Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) condemns the recent imprisonment of three leaders of a prominent Egyptian civil society organization, who have been held in pretrial detention on baseless charges, which is incompatible with International Human Rights Law, especially the provisions that are binding on all States Parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Egypt freely ratified the Covenant in 1982.

Sen. Boris Dittrich, Member of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs & Chairperson of the PGA Netherlands National Group, stated today that:

Mohammed Basheer, Gasser Abdel-Radek and Karim Ennarah, all three working for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), have been recently arrested in Cairo on trumped up charges. Basheer was arrested following a meeting with European diplomats, including the Dutch Ambassador, to discuss human rights in Egypt. We call on the Egyptian authorities to immediately release the three EIPR human rights defenders and to refrain from taking unlawful actions against human rights defenders who try to improve Egypt’s dismal human rights record.

As Human Rights Watch reported, “the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights is one of Egypt’s leading human rights organizations and has been at the center of the government’s relentless vendetta against human rights and other independent organizations since 2013. The authorities in 2016 froze the assets of EIPR’s founder, Hossam Bahgat, and have prevented him from leaving the country since then. On 7 February 2020, the authorities detained the EIPR’s researcher on gender issues, Patrick George Zaki, at Cairo Airport upon returning from his studies in Italy. National Security Agency officers held Zaki incommunicado for roughly 24 hours and tortured him, including with electric shocks, his lawyers said. Prosecutors and judges have since routinely renewed his pretrial detention without presenting any evidence of wrongdoing."

PGA Board Member Dep. Amina Maelainine (Morocco) called today for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Egypt:

It is time for Egyptian authorities to fulfill their international obligations and respect the Rule of Law. Prosecutorial and judicial authorities shall operate in full independence from the Executive powers, and Parliament and the Constitutional Court shall take all necessary measures to realign the domestic legal order of Egypt to International Law, including Human Rights Law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The widespread arrest of human rights activists and members of the political opposition has been largely practiced in Egypt, a State that occupies a position of vital importance for the entire North African and Middle Eastern (MENA) region. In addition to these PGA members’ concerns on the fragile human rights situations in Egypt, other prominent voices have been raised at the highest level.

On 21 October 2020, 222 lawmakers of the European Parliament (EP), including PGA member Vice-President Mr. Fabio Massimo Castaldo, MEP (Italy), and of seven European national parliaments of countries that are strategic allies to Egypt, co-signed an important letter where they publicly condemned the authorities for the widespread arbitrary arrests taking place in the country. The letter urged President Mr. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to release all political prisoners. This collective effort was preceded by a strong message sent to Mr. el-Sisi by 50 US Democratic legislators, including PGA Member Rep. James McGovern, denouncing the critical situation of prisoners of conscience in the country.

Mr. Castaldo, who has been an active member of PGA’s different programmes and campaigns, addressed the plenary of the EP on 17 December 2020, reading a shocking report of an eyewitness of torture and murder perpetrated by the Egyptian security forces against the Italian citizen Mr. Giulio Regeni on 21 January 2016 [intervention only available in Italian].

Following the awarding of the Legion of Honor to Mr. el-Sisi by President Emmanuel Macron, PGA member Senator Emma Bonino (Italy), recipient of PGA’s Defender Democracy Award in 2017, strongly rejected this decision to concede such a high recognition to a person who has been seen as bearing significant responsibility for severe violations to international law and human rights [Ms. Bonino’s letter to the French President is available in French in the newspaper Liberation, in English on this webpage & in Italian in the newspaper La Repubblica]