Egyptian state officials have raided the offices of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms in a renewed crackdown on the human rights group, according to the head of ECRF’s board of trustees, Ahmad Abdullah.
Lawyers connected to ECRF are acting as the legal counsel for the family of murdered Italian student Giulio Regeni, whose body was found bearing signs of brutal torture on a desert road outside Cairo earlier this year. Regeni’s family are still fighting to find out who killed the 28-year-old doctoral student. The Egyptian authorities deny any role in his death.
ECRF tracks forced disappearances, which have spiked in the years since 2013 when President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi came to power. In a recent report, the group found that 912 people were disappeared in the year since August 2015.
Abdullah said four officials claiming to be from Egypt’s ministry of investment entered the ECRF offices in Cairo’s Agouza district around 10.30am on Thursday morning, looking for the group’s executive director, prominent human rights advocate Mohamed Lotfy. Lotfy was not present, and sent a lawyer in his place.
“They told our lawyer that they were from the ministry of investment, and have the right to search the room,” said Abdullah. “Our lawyer demanded to see a search warrant and ID for the four men – they refused.”
He continued: “We believe that at least one was from the police, as when he handed his mobile phone to our lawyer, there was a picture of him dressed in police uniform.”
Abdullah was released on bail on 10 September, after serving almost five months in prison. He was arrested at his home on 25 April, and still faces a range of charges including inciting violence, belonging to a terrorist group and calling to overthrow the regime.
“For a long time they didn’t target ECRF, they just targeted me,” said Abdullah. “This time they went to the body itself.”
There are suspicions that the raid could lead to ECRF being ensnared in the ongoing crackdown on NGOs in Egypt, reviving an infamous case from 2011 which accuses it of receiving illegal foreign funds. So far, the trial has targeted at least six Egyptian NGOs after being reopened earlier this year.
In September, a Cairo court agreed to freeze the assets of five human rights activists and three prominent NGOs. The case continues to threaten the daily work done by civil society groups in Egypt.
