Egypt releases human rights campaigners after international outcry

By Sudarsan Raghavan
12/3/2020, 5:34:00 p.m.

CAIRO — Three Egyptian human rights activists were released from detention Thursday after a wave of international condemnation against the Arab nation's authoritarian government that included U.S. politicians and Hollywood celebrities.

The trio — Gasser Abdel-Razek, Karim Ennarah and Mohamed Basheer — work for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, one of the few remaining rights groups in Egypt, where President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi has waged a massive crackdown on opponents and activists alike.

“They are fine, they are in good spirits,” said Ragya Omran, their lawyer, Thursday night.

The three men were arrested last month after they met with 13 Western diplomats to discuss ways to improve human rights conditions in Egypt. A few days after the meeting, they were rounded up by Egyptian security forces over a week-long period and charged with “joining a terrorist organization” and “using social media accounts to spread false information.”

Such charges, often used by Egypt’s regime against human rights advocates, typically result in months, even years, in pretrial detention or jail. And there are numerous cases where even after a release order, detainees are held for days. Yet on Thursday, the three men were released from Cairo’s notorious Tora Prison instead of being taken to a local police station for processing, a move even EIPR said was “unusual.”

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