The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) condemns the Egyptian authorities’ arbitrary arrest and detention, and enforced disappearance, of satirical cartoonist Ashraf Omar and journalist Khaled Mamdouh for the legitimate exercise of their right to freedom of expression in the course of their work.
البيان باللغة العربية على هذا الرابط
On 22 July 2024, less than one month after Omar published illustrations critical of the Egyptian government’s economic strategy on Al-Manassa media’s website, plain-clothed National Security Agency (NSA) officers raided Omar’s house in the Hadayek October District of Cairo. During the raid, they seized Omar’s iPad, mobile telephone and 80,000 Egyptian Pounds (approximately 1,600 USD) before blindfolding Omar and transferring him to an undisclosed location where he was subjected to enforced disappearance for two days. On 24 July 2024, following a seven-hour interrogation during which Omar was reportedly denied access to legal representation provided by the Journalists’ Syndicate and Al-Manassa media, the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) in Cairo charged him with joining a “terrorist group”, disseminating “false information” and the “misuse” of social media before remanding Omar in pre-trial detention for 15 days.
“The Egyptian authorities’ continued resort to ‘counter-terrorism’ measures and ‘fake news’ laws to arbitrarily arrest, detain and prosecute independent journalists is symptomatic of Egypt’s rampant and enduring crackdown on any form of perceived dissent,” said Saïd Benarbia, ICJ MENA Programme Director. “The Egyptian authorities must immediately release Omar Ashraf and end the prosecution of journalists solely because they are doing their job.”
The Egyptian authorities’ arbitrary arrest and detention of Omar occurred less than one week after plain-clothed officers arbitrarily arrested and forcibly disappeared Al Arabi newspaper journalist Khaled Mamdouh, on 16 July 2024. During the arrest, officers raided Mamdouh’s house in the Mokattam District of Cairo and seized his laptop and mobile telephones. They then transferred him to an unknown location; police officers refused to disclose his whereabouts to Mamdouh’s family for five days. On 21 July 2024, Mamdouh reappeared before the SSSP and was questioned regarding his media work. The SSSP then charged Mamdouh with financing and joining a “terrorist group” as well as spreading “fake news” and remanded him in pre-trial detention for 15 days.
It is not the first time that the Egyptian authorities have arrested and detained journalists working for the Al-Arabi newspaper, previously known as Huffpost Arabi. Journalist Moataz Adnan spent more than three years in pre-trial detention from February 2018 to July 2021 following an interview he conducted with a former Egyptian official, who had criticized the Egyptian authorities’ conduct during the 2018 elections.
Omar and Mamdouh have been victims of egregious human rights violations, contrary to Egypt’s obligations under international human rights law, including the duty to respect, protect and fulfill the right to freedom of expression and media freedom. Omar and Mamdouh’s cases are far from anomalous, with the World Press Freedom Index 2024 denouncing Egypt as “one of the world’s biggest jailors of journalists”.
The ICJ calls on the Egyptian authorities to immediately cease all forms of harassment and persecution of journalists, including through arbitrary arrest, detention and enforced disappearance, and immediately take steps to ensure genuine media pluralism.