UNJUSTLY JAILED RIGHTS LAWYER REFERRED TO TRIAL [Egypt Second UA 80.23]

Dear Counsellor,

I am writing to express my concern over the prolonged arbitrary detention of 64-year-old Ibrahim Metwaly, who has been held since September 10, 2017, solely for his human rights activism including his efforts to secure truth and justice for his forcibly disappeared son. Ibrahim Metwaly was arrested by Egyptian security forces at Cairo International Airport on his way to Geneva, where he was invited to attend the 113TH session of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to discuss enforced disappearances in Egypt. Following his arrest, he was held incommunicado for two days until he appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecutor (SSSP) in Cairo. He told his lawyers that during this period National Security Agency (NSA) officers stripped him naked, gave him electric shocks in various parts of his body, doused him in water, and beat him, in violation of the absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment.

In September and October 2024, the Egyptian authorities referred Ibrahim Metwaly to trial on charges of “joining a group that was founded in violation of the law and committing a crime of funding terrorism”, among others. His lawyers have not been granted access to his case files, and no trial sessions have been scheduled yet. Ibrahim Metwaly also suffers from multiple health conditions which the SSSP has failed to address.

I urge you to immediately and unconditionally release Ibrahim Metwaly as he is detained solely for peacefully exercising his human rights. Pending his release, he must be held in conditions meeting international standards for the treatment of prisoners and granted access to adequate healthcare, including in outside hospitals, if necessary, as well as to his family and lawyers.

Yours sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]