In early February 2016, the Homeland Security arrested another two young men for no apparent reason. 25-year-old real-estate agent, Abo Obida Sayed Mahmoud Abdelhameed and 28-year-old imam, Islam Ibrahim Eltohamy Ibrahim have both been missing since, and despite having solicited various official bodies, their respective families remain unaware of their fates and whereabouts. Left without any recourse at the national level, they contacted Alkarama who sent an urgent appeal to the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances (WGEID), asking this United Nations human rights mechanism to request the Egyptian authorities to immediately disclose their place of detention and authorise their families and lawyers to visit them, in accordance with Egypt's international obligations.
Abo's arrest and disappearance
On 2 February 2015, around 4am, the Homeland Security accompanied by police officers stormed into Abo's family apartment in Giza. As in nearly every other arrest conducted by these services, such as in the case of two professors in early February 2016, the officers started searching the flat without showing an arrest warrant. They arrested the 25-year-old real-estate agent in front of his relatives, without giving any reason, and left for an unknown location. The following day, his relatives sent a telegram to the General Attorney of Giza but they have not received an answer to date.
Islam's arrest and disappearance
Three days later, on 5 February, it was Islam's turn to be abducted by the Egyptian security services. As the 28-year-old imam shared a taxi with other passengers, the vehicle was stopped by several individuals in front of Baltim police station − a city located on the Mediterranean shore, 118km East of Alexandria − who presented themselves as affiliated to the Homeland Security and the General Investigations Department. After searching the taxi and taking some of Islam's personal belongings, including his mobile phone, they forced him out of the car and took him to an unknown location.
Informed of his arrest, his relatives sent telegrams to the Attorney General and to the Ministry of Interior on 6 February 2016 and were told that investigations into Islam's disappearance were ongoing, but they did not hear about him since, and remain unaware of his whereabouts.
"Now commonplace in Egypt, even though the authorities keep denying this practice, enforced disappearances do not follow any logic anymore – if there can be any at all. At first, the authorities mainly targeted political opponents, activists, students, journalists or human rights defenders but now, abductions have become totally random," said Thomas-John Guinard, Legal Officer for the Nile Region at Alkarama. "Then, after having kept the victims away from any contact with the exterior world and often torturing them for weeks or months, the authorities make them reappear to charge them with crimes they did not commit and falsify their arrests records to conceal the time they spent in secret detention."
Alkarama calls again the authorities to end the practice of enforced disappearances and to ensure that no one is at risk of arbitrary arrest, torture and secret detention. Alkarama also invites the international community to take immediate measures against the gross human rights abuses that have been taking place in Egypt for more than two years and to address the situation at the next Human Rights Council session that will take place in March 2016.
For more information or an interview, please contact the media team to media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1008).