MENA Rights Group joins 15+ civil society organisations in urging Egyptian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release lawyer and human rights defender Hoda Abdel Moneim who has been arbitrarily detained for more than 2,000 days.
The undersigned human rights organizations and the FreeHoda Campaign condemn the prolonged arbitrary detention of lawyer and human rights defender Hoda Abdel Moneim for more than 2,000 days. Following the completion of her previous sentence, which was based on falsified charges, the public prosecution has continued to unlawfully detain Abdel Moniem by ‘ reissuing similar fabricated charges against her, also known as ‘recycling’ her charges. The undersigned organizations and the FreeHoda campaign demand her immediate release from arbitrary detention, especially due to her deteriorating health in prison.
On 22 April 2024, Hoda Abdel Moneim marked 2,000 days of arbitrary detention. On 31 October 2023, Abdel Moneim completed a 5-year prison sentence issued by the Emergency State Security Court, on the basis of falsified charges.This was in Case No. 1552 of 2018 Supreme State Security Emergency, the ‘Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms case’. Defendants in the case faced what United Nations experts described as an unfair trial which was marred by numerous due process violations.
On the last day of her sentence, 31 October 2023, as she was imminently awaiting release, Abdel Moneim was shocked that she was placed (recycled) under a new case, no. 730 of 2020, facing the same two charges that she had faced in Case No. 1552 of 2018. She was once again charged with joining a terrorist group – the same charge for which the Emergency State Security Court had issued the 5-year prison sentence on 5 March 2023 – and was charged a second time with committing a terrorism financing crime, despite being acquitted of the same charge by the Emergency Court.
According to the new case, she committed these two crimes while held in solitary confinement under the supervision and control of the prison administration. The ‘recycling’ of Hoda Abdel Moneim into a new case with the same charges violates the provision that, “A person may not be tried under the same charges for which he has been previously tried and punished,” according to Article 101 of Proof law, and Article 116 Pleadings in Egyptian law.
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NGOs renew their call for the release of Egyptian lawyer Hoda Abdel Moneim
