Three Years of Persecution: Rights Groups Call for the Release of All Detainees in the “Support for Palestine Cases” and the Acquittal of All Defendants Referred to Trial

العربية

The undersigned organizations call for the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience and detainees held in the “Support for Palestine cases.” We call for all criminal charges against them to be dropped and for everyone referred to trial in these cases to be acquitted. We also call on the authorities to stop prolonging these proceedings, so that the right to a fair and speedy trial is respected, and to reveal the fate of those who have been forcibly disappeared. This statement marks three years since the start of a wave of arrests targeting people who stood in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza. They were arrested for taking part in peaceful actions protesting the apartheid and genocide committed by the Israeli occupation army.

The persecution linked to solidarity with Palestine began after the outbreak of the war on Gaza in October 2023. Between 20 and 25 October 2023, demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinian people took place in several governorates, including Cairo and Alexandria. Human rights organizations documented a broad arrest campaign by security forces against the participants and against people who were simply nearby. Between October 2023 and September 2025, the Egyptian authorities arrested around 209 people for peacefully exercising their right to express solidarity with Gaza and to protest the Israeli aggression.

According to the organizations’ documentation, the arrests were linked to many forms of peaceful expression of solidarity with Palestine. These included taking part in protests and student activities, raising banners supporting the Palestinian cause in streets and public squares, and posting pro-Palestine content on social media. The authorities also arrested people who had not taken part in any demonstration or protest related to the Palestinian cause.

These arrests became tied to what is known as the “Support for Palestine cases.” So far, 63 people have been released pending investigation and at least 17 others were released without any police report being filed against them. Seventy people remain in pretrial detention, and 47 have been referred to trial.

The most significant incidents documented by the undersigned organizations over the past three years are set out below.

In October 2023, the Egyptian authorities arrested 71 people in Cairo and Alexandria for taking part in pro-Palestine demonstrations. They were placed under six separate Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) cases. Fourteen of them were set free and 12 others were released pending investigation. In SSSP Case No. 2468 of 2023 alone, 42 people were arrested. Forty-one of them were held in pretrial detention for a full year before being released. They were charged with participating in a terrorist group in furtherance of its aims, spreading false news, and taking part in an unlawful assembly. These demonstrations took place shortly after President Sisi stated that “millions of Egyptians are ready to demonstrate to express their rejection of the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.”

In December 2023, Egyptian security forces arrested four foreign activists. They had organized a protest outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Cairo calling for the “Global Conscience Convoy” to be allowed through the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid. The activists wanted to hand a letter on the matter to the then Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, but the Ministry refused to accept it or to meet the convoy’s representatives. The activists were held for 42 hours at Bulaq Abu El-Ela police station and were then told they were “not welcome and must leave the country.”

The persecution linked to the “Support for Palestine cases” escalated in April 2024, when 30 people were targeted in two separate incidents for joining peaceful pro-Palestine protests. In the first incident, security forces arrested 15 protesters after a demonstration held as part of the “Bread and Water” campaign, organized by the group Journalists for Palestine. The protesters called for the Rafah crossing to be opened so that aid could enter Gaza and for the Israeli embassy to be closed. They also chanted against Ibrahim El-Organi, a businessman from Sinai who owns the Hala travel company. As the company in charge of arranging crossings through Rafah, Hala is accused of exploiting the suffering of Gaza’s people by charging thousands of dollars to those seeking to leave the Strip. The protesters were charged with joining a terrorist group and spreading false news in SSSP Case No. 1277 of 2024. They were released after 15 days in pretrial detention. Security forces also arrested Nour Adel Hassanein and Mohamed Hassan Abdel Samie from their homes and held them until they were brought before the SSSP. Nour reported that she was insulted, beaten and blindfolded because she refused to unlock her phone.

On 23 April 2024, Egyptian security forces arrested around 18 people near the UN Women regional office in Cairo while they were taking part in a protest in solidarity with the women of Gaza and Sudan. The defendants in SSSP Case No. 1567 of 2024 included several journalists and activists: Mahienour El-Massry, Rasha Azab, Eman Ouf, Hadeer Mahdawy, Asmaa Naeem, Elham Eidarous, May El-Mahdy, Farida El-Hefny, Esraa Youssef and Lina Ali. They were charged with unlawful assembly and joining a terrorist group. The prosecution later released them pending investigation on bail of between EGP 5,000 and 10,000.

Also in April 2024, security forces arrested six people, two of them children, in Case No. 952 of 2024. They had only begun writing solidarity slogans on a bridge in Cairo’s Dar El-Salam district. Four of them are still in pretrial detention today. That same month, security forces arrested six more people in Alexandria in SSSP Case No. 1644 of 2024. They remain in detention even though their pretrial detention has gone beyond the legal limit. Among them is Shady Mohamed, a labor unionist and founding member of the Permanent Conference of Alexandria Workers. His health has declined because of a shoulder injury, and delays in giving him the medical care he needs put him at risk of permanent disability. His family’s hardship is made worse by his continued detention at the 10th of Ramadan Reform and Rehabilitation Center, which places an extra financial burden on them, especially when it comes to visiting him regularly.

At dawn on 9 May 2024, security forces arrested student Ziad El-Bassiouny near his home and forcibly disappeared him to an unknown location. He later reappeared as a defendant in SSSP Case No. 1941 of 2024. The case concerned his role in co-founding “Students for Palestine,” a student group supporting the Palestinian cause across Egyptian universities. He was ordered into 15 days of pretrial detention, which was then renewed four times. Security forces also raided his family home, threatened his family at gunpoint and ransacked the house. The day before El-Bassiouny’s arrest, Mazen Darraz had been arrested. In response, more than 310 political parties, human rights organizations and public figures signed a petition demanding the release of Mazen Darraz, Ziad El-Bassiouny and all detainees held for supporting Palestine. The SSSP released both students in July 2024.

The restrictions did not stop at protest and peaceful assembly. They also reached online spaces. According to monitoring and documentation by the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, 36 people were arrested for expressing solidarity with Gaza on social media. They had reposted videos or joined a Telegram group that shared news about the war on Gaza and called for solidarity with its people.

In October 2024, nine people were arrested for peacefully expressing solidarity with Gaza on social media and were placed under Case No. 2806 of 2024. Among them is Mohamed Walid Abdel Moneim, a first-year student at the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology at Nile University. He has spent more than two years in pretrial detention under conditions that ignore his deteriorating health. Mohamed has severe dwarfism with a skeletal disorder and needs regular medical procedures to drain excess fluid from his brain. Since his arrest, he has also been denied access to his psychiatrist, and as a result he has been cut off from the medication he needs for the chronic depression and anxiety he lives with.

That same month, the Egyptian authorities arrested 18 more people for joining a group on a social media platform and ordered them held in pretrial detention under SSSP Case No. 2627 of 2024. Among them is Ahmed Bahgat Ezzat. He was arrested and forcibly disappeared to an unknown location for more than 280 days, and his case has since been referred to court. His family sent 18 telegrams to the Ministry of Interior asking where he was being held, seeking reassurance about his safety, and requesting that legal procedures be followed. They received no response for more than nine months.

In June 2025, five people were arrested for supporting the “Global March to Gaza,” an initiative launched by activists and health workers from several countries to break the siege on the Gaza Strip. Their case was referred to court, which adjourned it to a hearing on 25 October 2026 so that the defendants could be brought to court. On 30 September 2025, the Sumud Flotilla to break the siege on Gaza announced the arrest of three of its members in Cairo. The arrests came as the Global Sumud Flotilla, which the Egyptian flotilla had planned to join, neared the Palestinian coast. The SSSP released them on bail in October 2025.

On 24 December 2025, several UN Special Rapporteurs and other UN mechanisms sent an official communication to the Egyptian government about the arrests linked to peaceful pro-Palestine demonstrations. It noted that a large number of detainees had been moved to the 10th of Ramadan Prison, where many of them stayed in pretrial detention. The communication highlighted worrying conditions of detention, including severe overcrowding, poor sanitation, inadequate medical care and almost no access to legal counsel. Detainees’ families reportedly received very little information about their relatives’ situation or the care they were receiving. Reports also stated that in January 2024 several detainees went on hunger strike in protest against these conditions, and there is no information to suggest that conditions improved in any meaningful way afterwards.

The persecution and violations described above include arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance and the continued pretrial detention of people held for “supporting Palestine.” They flagrantly disregard Egypt’s legal obligations under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees the right to hold opinions without interference and the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media. Article 65 of the Egyptian Constitution also guarantees every person the right to freedom of opinion and expression, whether by speech, writing, imagery or any other means of expression and publication.

These practices also violate Article 9 of the ICCPR, which protects the right to liberty and security of person and prohibits arbitrary arrest or detention. Under Article 9, no one may be deprived of their liberty except on grounds established by law. The same article requires that judicial review of detention be substantive and effective and be carried out by a body independent of the executive. Because every one of these cases was referred to the Supreme State Security Prosecution, the detainees have been unable to effectively challenge the lawfulness of their detention.

In addition, nearly 75% of the detainees were subjected to enforced disappearance. This violates Articles 2, 7 and 9 of the ICCPR and the guarantees they provide on the right to liberty, security of person, and protection from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This reinforces our long-standing demand that Egypt ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and set up effective, independent mechanisms to investigate cases of enforced disappearance, hold those responsible to account and prevent such cases from happening again.

The undersigned organizations therefore call on the Egyptian authorities to:

Immediately and unconditionally release everyone detained for peacefully expressing solidarity with Palestine, and drop all charges against them, including against those who have been released but whose cases remain open. End the prolonged use of pretrial detention and stop using it as a de facto punishment or a substitute for one. Release all detainees whose detention has gone beyond the legal limit without a final court judgment.
Drop the charges against, and acquit, all defendants referred to trial in the “Support for Palestine cases,” and make sure proceedings in these cases are not prolonged, so that the right to a fair and speedy trial is respected.
Immediately reveal the fate of everyone who has been forcibly disappeared, allow their families and lawyers to contact them, investigate these enforced disappearances, and hold those responsible to account.
Open independent and transparent investigations into all allegations of torture, ill-treatment, enforced disappearance and other violations suffered by detainees in the “Support for Palestine cases,” and make sure those responsible are held to account.
Ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
Bring national laws and practices in line with Egypt’s international obligations under the ICCPR, respect the rights to freedom of opinion, expression and peaceful assembly in accordance with Article 19, and stop using security and judicial measures against people for peacefully exercising these rights.
Comply with Article 9 of the ICCPR, which protects the right to liberty and security of person.

Signatory organizations: