On 24 September 2015, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) regarding the disappearance of 17-year-old Khaled Mohamed El Beltagy following his abduction by the Security Forces on 22 September 2015. The son of Mohamed El Beltagy, Secretary General of the Freedom and Justice Party − the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood − Khaled is at high risk of being tortured again during his secret detention, for the second time in less than a year.
Khaled's two arrests in 2015
On 22 September 2015, the Security Forces abducted 17-year-ol d Khaled from his family home in Nasr City in the outskirts of Cairo, in the middle of the night, in front of his mother and little brother. Since he was taken to an undisclosed location, his family has not heard from him since. His arrest followed the exact same pattern as that of his first arrest on 23 January 2015. Arrested in the middle of the night, Khaled had been brought to Nasr City Police Department, where had been tortured for two consecutive days by means of beatings and electrocution, and eventually charged by the Public Prosecutor, on 25 January 2015, with "participation to illegal demonstrations" while his arrest record wrongfully stated that he had been arrested in a street. Detained in the police department for one month, he had been released without charges in February 2015.
Particularly worried over his fate after the ordeal that their young boy had experienced following his first arrest, Khaled's family spread the message about his disappearance and tried to locate him with the help of lawyers, so far to no avail. It is highly likely that Khaled's abduction was only motivated by the will to hurt Khaled's father, Mohamed El Beltagy, who held an important role in the dissolved Freedom and Justice party.
Harassment of the El Betagy family
Mohamed's family has in fact been continuously harassed by the authorities since General Sisi took power in July 2013. The El Beltagys even lost a daughter, Khaled's sister, during the Raba'a massacre on 14 August 2013, in which hundreds of people lost their lives due to the excessive use of force by the security services. Additionally, one of Khaled's brothers was arrested by the authorities, while another one was forced to flee Egypt to avoid harassment.
As for their father, Mohamed was arrested in August 2013 and is currently prosecuted in several cases, including one for which he was sentenced to death along with former president Mohamed Morsi. Despite an Opinion published by several UN procedure on human rights in May 2015 urging the Egyptian authorities "to overturn the recommendation for death sentences against the aforementioned individuals and to ensure a prompt retrial to Mr. Morsi and all other defendants, in full compliance with international standards regarding due process, fair trial and the imposition of the death penalty," the co-defendants are still awaiting their sentence to be annulled by the a court of law.
Alkarama's action
"The abduction and subsequent secret detention with probable torture of a child like Khaled is, for whatever motives, abject and should be internationally condemned," declared Rachid Mesli, Alkarama legal director. "Enforced disappearance has been institutionalised in Egypt since July 2013 and more and more individuals are being targeted by the authorities through this practice, which does not only affect the victims but also creates a deep suffering among their relatives."
In view of the facts and the impossibility for the El Beltagy family to obtain recourse at the national level, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) to ask the Egyptian authorities to immediately release Khaled and to ensure his physical and psychological state. It is high time that the international community takes a stand against this widespread and systematic practice in Egypt and urges the authorities to take legislative and practical measures to end it.
For more information or an interview, please contact the media team at media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1008).