The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the abduction and subsequent arbitrary detention of Ms. Sanaa Seif, sister of detained human rights defender Mr. Alaa Abdel Fattah, a blogger and member of the “No to Military Trials for Civilians” movement [1], who has been arbitrarily detained since September 29, 2019 [2].
According to the information received, at around 2pm on June 23, 2020, Ms. Sanaa Seif was abducted by unknown persons in a minibus while she was walking behind her sister Mona Seif and her mother Laila Souef, in front of the gate of the Headquarters of Egypt’s Public Prosecutor in El Rehab, in New Cairo. At around 4pm, Ms. Sanaa Seif appeared before the State Security Prosecution. At the time of publishing this Urgent Appeal, charges against her were not known yet.
Accompanied by their lawyers, the women had gone to lodge a complaint in person to the Public Prosecutor after they were assaulted the day before in front of the gates of Tora prison in Maadi, Cairo, by a group of women in plain clothes, in plain view of the security forces who did not intervene to end the assault. The attackers beat the three activists with sticks, tore their clothes, dragged them on the ground and stole some of their belongings. Ms. Sanaa Seif, Ms. Mona Seif and Ms. Laila Souef also wanted to show the Public Prosecutor their bruises and other evidence of the assault.
For the two previous days, the three women had been sitting in the street in front of Tora prison waiting to receive a letter from Mr. Alaa Abdel Fattah, whom they have not been able to visit since the beginning of March 2020 due to a ban on prison visits applied by the Ministry of Interior, supposedly to prevent the spread of coronavirus COVID-19 into prisons. Mr. Alaa Abdel Fattah’s family received the last letter from him about three weeks ago, which was only given to them after similar pressure by his mother and sisters staying several days at the time in front of Tora prison.
The Observatory expresses its utmost concerns over the abduction and arbitrary detention of Ms. Sanaa Seif and urges the Egyptian authorities to guarantee in all circumstances her physical integrity and psychological well-being and to release her immediately and unconditionally.
The Observatory further condemns the assault against Ms. Sanaa Seif, Ms. Mona Seif and Ms. Laila Souef, which seems to be only aimed at punishing them for the exercise of their legitimate and peaceful human rights activities, and urges the Egyptian authorities to carry out a transparent, impartial, immediate and thorough investigation into these events in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before an independent tribunal, and sanction them as provided by the law.
