Security and digital restrictions on rights
Deleted Lines | Issue 16 | February 2026
Security and digital restrictions on rights
In the sixteenth monthly issue of the “Deleted Lines” newsletter, Zawia3 continues to trace the contours of a human rights landscape in which security restrictions intersect with administrative and technical tools, inside the borders and beyond them. From the seats of the Journalists Syndicate left vacant by their occupants behind bars, to the courtrooms hearing cases connected with union work and wage demands, by way of the file of digital blocking and surveillance technologies, and on to reports documenting 12 years of the narrowing of civic space and patterns of transnational repression, this issue tracks shifts that go beyond individual incidents to reveal the widening scope of restrictions on the public sphere. And while crises of detention and asylum escalate, women’s battles against guardianship are renewed, and the challenges to the right to treatment and to safe housing worsen, fundamental rights appear to be undergoing a prolonged test that raises anew the question of accountability and transparency in more than one file.
1. Press freedom, expression and human rights defenders
Rights and Freedoms
“His Seat Is Empty”: A Syndicate Campaign for the Release of Detained Journalists
The Freedoms Committee of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate launched a campaign under the slogan “His seat is empty… bring him back to his loved ones”, with the aim of securing the release of journalists held in pretrial detention. The campaign, which was announced recently and continues until the end of the month of Ramadan, includes profiles, photographs and messages from the families of the detained journalists, showing the social and humanitarian effects of long periods of detention, including children left to grow up far from their fathers, and wives who live the pain of absence.
In this context, the head of the Journalists Syndicate, Khaled El-Balshy, sent two requests to the Public Prosecutor calling for the release of 17 journalists held in pretrial detention, among them colleagues Mohamed Ibrahim Radwan, known as “Mohamed Oxygen”, and Safaa Mohamed Hassan El-Korbigy, in addition to a review of the situation of 15 other journalists whose periods of pretrial detention have exceeded two years, stressing that their release has become mandatory under Article 54 of the Constitution and Article 204 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, after the legal limit for arrest and detention was exceeded.
According to the Journalists Syndicate, these colleagues pose no flight risk or threat to the investigations, and the renewal of their detention despite the expiry of the legal term places on the authorities the responsibility for an immediate legal and judicial review.
11 Journalists Referred to Trial in the “Wages Protest” Case
On 22 February 2026, the Qasr El-Nil Misdemeanour Court adjourned the first trial session of 9 journalists from the newspaper “Al-Bawaba News” and the two members of the Journalists Syndicate board, Eman Ouf and Mahmoud Kamel, to a session on 22 March, at the request of their defence, in order to review the case file before it is heard.
The journalists and the two board members were referred to trial in Case No. 1084 of 2026 on charges of insulting and defaming the newspaper’s two managers, Abdel Rahim Ali, chairman of the board of “Al-Bawaba News”, and Dalia Abdel Rahim Ali, its editor-in-chief, over their participation in a peaceful protest on the steps of the Journalists Syndicate demanding the payment of overdue salaries and the application of the minimum wage in accordance with the laws and decisions in force.
In a parallel development, Mahmoud El-Batakoshy, one of the journalists included in the case, was also referred to the Economic Court on a charge of insult and defamation through an online page containing demands for the application of the minimum wage, amid criticism from defence representatives over the absence of any clear insulting or defamatory phrases in the content cited as the reason for the referral.
In a joint statement, 20 rights organisations and political parties condemned the referral of the journalists to trial, describing these measures as a “dangerous precedent” that could turn a professional dispute over financial rights into a criminal case aimed at intimidation and legal isolation, and demanded a halt to all judicial prosecutions related to peaceful protest, the payment of overdue financial entitlements, and the application of the minimum wage without discrimination
This referral comes in the context of a collective sit-in by “Al-Bawaba News” journalists that lasted about 56 days from November 2025, in protest at the failure to apply the minimum wage and to pay salaries, before the sit-in was broken up by force and the protest moved to the headquarters of the Journalists Syndicate.
After Questioning over “The Archive of Oppression”: Aida Seif El-Dawla Released on EGP 100,000 Bail
The physician and human rights defender Aida Seif El-Dawla, director of El Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, was questioned before the Supreme State Security Prosecution over the annual report issued by the centre entitled “The Archive of Oppression“, which documented cases of torture and violations inside places of detention during 2025.
The questioning lasted several hours and focused on the content of the report, its methodology and its sources, in the context of accusations relating to publishing news or data liable to harm public security, a formulation of charges that recurs in cases connected with human rights documentation. At the end of the questioning, the prosecution decided to release Seif El-Dawla on financial bail of EGP 100,000, while the investigations in the case continue.
The release on high bail prompted reactions from rights defenders, who considered that the amount of the bail represents a significant financial burden, especially in cases linked to freedom of expression or human rights work, where bail in such cases is not merely a guarantee of attendance but effectively turns into a tool of financial pressure.
This incident comes in a wider context that has seen, over the past two years, release decisions issued in a number of political and human rights cases on high financial bail, ranging in some cases from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of pounds. Rights defenders believe that this trend reflects a shift in the pattern of dealing with cases of a political or human rights nature, as prolonged detention is sometimes replaced with large bail amounts that represent an economic burden on defendants and their families.
Cassation Appeal for the Expert Abdel Khaleq Farouk
On Tuesday 17 February 2026, the human rights lawyer Khaled Ali and the labour leader Kamal Abu Eita, alongside the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, filed the appeal papers before the Court of Cassation in the case registered as No. 4027 of 2025, El-Shorouk Misdemeanours, concerning the politician and economic expert Dr Abdel Khaleq Farouk, after the ruling sentencing him to five years in prison was upheld.
The El-Shorouk Misdemeanour Court had ruled on 4 October 2025 to imprison Farouk for five years, over charges of “spreading false news and data liable to disturb public peace and harm the national interest”, on the basis of articles and posts that addressed general economic policies. On 25 December 2025, the El-Shorouk Misdemeanour Appeals Court upheld the ruling, rejecting the appeal submitted by the defence team.
The step of appealing before the Court of Cassation comes as the last judicial avenue for challenging the ruling, as those filing the appeal are demanding that the ruling be overturned and the case reheard, on the basis of pleas relating to trial procedures and defence guarantees.
Farouk had been arrested at his home on 20 October 2024 and referred for investigation in a Supreme State Security case, and charges were brought against him including broadcasting false news and data, over his publication of more than 40 articles and posts addressing issues related to economic policies and the management of public resources.
Abdel Khaleq Farouk is an economic researcher and writer known for his analyses of political economy and of issues of social justice, public debt and privatisation, and he has written books and studies addressing the structure of the Egyptian economy. He had previously been detained in October 2018 over critical writings, before being released later, which makes his current case an extension of a series of prosecutions linked to his expression of his views on public economic affairs.
Khaled Ali: Political and Economic Conditions Are Worse Than Before January (Interview)
2. Digital privacy and access to information
Between Protection and Breach: How Did Digital Surveillance Tools Turn into a Sovereign Dilemma?
Last December, Egypt’s National Telecom Regulatory Authority warned of advanced cyberattacks targeting smartphones through “zero-day” vulnerabilities and malicious links, in a warning that coincided with reports about commercial spyware such as “Predator”, which belongs to the Intellexa alliance.
The paradox is that rights and technical reports had previously documented the use of this spyware or its equivalents in Egypt to target activists, journalists and opponents, within a wider pattern of deploying sophisticated digital surveillance tools, and international leaks and investigations revealed that some of the developer companies have the capacity for technical access to their clients’ systems, which raises concerns that go beyond the violation of privacy to the possibility of a wider sovereign breach.
Since 2013, the Egyptian authorities have moved to expand the surveillance system by purchasing interception and deep internet traffic inspection (DPI) technologies and device-hacking systems from American, European and Israeli companies, alongside local projects to monitor content and analyse trends in public opinion.
Independent reports point to the use of these tools in blocking hundreds of websites, analysing data traffic, and even targeting individuals with advanced spyware. Meanwhile, legal amendments were introduced allowing the monitoring of communications with judicial permission, while the legislative framework regulating the state’s relationship with technology companies remains contested due to the absence of transparency and independent oversight.
Financially, surveillance contracts often pass through general budget items such as “infrastructure development” and “cybersecurity”, with estimates indicating that millions of dollars have been spent on these systems. However, the danger is not limited to cost or rights, but extends to national security itself, as these programmes rely on undisclosed vulnerabilities and may be linked to foreign suppliers, which creates structural weaknesses within the networks. Thus a fundamental paradox emerges: tools justified as a means of protection may turn, in the absence of transparency and oversight, into a potential gateway for a breach that threatens the sovereignty of the digital space itself.
حين يحذرك من اشتراه: الاتصالات تنبه من برمجيات إسرائيلية دفعت مصر ملايين الدولارات لاستخدامها
After a Year of Blocking: Zawia3 and International Organisations Call on AppLogic to Disclose the Fate of Its Technologies in Egypt
The Zawia3 platform, alongside a number of international press institutions and civil society organisations, submitted a formal demand to AppLogic Networks, calling on it to provide a public and documented disclosure of the extent of its compliance with its pledges relating to withdrawal from the Egyptian market, in light of the continued blocking of independent media websites inside the country, among them the Zawia3 website, despite the company’s announcement that it would end its operations in a number of countries with high human rights risks by 31 December 2025.
The joint letter, addressed to the company’s chief executive, Mark Dredger, and its head of ethics and compliance, Carol Tate, expressed grave concern over what the signatories described as the company’s failure to provide full transparency regarding its withdrawal from Egypt, and its failure to take tangible steps to remedy the harm done to media institutions whose access to the public its technologies were used to restrict, through censorship practices that included blocking websites and interfering with data traffic.
This move comes in the context of the continued targeting of the Zawia3 platform, whose website was blocked inside Egypt in February 2025, before an alternative domain that it had created to circumvent the technical restrictions, in an attempt to ensure continued access to its journalistic content, was later blocked as well. Zawia3 thus joins hundreds of press and media websites blocked inside the country, at a time when the number of blocked websites is estimated at no fewer than 630 so far.
AppLogic Networks had announced, as part of a package of reforms that contributed to its removal from the US Department of Commerce’s Entity List, its commitment to withdraw from Egypt and a number of undemocratic regimes, in response to concerns relating to the misuse of its technologies, foremost among them deep packet inspection technology, in facilitating digital violations that included blocking websites and tracking users.
According to technical research conducted by independent civil society organisations, among them the Egyptian organisation “Masaar”, in cooperation with the Citizen Lab, the company’s technologies were linked over the years to broad patterns of network interference and digital censorship that targeted more than 100 independent news websites and media platforms critical of the Egyptian authorities.
Despite the company’s announcement of its withdrawal, the Egyptian authorities continue to block independent media websites, among them Zawia3, which prompted the signatories to call on the company to clarify whether its technologies are still being used inside the country, especially given the absence of public information about the fate of the equipment or technical infrastructure that it had supplied to the Egyptian market.
The letter also noted that the company’s pledges to hold regular consultations with civil society, including groups recommended by the US State Department, have not translated into actual dialogue with the affected media institutions, foremost among them Zawia3. It pointed out that the efforts of the organisation Access Now to facilitate direct communication between the company and Egyptian civil society organisations and independent media platforms were postponed for several months before being cancelled at the last moment by the company, on the grounds of concerns about the safety of its employees, without offering alternative arrangements.
The letter also raised questions about AppLogic Networks’ pledge to donate 1% of its future profits to support organisations working in the field of internet freedom and remedy for digital violations, as no disclosures or evidence have been published so far indicating that this support has been directed to independent media platforms harmed by the use of its technologies, among them Zawia3 and the Egyptian website “Al-Manassa“.
The signatories stressed that achieving transparency and accountability cannot be limited to press statements, but requires practical, verifiable steps, calling on the company to provide a public disclosure by 26 February 2026 that includes documented evidence of the completion of its full withdrawal from Egypt, details of any remaining equipment or contractual obligations, and its plans for engaging with the affected journalists and media institutions, alongside clarification of the remedy mechanisms it intends to implement, including the announced financial donations.
The letter warned that the absence of these measures could be interpreted as an attempt to improve the company’s public image without making substantive changes, undermining its declared commitments to protecting digital rights and freedom of expression.
AppLogic Networks, formerly known as Sandvine, is one of the most prominent global companies specialising in developing technologies for managing and analysing internet traffic, foremost among them Deep Packet Inspection systems, tools that allow network operators to monitor, analyse and control the data passing through the digital infrastructure. These technologies are originally used for the purposes of network management, improving quality of service and cybersecurity, but international technical and rights reports have documented their use in a number of countries to restrict internet access, block websites and track users, including targeting independent media platforms and critical journalistic content. The company had announced in 2024 a package of reforms that included a commitment to withdraw, by the end of 2025, from a number of environments involving high risks to human rights, among them Egypt, following its earlier inclusion on the US Department of Commerce’s Entity List due to concerns relating to the misuse of its technologies in censorship practices.
On 20 February 2025, Zawia3 announced that its website had been blocked inside Egypt, after repeated difficulties in accessing it were detected via a number of internet service providers, before later technical investigations confirmed that the blocking had been carried out using the “reset attack” technique, a mechanism based on cutting the connection to the website as soon as the user tries to access it, without shutting it down directly, which makes access to it intermittent and unstable.
According to a statement issued by Zawia3 at the time, the blocking actually began on 15 February 2025, as users faced increasing difficulties in accessing the website via different networks, among them the Vodafone network, before it later extended to other providers, with varying degrees of effectiveness.
3. Freedom of belief and minority rights
Minority and Refugee Rights
The “15 May Church Wall” Trial
The Helwan Prosecution referred 18 defendants to trial in Case No. 613 of 2026, over protests that broke out in objection to the removal of a wall erected around land allocated for building a church in the Zohour 15 May area. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, for its part, called for an amicable settlement that takes into account the needs of the area’s Christians and guarantees their right to practise their religious rites.
The facts of the case date back to 3 February, when security forces arrested 58 people, among them women and children, during the implementation of Removal Decision No. 480 of 2025 issued by the 15 May City Authority, on the grounds that the wall encroached on areas surrounding the land allocated for construction. On the same day, 39 people were released without reports being filed against them, while 18 defendants were referred to the prosecution, along with Father Athanasius Rizk, the church’s pastor, who was released at dawn on 4 February after his statements were heard
4. Refugee rights, detention and education
Deaths in Places of Detention and a Refugee Education Crisis
The Refugees Platform revealed the deaths of the Sudanese teenager Al-Nazer Al-Sadiq (Badr Police Centre) and the asylum seeker Mubarak Qamar El-Din (El-Shorouk Police Station) while they were arbitrarily detained.
In a related context, Zawia3 obtained testimonies from relatives of African male and female students studying in Egypt, stating that they had been subjected to security harassment, stops and detention in police stations because their study residence permits had not been renewed, and a Guinean activist reported the detention of three Guinean students in Egypt during this February, namely: Moustapha Camara, Aboubacar Sawaneh and Ibrahim Diallo.
For his part, Abubakar Sissoko, president of the Gambian Students’ Union in Egypt, revealed a broad campaign of stops that affected migrants and foreigners of various African nationalities, including even some holders of official residence permits pending verification of their papers, among them people from Guinea, Nigeria, Benin and Togo, in addition to two young women of European nationalities.
He explained that the male and female students had been held at the Amiriya Police Station before being referred to the Amiriya District Prosecution in Cairo, calling on members of the communities to carry their passports and residence permits at all times, and to present official documents on request, to avoid being stopped.
In another context, thousands of Yemeni students face the risk of losing their academic year due to the complexity of residence procedures.
Recommended reading: Syrian Refugees in Egypt: Deportation and Detention without Warning
5. Property and economic and social rights
Economic and Social Rights
Rights Monitoring: 56 Decisions Expropriating Private Property in 2025, Totalling 492 Feddans
A report published by “Diwan Al-Omran” under the title “In the Name of Public Benefit: 492 Feddans of Private Property under State Decisions” presented a quantitative and analytical survey of the expropriation decisions issued during 2025, based on what was published in the Official Gazette and Al-Waqa’i Al-Misriya.
According to the report, 56 decisions were issued during the year expropriating land and real estate owned by the private sector, with a total area of nearly 2.5 million square metres, equivalent to about 492 feddans. The report focuses on areas that were held as private property, without counting state property or land owned by government bodies, with the aim of measuring the impact of public-benefit decisions on individuals.
The sectoral analysis indicates that road and bridge projects accounted for the largest share of the total expropriated area, at about 51.5%, followed by projects for urban public services, urban development and housing, in addition to other sectors including transport and communications, sanitation, school buildings, hospitals and public garages.
In terms of geographical distribution, Alexandria Governorate topped the list of governorates in terms of expropriated area, followed by Cairo, then Dakahlia, Qalyubia and Giza, while other governorates saw decisions covering smaller areas or for which complete detailed data was not available. The report explains that the last quarter of 2025 recorded the highest pace of expropriation decisions, in terms of both the number of decisions and the size of the areas affected.
Expropriation for public benefit is based on Law No. 10 of 1990 and its amendments, which allows the competent authorities to take possession of the real estate needed to implement projects classified as being of public benefit, in exchange for compensation determined according to legal procedures. “Diwan Al-Omran” stresses that its methodology relied exclusively on published official data, excluding government land, without assessing the feasibility of the projects or the compensation mechanisms.
The report places these figures in a wider context relating to the impact of urban policies and infrastructure projects on private property, given that the right to property represents one of the dimensions connected with the right to housing and spatial stability, amid the continued issuance of expropriation decisions at a notable pace during the year under review.
6. Health, education and safety at home
Spending on Education and Health between the Constitutional Text and Fiscal Reality
At the beginning of 2026, international and local rights reports raised anew questions about the level of public spending on education and health care in Egypt, and the extent of its consistency with constitutional and international obligations. In a report issued in January 2026, Human Rights Watch pointed out that the decline in the purchasing power of social budgets, amid inflation and rising public debt, affects the quality of basic services, including education and health, even when numerical increases in spending items are announced.
The World Bank report issued in January 2026 on Egypt’s economic outlook also addressed the question of the structure of the general budget, pointing to the pressures that rising debt service places on social spending, and the resulting challenges in financing basic sectors. Although the Egyptian Constitution, in its articles relating to education and health, establishes a minimum level of spending as a percentage of gross national product, organisations such as the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms stress that assessing compliance is not limited to calculating percentages, but includes the efficiency of resource allocation and the extent to which it is actually reflected in improving the service.
On education, UNICEF’s report on the situation of children in Egypt for 2025 pointed to continuing challenges relating to class density and geographical disparity in the quality of education, as well as the indirect financial burdens borne by families. Reports by the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) also addressed data on enrolment and dropout rates, reflecting existing gaps in some rural and poor areas.
In the health sector, the World Health Organization’s 2025 regional report on health care financing in the countries of the Middle East highlighted that high out-of-pocket spending by citizens is an indicator of weak financial protection, which intersects with earlier warnings issued by Amnesty International about the impact of economic policies on the availability of health services to the most vulnerable groups. Official data issued by the Ministry of Finance indicate that the debt service item continues to account for a large share of public expenditure, which limits the fiscal space available for expanding social spending.
These reports agree that the right to education and the right to health are not realised merely by being stipulated in the Constitution or included in the budget, but require transparency in presenting data, independent oversight of spending, and a guarantee that fiscal pressures do not lead to a reduction in the quality of services or the transfer of their burden to citizens. With economic reforms and the state’s international obligations continuing, the financing of social rights remains a decisive criterion for measuring the priority of social justice in public policy.
The Right to Treatment: An “Assignment” Crisis and Hope for a “Tissue Bank”
MP Freddy El-Bayadi attacked the Ministry of Health for reducing the assignment quotas for graduates of the medical professions (class of 2023), considering the decision an absence of transparency that threatens the quality of health services.
In a related context, MP Dr Doha Assy submitted a briefing request to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health regarding the suffering of children with disabilities, especially the hard of hearing and cochlear implant recipients, explaining that these children depend entirely on the cochlear device to hear and communicate, while their families bear high costs for spare parts without any government support.
For her part, MP Amira Saber submitted a proposal to establish a “national tissue bank” to provide “skin” for patients with severe burns and reduce the cost of importing it. Despite the issuance of the Law on Organ Transplantation No. 5 of 2010 and its amendments, and the constitutional text that considers donation a “gift of life”, the absence of implementing mechanisms and tissue banks has obstructed its application.
The MP tells Zawia3 that she is currently working on a study measuring the legislative impact of this law and identifying the amendments required to the documentation mechanisms and donation procedures, noting that the absence of a unified national register of donors represents a major obstacle preventing the implementation of donors’ wishes after death or linking them to hospitals. The human rights lawyer Malek Adly agrees with her, telling Zawia3 that the system lacks unified registers of donors and clear mechanisms for managing donation, which reflects a gap between the law and its application.
For its part, the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights described the proposal as a necessary step to close a chronic gap that has affected patients with burns and deformities because of lack of availability and high cost, stressing that the absence of an organised bank deepens inequality in the right to treatment.
إنشاء بنك للأنسجة البشرية والتبرع بالجلد: لماذا تستورد مصر ما يمكن أن يهبه مواطنوها؟
Natural Gas between Expansion and Neglect: How Did the “Silent Killer” Become a Threat inside Homes?
An investigation published by Zawia3 revealed a striking paradox between the rapid expansion of natural gas connections to homes in Egypt since 2014, as a strategic project to reduce reliance on butane gas cylinders, and the escalation of gas leak incidents inside residential units.
By 2025, the number of units connected to gas had reached about 15.5 million, including 572,000 during that year. However, this expansion was not accompanied by an effective system of oversight and maintenance, which has led to repeated incidents in which gas is known as the “silent killer” because of its invisible dangers, in the absence of accurate official statistics on the scale of the problem.
The investigation recorded 113 gas leak incidents between January 2024 and January 2026, resulting in 349 victims, including 116 deaths and 233 injuries, with a notable increase in the number of incidents in 2025 compared with 2024. Giza, Cairo and Beni Suef topped the governorates recording the most incidents, while cases of asphyxiation accounted for the largest share of the harm.
A survey of 110 citizens from 15 governorates also revealed that the majority had not received any periodic maintenance since contracting, in contradiction to what the government announces about applying safety standards, reflecting a gap between declared policies and the reality on the ground.
The investigation highlights additional shortcomings, including a slow response at times and the existence of informal practices by some workers who carry out installation or maintenance work outside the approved channels, which multiplies the risks.
MPs, legal experts and safety specialists believe that liability may be civil or criminal depending on each case, and that the absence of periodic maintenance and oversight constitutes a breach of legal obligations and infringes the right to safe housing.
الغاز الطبيعي في ملايين المنازل: إنجاز يوصل الخدمة وإخفاق يحصد الأرواح
7. Women’s rights and economic equality
Gender Issues
An Important International Report on the Gap in Implementing Women’s Economic Rights
The World Bank published a global report on the gap between legislation on gender equality and its actual implementation, noting that many countries, among them countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, have legal frameworks that recognise women’s economic rights, but lack effective implementation mechanisms that ensure these texts are turned into tangible reality. The report pointed to continuing wide gaps in women’s participation in the labour market, their access to social protection, and their use of care services, stressing that the challenge is no longer only in issuing laws, but in providing an institutional environment that enables women to actually access economic opportunities, finance and protection from discrimination. This argument acquires particular importance in the Egyptian context, where women’s economic participation still hovers around low rates compared with men, amid an interplay of social, legislative and market factors affecting women’s economic empowerment.
“Single Women Not Allowed”: A Battle against Hotel Guardianship
Feminist organisations launched a campaign, “Single Women Not Allowed”, in solidarity with the journalist Alaa Saad, whose booking at a hotel in Port Said was refused on the pretext that women staying on their own is “prohibited”. The statement considered this a violation of the Constitution (Articles 45 and 53) and of the Tourist Establishments Law, and a legal guardianship that reproduces images of women as minors.
On the “Feminisation of Poverty” and Unpaid Work
A research paper entitled “Unpaid Work” revealed a sharp gap: women’s economic participation stands at only 17.5%, while women bear the largest share of domestic and care work.
In a related context, feminist organisations called for the establishment of an “Anti-Discrimination Commission” as a missing constitutional entitlement, to confront rising violence and hate speech against women.
Recommended reading: From the Field to the Margins: How Are Agricultural Policies in Egypt Re-feminising Poverty?
