An international rights groups has accused Egypt’s security and judicial authorities of using the coronavirus pandemic to renew pretrial detentions of hundreds of people since mid-March, further depriving many of due process.
In this Nov. 24, 2017 photo, Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of Mada Masr, a prominent investigative media outlet in Egypt, participates in a panel discussion at cultural center in Cairo, Egypt. Mada Masr said editor Lina Attalah was arrested Sunday, May 17, 2020, outside Cairo’s Tora prison complex. She was there to interview the mother of a prominent jailed activist. It's the latest arrest amid a wider crackdown on dissent.
“COVID-19 has peeled away the last fig leaf covering Egypt’s grossly unjust pretrial detention system by eliminating even a pretense of independent review,” said Joe Stork, the group’s deputy Mideast and North Africa director. Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution is a judicial branch designed to investigate terrorism-linked and other high-profile criminal cases. Last year, Amnesty International accused the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of using the branch to detain peaceful protesters, journalists and critics on trumped-up charges without trial.
Under el-Sissi, thousands have been routinely kept in pretrial detention, often without evidence of wrongdoing and for merely exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and free expression, HRW said.
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