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Annual Human Rights report for Egypt, 2022

Authorities severely repressed the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. In the lead-up to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in November, authorities released 895 prisoners held for political reasons but arrested nearly triple that number, including hundreds linked to calls for protests during COP27. Thousands of actual or perceived government critics or opponents remained arbitrarily detained and/or unjustly prosecuted. No adequate investigations were carried out into at least 50 suspicious deaths in custody involving reports of denial of adequate healthcare or torture.

Death sentences were handed down after grossly unfair trials and executions were carried out. Sexual and gender-based violence remained prevalent, amid the authorities’ failure to adequately prevent and punish it. Authorities repressed workers’ right to strike, and failed to protect them from unfair dismissal by companies.

Residents of informal settlements were forcibly evicted and detained for protesting against home demolitions. Authorities prosecuted Christians demanding their right to worship and others espousing religious beliefs not sanctioned by the state. Refugees and migrants were arbitrarily detained for irregularly entering or staying in Egypt, and dozens were forcibly returned to their home country.

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EXECUTIONS ACROSS MIDDLE EAST SKYROCKET

Recorded executions in 2022 reached the highest figure in five years, with the Middle East and North Africa’s most notorious executioners leading the way by carrying out killing sprees, Amnesty International said in an annual report.

The number of executions recorded by Amnesty International in the Middle East and North Africa region increased significantly by 59% from 520 in 2021 to 825 in 2022; and recorded death sentences decreased slightly from 834 in 2021 to 827 in 2022. 

“Countries in the Middle East and North Africa region violated international law as they ramped up executions in 2022, revealing a callous disregard for human life. The number of individuals deprived of their lives rose dramatically across the region; Saudi Arabia executed a staggering 81 people in a single day. Most recently, in a desperate attempt to end the popular uprising, Iran executed people simply for exercising their right to protest,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

Ninty percent of the world’s known executions outside China were carried out by just three countries in the region. Recorded executions in Iran soared from 314 in 2021 to 576 in 2022; figures tripled in Saudi Arabia, from 65 in 2021 to 196 in 2022 — the highest recorded by Amnesty in 30 years — while Egypt executed 24 individuals. Executions in Egypt are also closely tied to other human rights violations, such as torture and unfair trials.

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prison authorities continue to target human rights defenders fattah and baker

The Egyptian authorities have subjected Egyptian-British prominent activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and human rights defender and lawyer Mohamed Baker to a litany of human rights violations since their arrests on September 29, 2019, including arbitrary detention, unfair trial, torture and other ill-treatment, and periodic bans on family visits.

In their latest attack on prisoners, authorities in Badr 1 prison stripped, beat and otherwise abused Mohamed Baker when he reportedly tried to intervene to stop the beating of another prisoner on April 10 and subsequently placed him in solitary confinement. Authorities also arrested Neama Hisham, Mohamed Baker’s wife, on April 17 and took her to an undisclosed location, after she reported on his assault. She was released later in the day.

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tortured son of opposition figure held incommunicado

Anas al-Beltagy, who has been arbitrarily detained for over nine years solely because of his family links, is being held in incommunicado in the Badr Prison Complex, some 70 km east of Cairo, and is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment. He has been denied any visits and other contact with his family for over six years.

Since his arrest in December 2013, Egyptian authorities have subjected Anas al-Beltagy to a litany of violations including enforced disappearance and torture. Concerns for his wellbeing and physical and mental health have mounted in recent weeks amid alarming reports emerging from the Badr Prison Complex about prisoner suicides and hunger strikes in protest at their conditions.

He is the son of detained prominent Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed al-Beltagy.

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NEW JERSEY, USA – JULY 30: Mohamed Soltan, an Egyptian-American human rights Advocate who was a political prisoner in Egypt from August, 2013 to May, 2015 is seen in New Jersey, United States on July 30, 2017. Mohamed was shot, imprisoned, tortured, and sentenced to life in prison on trumped-up and politically motivated charges. The U.S. government intervened at the highest levels and successfully facilitated his release and return to the United States on 31 May 2015. He stated that I tried forgetting the feeling of guilt that I was taking up the time and effort of the doctors in the makeshift hospital for a minor bullet wound when others, who are critically injured, needed their attention. I tried forgetting the pain I walked around with after getting the wound stitched up or the sound of bullets for 11 straight hours. I tried forgetting the smell of death, the rusty iron smell of blood and the smoky sharp smell of gunpowder as I laid on the floor unable to move, feeling debilitated, hopeless and helpless unable to scream or even utter a cry for help, just waiting for the bullet that missed my head to take me far away from that bloody war zone. I tried forgetting being shot at while running back to the hospital hours later to try and take refuge in a place that is suppose to have some sanctity. I tried forgetting the feeling of suffocation as a ton of people like me got shoved into the hospital. I tried forgetting the broken smile on little Ali’s face as he sat next to me on his injured dad’s lap, gasping for air. I tried forgetting Ali’s dad twisting his wrist holding the makeshift paper fan he was using to air his suffocating son so he could do the same for me. I tried forgetting drifting in and out of consciousness as tear gas was shot inside crowded room full of injured people. I tried forgetting being in excruciating pain and suffocating at the same time. I tried forgetting being told that a safe exit was negotiated 11 hours later, but it was every man/woman f

Update

Biden Administration’s U.S.-Egypt Strategic Dialogue Was a Human Rights Failure – Joint Statement from International, Egyptian Human Rights Groups

November 23, 2021 – Government Relations

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