Egypt: NGOs demand immediate and unconditional release of Ibrahim Metwally, detained solely for peacefully exercising his rights | Practice Source – Legal News and Views
Over 20 NGOs demand the immediate and unconditional release of Ibrahim Metwally, detained solely for peacefully exercising his human rights.
We, the undersigned human rights organisations, express our grave concern regarding the prolonged arbitrary detention of 61-year-old Ibrahim Metwally since 10 September 2017, and his recent indictment in three cases at once on terrorism charges, solely for his human rights activism including his efforts to seek truth and justice for his forcibly disappeared son. Mr. Metwally’s first trial started on 1 June, and his second trial is set to start on 11 June. No date has been set yet for his trial under the third case.
Mr. Metwally was arrested by Egyptian security forces at Cairo International Airport on his way to Geneva, where he was invited to attend the 113th session of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to discuss enforced disappearances in Egypt. Following his arrest, he was held incommunicado for two days until he appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecutor (SSSP) in Cairo. He told his lawyers that during this period, National Security Agency (NSA) officers stripped him naked, gave him electric shocks in various parts of his body, doused him in water, and beat him, in violation of the absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment.
Ibrahim Metwally was initially held in pre-trial detention pending investigations into charges of communicating with “foreign entities” and spreading “false news” under case No.900 of 2017. For 25 months he was held in solitary confinement and denied family and lawyers visits. In October 2019 the prosecution ordered his release, but he was disappeared once again for 20 days, then the SSSP opened a new criminal case against him, namely case No.1470 of 2019, and after the prosecution ordered his release once again in August 2020, he found himself facing similar charges in case No.786 of 2020. Since then he has been kept in pretrial detention pending the same case. This abusive practice referred to as “rotation” has been systematically used by the authorities against critics to keep them in pre-trial detention indefinitely, in contravention of Egyptian law which sets two years as the maximum permissible period for pre-trial detention.
In September and October 2024, the Egyptian authorities referred Mr. Metwally to trial in cases No.900 of 2017 and No. 1470 of 2019, respectively, on charges of “joining a group that was founded in violation of the law and committing a crime of funding terrorism”, among others. He was consequently also indicted in Case No. 786 of 2020. His lawyers have not been granted access to his case files to date.
In June 2022, after five years in Tora Prison Complex, Mr. Metwally was transferred to Badr 3 prison where he remains. Mr. Metwally suffers from multiple health conditions, including an enlarged prostate which requires urgent surgical intervention according to a urologist. On 4 December 2024, his family submitted a request to the SSSP to approve his transfer to a specialised hospital outside the prison to undergo an urgent prostate surgery. The family’s request remains unanswered.
On 15 January 2025, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders issued a statement condemning the use of anti-terrorism legislation to imprison human rights defenders. In her statement, she highlighted the prolonged arbitrary detention of Mr. Metwally as well as the Egyptian authorities’ denial of adequate healthcare.
