Roushdy, raising environmental and aesthetic fears, particularly with Alexandria selected as Mediterranean Capital of Culture and Dialogue for 2025. Civil society organisations stressed preserving mature trees and visual identity, including experts and civil society in replacement planting, and ensuring safe mobility and local shade trees to offset environmental loss.
A study by W Al Madina for Human and Social Research highlighted unequal services and infrastructure, declining green cover and shrinking Lake Mariout, alongside coastal inundation, heat islands and conversion of public areas into closed projects. It urged environmental justice in urban planning, access to greenery and beaches for all, sustainable transport and community and academic participation in urban plans.
