Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered the release of trade unionist and Teachers’ Independence Movement founder Mohamed Zahran on Monday, 19 October 2026, pending investigations in Case 5773 of 2026. The decision followed more than three months in detention and family appeals concerning his deteriorating health and need for continuing care and assistance.
Lawyer Tarek El-Awady announced the decision, saying Zahran’s condition required someone to look after him permanently and that he needed family support of a kind detention conditions could not adequately provide. Separate reporting also cited an announcement of his release order by Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights lawyer Hazem Salah El-Din.
The announcement came days after his family published an appeal on his Facebook account, asking President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to intervene to secure his release. The family identified his place of detention as 10th of Ramadan Rehabilitation 6 prison. They said his health prevented him from looking after himself and that, as he approached retirement age, he needed additional care and assistance.
The family said their request was to enable them to care for him outside prison, while also stating that the prison administration had not failed to provide healthcare. The published information did not include a detailed medical diagnosis or a report identifying his illness. Descriptions of his condition therefore remain based on statements by his family and lawyers, without establishing diseases or complications they have not disclosed.
The current case dates back to July. The Committee for Justice documented Zahran’s arrest at his home on the evening of 15 July 2026 and his appearance before the Supreme State Security Prosecution the next day. Prosecutors initially ordered 15 days of pretrial detention, which was subsequently renewed.
The reported accusations included publishing false news, statements and rumours, and using a social media account to promote a terrorist offence. These are accusations under investigation, rather than convictions. The defence account connects the questioning to posts about Zahran’s union activity and what he described as the personal damage caused by repeated legal proceedings.
In details released on 16 July, lawyer Khaled Ali said questioning focused on two posts. In the first, Zahran invited teachers to meet to discuss implementing court rulings concerning their union’s elections. The second questioned the intense public interest in football matches compared with the limited attention paid to what he described as the injustice he faced.
That second post also addressed the cases brought against him and their economic and social consequences. Ali said Zahran told investigators he had selected a Saturday for the meeting, but had not specified a location or time while awaiting security approval. He intended to announce the remaining arrangements once approval was obtained.
The defence account said he wanted the meeting to take place peacefully and to avoid attempts to disrupt it or harm participants. As Zahran explained the invitation to investigators, it concerned discussion of implementing rulings relating to union activity and teachers’ elections.
This was not Zahran’s first appearance before State Security prosecutors. On 25 March 2026, he was granted release on EGP 10,000 bail in Case 1813 of 2026. That was a separate case from the proceedings in which his release was ordered on Monday.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights documented the earlier proceedings, saying three teachers had filed complaints over his Facebook posts. Questioning lasted around five hours and addressed his union work and legal steps he had taken. Zahran and his lawyers submitted ten files of documents relating to his union activity.
EIPR also recorded earlier investigations and detention in Cases 880 of 2020 and 2123 of 2023, followed by release. Those proceedings do not establish that he was convicted in the incidents described, nor do the conditions attached to an earlier release order establish the conditions of Monday’s decision.
In September 2023, Zahran was summoned to National Security premises in Abbasiya on the fifth of the month after announcing his participation in an event the Conservative Party planned to host for Egyptian Teachers’ Day. He appeared before State Security prosecutors on 6 September and was granted release on the evening of 16 September. EIPR linked that episode to his advocacy for teachers’ rights and union elections, calling at the time for the case and charges to be dropped.
During the March 2026 investigation, EIPR said prosecutors also questioned him about more than 15 years of union activity and the intended meaning of posts on his personal account. Investigators told him complaints accused him of stirring disorder and attacking the union and state institutions. He and his lawyers submitted documents to establish the nature of his union work. These episodes show that proceedings concerning his posts and professional activity span several years and separate cases, each with its own number, dates and procedures.
Zahran became known among teachers for demanding union independence and elections. An earlier EIPR statement documented his participation as an expert in the National Dialogue’s education committee and his founding of the Independent National Union of Egyptian Teachers, alongside his continuing advocacy for professional and union rights.
His public activity has also included a parliamentary bid. He stood independently for Cairo’s Matariya constituency in the 2025 House of Representatives elections, reached the runoff and lost, before challenging the result before the Court of Cassation. Zahran works as an Arabic-language teacher at Cairo’s Education Directorate with the rank of senior teacher and became known in media coverage as the “candidate of the poor”. This background does not make the election appeal the subject of the current case, which the defence linked to his posts and union activity.
Image: EIPR archive; grayscale visual treatment and reframing. Available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
