by Yesim Usluca
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
CAIRO, Egypt — On Saturday, September 16th, an Egyptian court ordered the assets of five human rights activists and three non-governmental organizations (NGO) to be frozen.
The Zeinhom Criminal Court based its decision on a case that has been pending since 2011, in which the NGOs were accused of receiving foreign funds to “sow chaos.” The case was brought on charges that include “pursuing acts harmful to national interests,” “destabilizing general peace,” or “harming security and public order”. This decision now paves the way for criminal proceedings against these defendants. All of them could face life sentences if found guilty, which is equivalent to a twenty-five-year prison sentence in Egypt.
The individuals and NGOs whose assets were frozen include Hossam Bahgat (founder and former director of Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights), Gamal Eid (head of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information), the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies and its director Bahey el-din Hassan, the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and its director Mostafa al-Hassan, and the Egyptian Right to Education Center and its director Abdelhafiz Tayel. While the assets of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and the Arab Network for Human Rights Information were not frozen immediately, they could be linked to Mr. Bahgat and Mr. Eid and frozen at a later date.
Egypt had begun looking into foreign funding in early 2011 during a crackdown against civil society groups after an 18-day uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule and left the military in charge. At the time, Egypt had come under international fire when it raided Egyptian and Western NGOs in Cairo on suspicion of illegal financing, including the U.S. National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute.
Following Saturday’s ruling, NGOs and Egyptian human rights activists have stated that they are “facing the worst assault in their history” during a campaign to remove the liberties that were won in the 2011 uprising. In response to the court’s decision, Mr. Eid stated that the decision was expected, but that the NGOs and activists “will carry on despite living under threat.” He further declared “we will not live in complicity with a police regime that hates human rights, the 2011 revolution and democracy.” Amnesty International declared the ruling “a shameless ploy to silence human rights activism,” and further stated that it is a “reprehensible blow to Egypt’s human rights movement.”
For more information, please see:
Middle East Eye—Egypt court freezes assets of top human rights defenders—17 September 2016
World Bulletin—Egypt freezes assets of human rights defenders, NGOs—17 September 2016
BBC News—Egypt Court freezes assets of human rights workers and NGO’s—17 September 2016
AlJazeera—Egypt court freezes assets of rights defenders and NGOs—17 September 2016
