Human rights violations against activists in Egypt are noisolated cases. Since the military coup of 2013, Sisi’s government and itsapparatuses have systematically targeted the public sphere, stifling the spacefor a democratic, inclusive political debate.
Campaigns of arrests and the criminalization of activists,lawyers, journalists and researchers are widely praised in pro-regime mediaunder the flag of “national security operations”.
In this report, EgyptWide analyzes data on human rightsabuses against members of Egyptian civil society in relation to the existingsecurity policy and the narrative upheld by state media agencies to highlightthe existence of precise patterns of repression.
Thousands of activists have been subject to unfair trialsand arbitrary detention in inhumane conditions because of the existing laws onterrorism which target their nonviolent activities, including journalism andreporting, nonviolent demonstrations, and even working as an attorney.
Secret investigations and fabricated evidence lead to flawedcourt sentences, and prosecutions recur to complex mechanisms to recycle thesame charges over defendants in order to have them detained for years even whenthey are found not-guilty.
Within the prison complex, activists face degrading andinhumane treatments aimed at depriving them of their dignity and isolate themfrom the world.
Outside the prison complex and the criminal justicecircuits, repression takes the form of laws restricting the exercise of civilliberties and shrinking the public space.
Civilians are mobilized into the repression and pushed tolynch regime's opponents or spy on them. Civil society spaces and organizationsare shut down or banned, while state media agencies depict human rightsadvocates as a danger to social order and national security.
This report maps thestages, patterns and key actors of repression in order to expose the strategywhich underpins the processes suffocating Egyptian civil society.
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