Limited releases and continuing prosecutions
Limited releases and continuing prosecutions
This April saw a continuation of the paradox that has come to govern the human rights landscape in Egypt, between limited steps suggesting a partial easing and, set against them, a continuing expansion of the tools of administrative and judicial repression and a widening of the social crises linked to justice, discrimination and protection. At a time when a number of pretrial detainees were released after years of detention, other political and human rights figures returned to the circles of accusation and detention, while rights reports continued to monitor violations inside places of detention, and decisions restricting freedom of the press and of expression recurred.
On another level, files came to the fore relating to the rights of women and children, crises of alimony and personal status, and rising domestic violence, alongside the conditions of workers and pensions, and the violations affecting Sudanese refugees.
1. Personal liberty and detention conditions
Limited Releases, and Doors of Detention That Do Not Close
The Public Prosecution released a number of pretrial detainees in cases of a political nature, among them Nermin Hussein after six years in pretrial detention, Sherif El-Rouby, the former spokesperson of the April 6 Movement, and Ahmed Orabi, one of those injured in the January revolution, in addition to a number of others detained over political posts or solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
But this scene did not last long, as the Second Terrorism Circuit of the Cairo Criminal Court renewed the detention of the labour leader Shady Mohamed and five others for 45 days pending the case known in the media as the “Banner in Support of Palestine” case, reflecting the persistence of the pattern based on selective release without any real closure of the pretrial detention file.
In this context, the “Committee for the Defence of Prisoners of Conscience” submitted an official memorandum to the Public Prosecutor, in which it called for the immediate and comprehensive release of all those detained in political cases, and an end to what it described as the use of pretrial detention as an extended punishment outside the framework of the law.
Likewise, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights renewed its demand for the implementation of the Public Prosecutor’s directives on reviewing the situation of pretrial detainees, considering that any serious assessment of the recent releases remains incomplete in the absence of guarantees preventing those released from being detained again pending new cases.
A Seventh Case Returns Ahmed Douma to “Pretrial Detention”
In this context, the name of the writer and politician Ahmed Douma returned to the forefront of the scene: the Supreme State Security Prosecution in Cairo decided on Monday to refer Douma to the New Cairo Misdemeanour Court, and the prosecution brought charges against Douma relating to spreading false news, data and rumours inside and outside the country, liable to…, which came over a post and an article he published on the “Al-Araby Al-Jadeed” website, according to what was reported by the human rights lawyer Khaled Ali, a member of the defendant’s defence team.
For her part, the lawyer Mahienour El-Massry, a member of Douma’s defence team, tells Zawia3 that the decision to refer him to trial came quickly, in a case that relied on complaints submitted by citizens and is classified among publishing cases, and that it represents a new link in a chain of similar cases, such as the case of Dr Abdel Khaleq Farouk, in which a five-year prison sentence was issued at first instance and on appeal.
She considers that this comes within the framework of a continuing message that there is no freedom of opinion and that no one will be allowed to criticise any performance, whether criticism of the state’s economic performance, as in Farouk’s case, or of security performance, as in Douma’s case.
Mahienour explains that the defence team is still waiting for the first trial session, scheduled to be held on Wednesday, to review the details of the case, noting that the team has not, so far, seen the content of the complaints submitted against Douma, on the basis of which he was summoned, then questioned and arrested, and pointing out that, despite the referral, the investigations have not yet been fully completed.
Mahienour explains that the investigation with Douma was based on Articles 80 (d) and 102 bis of the Penal Code, which relate to spreading false news, data or rumours liable to harm the public interest or disturb public security.
The Supreme State Security Prosecution had decided to detain him for four days pending Case No. 2449 of 2026, following a six-hour interrogation at the beginning of April, and brought charges against him of spreading false news and data.
This case is the seventh in which Douma has been investigated since a presidential pardon was issued for him in August 2023, after he had spent ten years in prison.
Sayed Moshagheb: Six Hours of Freedom
In another incident that reflected the fragility of the boundary between release and detention, security forces re-arrested Sayed Moshagheb, one of the founders of the Zamalek supporters’ association “White Knights”, only about six hours after he reached his home following his release, after nearly 11 years spent in detention pending various cases.
The Ministry of Interior said it had detected videos showing a number of people gathering in the Bulaq El-Dakrour area and setting off fireworks in celebration of his release.
However, his lawyer Osama El-Gohary stressed that the gathering was spontaneous and peaceful and took place within the area where he lives, and that the arrest report contained an account contrary to the facts, calling for an investigation into the circumstances of his re-arrest.
Recommended reading: Sayed Moshagheb Re-detained 6 Hours after His Release
589 Violations in Three Months
In parallel with these developments, El Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture issued its periodic report, “The Archive of Oppression”, for the first quarter of 2026, documenting 589 cases linked to various violations.
“Individual harassment” topped the list with 178 cases, followed by enforced disappearance with 79 cases, then 69 cases of reappearance after disappearance, 68 cases of violence attributed to state bodies, 55 cases of “recycling”, and 51 cases of medical neglect.
The report also recorded 46 cases of collective harassment, 22 cases of individual torture, 18 deaths inside places of detention, and 3 killings.
The report included a description of patterns of physical and psychological violations, among them electric shocks, severe beatings, dragging, permanent shackling, threats of rape, and forcing detainees to watch others being tortured, in addition to detention in inhumane conditions.
With regard to women, the report pointed to testimonies that included female detainees being stripped of their clothes and left to sleep directly on the floor without covers in conditions of severe cold, alongside the complete confiscation of their personal belongings.
The report also documented cases of criminal elements being used inside places of detention, reportedly with the approval or connivance of prison administrations, to set criminal prisoners on other detainees to assault them. It pointed out that severe verbal insults and detention in inhumane places represent, according to its description, recurring features in the patterns of “daily harassment”, which worsens the health and psychological condition of detainees.
According to the report, these incidents do not reflect individual abuses, but point to a continuing pattern of absence of oversight and accountability inside places of detention.
Investigation Shelved into El-Baz’s Statements on the Case of Mostafa El-Nagar
The campaign “Stop Enforced Disappearance” expressed its dismay at the decision to shelve the complaint submitted by the family of former MP Mostafa El-Nagar concerning statements attributed to the journalist Mohamed El-Baz about his “killing” on the Egyptian-Sudanese border, describing the decision as “a waste of justice”.
The campaign explained that El-Nagar’s family had submitted a complaint to the Aswan Prosecution on 28 January 2026 calling for an investigation into the controversial public statements, in which the said journalist stated that he had information about El-Nagar’s killing, and that a decision to shelve it was issued on 11 February 2026, about two weeks after it was submitted, without summoning those who filed the complaint or taking any substantive investigative measures, according to the campaign’s statement.
El-Nagar’s case dates back to 28 September 2018, when contact with him was lost while he was in Aswan Governorate, amid conflicting information about his fate, while his family and lawyers stress that they have submitted several complaints and taken legal actions, among them a court ruling obliging the relevant authorities to disclose the place of his detention, which has not been implemented so far.
2. Freedom of belief and equal citizenship
The Crisis of Freedom of Belief: Baha’i Marriage outside Legal Recognition
The Court of Cassation refused to recognise marriage for followers of the Baha’i faith, and overturned an earlier ruling that had recognised the marital relationship between a Baha’i couple; the ruling brought back to the fore a long-running crisis relating to the denial to Baha’is of legal recognition of their families.
Marina Samir, a researcher on freedom of religion and belief at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, explains that the recent Court of Cassation ruling not recognising marriage between Baha’i citizens comes within a long series of legal and administrative problems faced by Baha’is in Egypt, especially with regard to proving marriage and the family and civil rights that follow from it.
She points out, speaking to Zawia3, that the beginning of this path dates back to the ruling issued in 2009 to enter a dash in the religion field of the identity card, which opened the door to later problems linked to documenting marriage and proving family relationships, in the absence of a regulating legal framework that recognises these marriages or sets out their legal effects.
She adds that the current dispute began with a lawsuit filed by a Baha’i couple to establish the marital relationship as a legal acknowledgement of an existing reality, but the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Justice and the head of the Civil Status Authority appealed against the ruling, before the matter ended with the Court of Cassation issuing a ruling overturning it on the basis of considerations relating to public order.
Marina believes that the continued refusal to legally recognise Baha’i marriages creates a chain of daily repercussions, including difficulties in inheritance, pensions, insurance, registering children in schools and dealing with banks, in addition to restrictions relating to residence and nationality.
She stresses that these conditions affect not only the right to form a family, but extend to various aspects of social life, in the absence of any clear regulatory mechanism, despite proposals having been put forward, such as appointing a delegated notary to document marriage contracts, without any response so far.
She considers that the continuation of this legislative and administrative vacuum subjects Baha’is to daily suffering and pushes some of them to think about leaving the country, adding that guaranteeing their basic rights as citizens remains an obligation on the state, foremost among them the right to recognition of the family and its legal regulation in a way that ensures the protection of the rights of spouses and children.
Between Law and Practice: How Egypt Restricts Freedom of Belief
3. Trade unions and professional protest
Doctors and Unionists: From Professional Dispute to State Security
April saw a notable escalation in the crisis of the doctors detained over their objection to the reduction of the mandatory assignment system for graduates of medical faculties, and public figures, parties and human rights organisations called for the release of three of the doctors and pharmacists detained in Case No. 945 of 2026.
The file gained additional momentum after the doctor Mohamed Osama, who is held in pretrial detention, won thousands of votes in the mid-term elections of the Dental Syndicate, in a vote regarded as a message of solidarity from his colleagues and a rejection of his continued detention.
The prosecution renewed the detention of three defendants, dentists and pharmacists, at a session held today, Sunday 19 April, namely: Dr Mohamed Osama El-Sayed from Mansoura, Dr Mostafa Mahmoud Orabi from Damietta, representative of the class of 2023 at the General Syndicate of Dentists, and Dr Ehab Sameh Abdel Malek, a pharmacist from Zagazig. Observers believe that referring professional and union disputes to State Security cases has become a recurring feature in the management of social disputes.
4. Press freedom and digital rights
The Press under Blocking, and Digital Pursuit
On the level of press freedom and freedom of expression, a report by the organisation “Access Now”, entitled “Spying for the Purposes of Repression”, revealed a hacking campaign that targeted journalists and critics of the Egyptian government, among them the journalist Mostafa Al-Aassar and the politician Ahmed Tantawi.
The report indicated that the attacks were carried out through phishing messages that appeared to come from trusted parties, with the aim of stealing personal and financial data, during the period from 2023 to 2024.
An investigation published by Zawia3 had revealed the expanding use of sophisticated digital spying companies and technologies in tracking journalists and opponents inside and outside Egypt, among them software capable of hacking phones and spying on communications and sensitive data without the users’ knowledge.
The investigation indicates that this system is not limited to foreign tools such as Israeli and European hacking programmes, but extends to a wider surveillance structure that includes government contracts and official projects allowing the analysis of user data and the monitoring of digital content under the cover of “securing networks” and “developing the technological infrastructure”.
The investigation highlighted that these tools were used to target media and human rights voices, which raises growing concerns about the widening scope of digital surveillance and the decline in the protection of privacy and freedom of expression in the digital public sphere.
حين يحذرك من اشتراه: الاتصالات تنبه من برمجيات إسرائيلية دفعت مصر ملايين الدولارات لاستخدامها
At home, the Supreme Council for Media Regulation continued its blocking policy, as it decided to block the website “Egyptki”, on the grounds of failure to meet licensing conditions and publishing news liable to destabilise the markets.
The Egyptian Observatory for Journalism and Media considered that the decision raises legal and professional questions, as it did not include the material or facts constituting the violation, which does not allow independent verification or objective review.
On the other hand, the month saw a judicial victory for the journalists of “Al-Bawaba News”, after the Qasr El-Nil Misdemeanour Court acquitted 9 of the institution’s journalists, along with the two members of the Journalists Syndicate board, Eman Ouf and Mahmoud Kamel, of charges of insult and defamation over labour protests.
A labour court also issued a ruling fining the chairman of the institution’s board EGP 3,341,000 in favour of 257 journalists, for refusing to apply the minimum wage.
On the crisis, the journalist Afaf Hamdy tells Zawia3 that it began on 17 November last year, when a number of male and female journalists began an open-ended sit-in inside the institution’s headquarters in protest at their conditions, but the management refused to enter into any negotiations or respond to any proposals from the syndicate aimed at reaching satisfactory solutions to the crisis, justifying this by the existence of “financial difficulties”, and hinted at the possibility of liquidating the institution.
She explains that the crisis escalated last January, after the management broke up the sit-in by force with the help of private security personnel, which prompted them to move their protests to the headquarters of the Journalists Syndicate.
5. Women, family and protection from discrimination
The Personal Status Law: A Postponed Battle
On the family file, a draft law submitted by the Al-Adl Party provoked a wave of anger after it included an article stipulating that custody ends when the boy or girl reaches the age of nine.
The draft included granting the father an advanced position in the order of custody, and the right of the non-custodial party to host the child for 24 hours a week.
Feminist organisations considered the proposal a retreat from previous legal gains, and a bias towards the conflicts of adults at the expense of the best interests of the child.
Meanwhile, the Free Egyptians Party announced that it had begun putting forward the draft of a law on protecting the rights of children and guaranteeing family stability for societal dialogue, with the aim of receiving proposals before the final drafting.
The draft aims to integrate data on custody, visitation, alimony, education and travel, and to link them to income and salaries in order to ensure transparency and speed up litigation and enforcement procedures, while limiting manipulation.
The draft includes the creation of a “family register” as a unified digital system linking the data of the family and the child, including court rulings, enforcement procedures and financial obligations, with a family number assigned to each family, beginning with the marriage contract and extending through the various stages of life.
This came a few days after President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi directed the government to speed up the submission of draft laws relating to the Egyptian family and their referral to parliament.
Meanwhile, a report issued by the New Woman Foundation, entitled “The Draft Personal Status Law: Where To?”, criticised the lack of sufficient transparency and the continued handling of the file without an effective societal dialogue including the various parties, despite the sensitivity of the law and its direct impact on the structure of the family, stressing that reform of the personal status law must start from a comprehensive approach that takes justice and equality into account and is based on a genuine societal debate, instead of settling for formal tracks that do not address the roots of the crisis.
For her part, Nevine Ebeid, executive director of the New Woman Foundation, does not separate the proposals in circulation to lower the custody age for children from the wider economic and social context, considering that the acute economic crisis plays a major role in reshaping the balance of power within the family, which is reflected in rising disputes over custody, alimony and housing.
She tells Zawia3: “Living pressures, rising rates of impoverishment and the shrinking umbrella of social protection have pushed some fathers to demand a reduction in the custody age as a means of recovering the custody home and easing their financial burdens, but these motives are not linked to the interest of the child, but to economic conflicts within the family.”
She believes that the absence of a comprehensive legislative reform of the personal status law, and settling for partial amendments, have contributed to worsening the crisis and opened the way for the rise of a conservative discourse that detracts from the gains of women and the family.
She criticises the state’s hesitation in putting forward an integrated personal status law subject to broad societal dialogue, pointing out that the lack of transparency in discussing these laws increases the intensity of societal polarisation, and noting that the principle of the best interests of the child, despite being in circulation for years, has not actually been translated into clear policies, whether with regard to alimony cases, facilitating guardianship procedures or improving the conditions of custodians.
Women between Guardianship and Violence
April also saw measures and discussions that brought the file of women’s rights back to the fore: the Ministry of Labour issued binding decisions to labour recruitment companies banning the travel and employment of Egyptian women in a number of professions abroad, among them domestic work, cooking and home nursing.
Human rights bodies considered that the decision imposes guardianship on women in the name of protection, and restricts their right to work and freedom of movement, instead of developing real mechanisms to confront exploitation.
On the other hand, the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled unconstitutional an earlier decision that granted female workers only half the share of men in the allocation of ownership of reclaimed land, considering that this constitutes discrimination contrary to the Constitution.
As for violence against women, a report by the “Baraah Aman” Foundation revealed that it had recorded 5,338 crimes of violence against women in the private sphere between 2018 and 2024, among them 1,823 crimes of physical violence, 256 cases of economic violence and 170 crimes of a sexual or reproductive nature.
The report pointed to an escalation in killings motivated by rejection, divorce or separation, and rising rates of economic and psychological control within the family.
The debate also escalated over the right of rape victims to safe abortion, after an incident in which two underage sisters in Menoufia were subjected to repeated assaults by their uncle, which resulted in pregnancy, sparking a debate over the criminalisation of abortion even in cases of rape.
At the same time, feminist activists and civil society organisations defending women’s rights launched a hashtag entitled: (Safe_abortion_for_girls_in_rape_crimes), while the Cairo Foundation for Development and Law considered that forcing a girl child to continue a pregnancy resulting from rape constitutes a double violation of her rights, calling for guaranteed access to safe abortion services as a right linked to life, health and dignity.
A Mother’s Suicide
The suicide of a young mother in Alexandria shed light on the alimony crisis in Egypt, after rights organisations linked the incident to the complexities of enforcing rulings and the weak economic and social protection of women breadwinners.
The Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights pointed out that the maximum alimony paid through Nasser Social Bank has remained at EGP 500 since 2004, an amount that has lost almost all its value in the face of waves of inflation.
Feminist organisations called for an urgent reform of the system, including faster enforcement of rulings, raising the minimum alimony, and providing sustainable psychological and social support for women in family disputes.
For its part, the Cairo Foundation for Development and Law warned of the compound pressures faced by women breadwinners, stressing that the overlap of economic burdens with legal complexities and weak social protection may push some of them to collapse, and pointing to a gap between the issuance of alimony rulings and their actual enforcement.
Meanwhile, the Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance stressed that the suicide of a young mother in Alexandria reveals a structural failure in the personal status system, and is not an isolated individual incident, pointing to the accumulated economic, legal and social pressures, especially the faltering enforcement of alimony rulings and the absence of effective protection mechanisms in custody and housing cases.
This April, the Public Prosecution placed those refusing to pay alimony on the travel ban and arrival watch lists, while the Cairo Foundation for Development and Law called for guaranteeing the right to object and appeal effectively and quickly, ensuring the accuracy of listing procedures and reviewing them periodically, as well as taking into account humanitarian cases and exceptional economic circumstances.
Recommended reading: Alimony in Exchange for Services: Is the State Pushing Fathers to Pay or Pushing Them out of the Labour Market?
Prison and a Fine for a Port Said Hotel Manager in the Case of Discrimination against a Journalist and Preventing Her from Staying on Her Own
The East Misdemeanour Appeals Court ruled, on 27 April, to sentence in absentia the administration manager of the Utopia El-Safwa hotel in Port Said to one year in prison and a fine of EGP 50,000 on the charge against him in the incident of discrimination against the victim, Alaa Saad, and preventing her from staying in a “single women” room, after it overturned the ruling issued at first instance on 3 March.
The case dates back to last January, when the journalist Alaa Saad was prevented from renting a room in the hotel because she was a woman on her own, a measure that is one of the forms of discrimination against women aimed at imposing social and moral guardianship and detracting from their right to legal capacity and full guardianship.
6. Work, pensions and occupational safety
Workers: Stalled Pensions and Rising Accidents
The insurance office in Port Said witnessed an acute crisis that disrupted the disbursement of the entitlements of some retirees, halted since December 2025, affecting thousands of families, while the shutdown of the “SAIO” system before its replacement was ready disrupted the registration and disbursement of pensions and the issuing of documents, harming groups such as drivers and fishermen, despite about EGP 1.3 billion having been spent on developing the system and contracting for the “CRM” programme, according to a briefing request submitted by MP Ahmed Farghaly, a member of the Economic Committee of the House of Representatives.
On occupational safety, the Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services revealed a notable increase in the number of accidents faced by workers: 49 accidents were recorded in the first quarter of 2025, resulting in 356 victims, including 43 deaths among adults and one child, in addition to 298 injured, among them 14 children, while in the same period of 2026, the number of accidents rose to 70, with a total of 358 victims, including 44 deaths among adults and 3 children, alongside 294 injured, among them 17 children, raising questions about the effectiveness of safety measures and stressing the need for urgent interventions to limit the recurrence of these incidents.
7. Refugee rights and protection from deportation
Sudanese Refugees: Detention, Deportation and a Fifth Death
The file of Sudanese refugees continued to dominate the scene, after the “Refugees Platform in Egypt” announced the death of the Sudanese asylum seeker Rashid Mohamed Abbas following a period of detention, in the context of a broad security campaign that has targeted refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in Egypt in recent months, and has escalated markedly since the beginning of this year.
According to the platform, this incident is the fifth death of its kind in recent months, and it expressed concern over the deteriorating conditions of protection for refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt and the conditions of detainees, calling for a serious pause to investigate its circumstances and ensure it is not repeated.
Rights organisations also documented the forced deportation of the Sudanese writer and novelist Idris Ali Babiker to Sudan, despite his holding asylum documents, after a detention that lasted about 50 days in harsh conditions.
The organisations stated in their statement that the testimonies given by the writer reveal that he was subjected to harsh and inhumane conditions of detention, including deliberate starvation, financial extortion and being forced to pay the costs of his stay inside the place of detention, as well as the deterioration of his health as a result of the spread of insects such as lice, cockroaches and mosquitoes, in an environment lacking the most basic standards of hygiene and health care.
On the other hand, the platform praised the Egyptian authorities for facilitating the hosting of the Sudanese secondary school certificate examinations, but called for a halt to the campaigns of stops and the release of detained students.
Recommended reading: From Deportation to Hate Speech: How Did Refugees Become a Target of Digital Campaigns in Egypt?
8. Heritage and the right to the city
Alexandria: Development That Devours Memory
The demolition of the Bulkeley tram station, which is more than 160 years old, as part of the works to develop the Raml tram in Alexandria, provoked widespread criticism, while a report by Zawia3, entitled “In Alexandria: The Tram Substitute Falters Financially and Its Drivers Have Been Waiting for Their Dues for Two Months”, revealed the faltering operation of the alternative transport system and delays in paying the financial dues of workers and vehicle owners, amid fears that Alexandria could face a state of complete traffic paralysis.
Following this, MP Dr Ahmed Alaa Fayed, a member of the House of Representatives for the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, submitted a briefing request addressed to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Transport and the Minister of Local Development, regarding: the faltering of the alternative transport system for the Raml tram in Alexandria, suspicions of the squandering of public funds, and the risks of traffic paralysis resulting from halting the tram before the alternative was ready.
He called on the government to clarify the position of the current alternative transport system and the extent of its actual readiness to cover citizens’ needs after the reduction of tram services, to intervene urgently to pay all overdue dues to drivers, vehicle owners and workers on the project, and to halt any further demolition of historic tram stations until the legal position has been fully reviewed, in addition to opening a comprehensive investigation into what has been raised about scrapping and sales operations and ensuring the protection of public funds.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms denounced the cutting of trees around the stations of Alexandria’s historic tram, considering that this comes within a broader course of reducing green spaces. A petition launched by the Commission pointed out that removing the tram and replacing it with more polluting means of transport, in parallel with cutting down trees, will lead to worsening pollution, especially in a city threatened by the repercussions of climate change, considering this a violation of the constitutional obligations to protect the environment.
9. Children’s rights and protection from violence
Children between Violence and Punishment
On the childhood file, the “Malaz” Foundation issued its quarterly report, documenting 47 cases of violence against children during the first three months of 2026, divided between physical assaults, sexual violations, exploitation and killing. Meanwhile, another report issued by the Bint El-Nil Foundation recorded 662 crimes of domestic violence against minors between 2022 and 2025.
On the other hand, a parliamentary draft law provoked widespread controversy after it proposed lowering the age of criminal responsibility for children to 10 years, and raising the maximum term of aggravated imprisonment to 20 years for some crimes.
This contradicts the philosophy of the Egyptian Child Law and the principles of the international Convention on the Rights of the Child, as the existing legal framework sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, with a gradation in criminal treatment that takes age differences into account and focuses on rehabilitation, not punishment, as the lawyer Ahmed Moselhy, head of the Child Defence Network, stresses to Zawia3.
He warns of the danger of imposing harsh penalties on children, such as imprisonment for terms that may reach 20 years, which would produce criminals instead of reintegrating them into society, especially given that their psychological and mental maturity is incomplete, pointing to a conflict with the principles of the Civil Code, which considers those under the age of majority to be of incomplete discernment, which raises legal problems in holding them criminally accountable in this way.
