The Egyptian Front for Human Rights (EFHR) strongly condemns the referral of dozens of lawyers and other human rights defenders in Egypt to criminal courts on the grounds of activities related to their professional or human rights work. While many of these lawyers face charges solely for exercising their legal right to defend individuals, including in politically motivated cases involving the right to assembly, organization, and freedom of expression, others are being prosecuted for documenting violations, providing legal support, or cooperating with UN mechanisms. These referrals constitute clear evidence of the state’s ongoing policy of criminalizing human rights work and the right to legal defense, posing a direct threat to the independence of the legal profession in Egypt, and undermining the safety of the entire legal and human rights community, and ultimately, the citizens seeking justice through peaceful and lawful means.
EFHR has documented the referral of no less than 92 lawyers and other human rights defenders to terrorism criminal courts. Many of them had been engaged in defending individuals in politically motivated cases. Their names appeared in the referral orders of 25 State Security cases, a number likely to grow as further referrals are issued. These referrals also included five female lawyers involved in the same types of legal defense. According to the referral documents, the charges brought against the lawyers often mirrored those of their clients, individuals detained for exercising fundamental rights such as freedom of assembly, organization, and expression. These lawyers now face terrorism-related charges, most notably “joining a terrorist group established in violation of the law” and “funding a terrorist group.” In several cases, security investigations explicitly cited the lawyers’ legal defense work as evidence of their alleged affiliation with terrorist groups, referring to so-called “human rights units” or the assumption of “responsibility for defending” members of such groups before the courts.
Among the most prominent cases is that of lawyer and human rights defender Ibrahim Metwally, who faces charges of joining and funding a terrorist organization under case no. 900/2017. His human rights work was driven by his search for his son, who has been forcibly disappeared since 2013. The investigation alleges he was “responsible for the enforced disappearances file, prepared reports and statements aimed at defaming state institutions, and communicated with international human rights organizations to internationalize the issue and tarnish the state’s image.”
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