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The
Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH-OMCT), along with the
undersigned human rights organisations, call on the Egyptian
authorities to immediately end all forms of harassment or intimidation
against Mohamed Abdel Salam and the Association for Freedom of Thought
and Expression for exercising their fundamental human rights activities.
The
undersigned human rights organisations call on the Egyptian authorities
to immediately end all forms of harassment or intimidation against
human rights defender Mohamed Abdel Salam, Executive Director of the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE),
in retaliation for his legitimate human rights work. The organisations
are also calling to ensure that AFTE is free to conduct its activities
without any undue restrictions.
24 July 2025 - On 20 May 2025, police officers at Cairo International Airport detained Mohamed Abdel Salam for about an hour and confiscated his passport,
without providing any legal justification. During his brief detention,
he was questioned about his travel and human rights work. Upon release,
the police instructed him to report to a National Security Agency (NSA)
office in Cairo for further questioning, again without any legal basis
provided.
On 23 May, Mohamed Abdel Salam received a call from an NSA agent who asked him to collect his passport
from an agency office in Cairo. The agent claimed the confiscation of
his passport had been an “unintended administrative mistake.” Mohamed
Abdel Salam went to the NSA office and retrieved his passport without
being questioned further.
This is not the first time the Egyptian authorities have targeted
Mohamed Abdel Salam or AFTE. In 2018, airport authorities confiscated
his passport and summoned him to the NSA without legal grounds. He was
able to obtain a new passport in 2023. In November 2022, plainclothes
police put AFTE’s Cairo office under surveillance for two weeks.
In May of this year, AFTE has attempted to submit its first request
to receive funding to the Ministry of Social Solidarity, as Law No.
149/2019 (known as the 2019 associations law), which governs the
operation of civil society organisations in Egypt, requires associations
to obtain authorisation prior to receiving funding, contrary to
international law and standards. Despite submitting all required
documents nearly two months ago, the organisation has not received the
approval yet, hindering AFTE’s ability to seek and use funds in order to
pursue the associations’ activities.
AFTE has also encountered difficulties in maintaining a bank account
since registering in 2023 under the 2019 associations law. After an
eleven-month delay, a private bank finally opened an account for the
organisation. Under international law, states have an obligation to
protect the right to freedom of association, including by removing any
restrictions on the right imposed by the state or other actors.
For over a decade, the Egyptian authorities have systematically targeted human rights defenders with criminal prosecutions, arbitrary travel bans,
and asset freezes. To this day, authorities continue to impose travel
bans on staff members from several independent NGOs, including lawyer
Huda Abdel Wahab, co-founder of the Arab Centre for Independence of
Judiciary and Legal Profession (ACIJLP), Gasser Abdel-Razek, Kareem
Ennarah, and Mohamed Bashir, three directors of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).
We call on the Egyptian authorities to immediately stop subjecting
Mohamed Abdel Salam and other human rights defenders to harassment or
intimidation for exercising their fundamental rights. Civil society
actors must be able to operate freely, safely, and without fear of
retaliation, in line with Egypt’s constitutional and international
obligations.
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