Law and Democracy Support Foundation (LDSF) strongly condemns the actions of the Egyptian security forces in arresting film director and screenwriter Omar Salah Marei from his home on the evening of 11 May 2026, and forcibly taking him to an unknown location, without disclosing the reasons for his arrest or revealing his place of detention.
According to his family, a security force violently raided Omar Salah Marei’s home (as shown in the attached photo of the destroyed entrance door) at approximately 7:00 p.m. on 11 May 2026 without presenting a judicial warrant. The raid involved the deliberate destruction of household contents and the seizure of personal belongings, including approximately 50,000 Egyptian pounds in cash, four MacBook laptops, and two mobile phones (an iPhone and a Samsung) that were present in the apartment at the time. He was then taken to an undisclosed location, forcibly disappeared, and deprived of all contact with the outside world for more than 15 hours, raising serious concerns about his safety, in addition to the grave violations accompanying the arrest, which warrant an independent and transparent investigation.
On the morning of 12 May 2026, his family submitted a telegram to the Egyptian Minister of Interior bearing number 2487004431, Major General Mahmoud Tawfik bearing number 2487004430, and another to the Public Prosecutor, Counselor Mohamed Shawky Ayad, demanding the disclosure of his whereabouts and an investigation into his enforced disappearance.
The Foundation affirms that the continued detention of Omar Salah Marei in an undisclosed location, along with the denial of his right to communicate with his family or lawyer, constitutes enforced disappearance under international definitions and represents a blatant violation of the Egyptian Constitution and Egypt’s international obligations, including the right to personal security, the right to liberty, and guarantees of due process.
Omar Salah Marei is widely regarded as one of the young voices in independent Egyptian cinema. He has directed several short films that have been screened at local and international film festivals, including Balah and Shubbak Ezzaz (Glass Window), which was selected for participation in multiple festivals and received the Best Short Film Award at the International Hollywood Film Festival, according to the director’s official biography on IMDb. The film also won the Best Director Award at the Diva International Short Film Festival in 2017. He also directed Selfie, produced as the final project of the Luxor African Film Festival workshop and screened during the festival’s closing ceremony. In addition, he received the Best Screenplay Award for The Escape of His Excellency the Commander, granted by the Nadine Shams Foundation during the Cairo Film Festival in 2017.
Law and Democracy Support Foundation further warns of the deterioration of Omar Salah Marei’s health condition. He suffers from a thyroid disorder and depends on regular daily medication (Carbimazole), a treatment that cannot be discontinued or delayed without posing a direct risk to his health. Moreover, he sustained a serious hand injury approximately three months ago, resulting in a fractured wrist that required surgical intervention, during which nine screws and two metal plates were implanted. He remains in the recovery and physiotherapy phase, requires continuous medical care, and wears a medical brace. The Foundation emphasizes that holding him in an undisclosed location and denying him access to necessary medical care or essential medication places his life at risk and constitutes a serious violation of the right to health, amounting to prohibited ill-treatment under the Egyptian Constitution and relevant international conventions.
The Foundation stresses that targeting a film director and screenwriter in this manner confirms the continued hostility of the Egyptian authorities toward fundamental freedoms, their insistence on closing public space, monopolizing narratives, and imposing strict control over freedom of expression and artistic creativity. This exposes the falsity of official claims regarding improvements to the human rights situation, which has remained in deep crisis for more than a decade following President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s rise to power in 2014.
The Law and Democracy Support Foundation holds the Egyptian authorities fully responsible for the physical and psychological safety of Omar Salah Marei and demands:
- The immediate and unconditional disclosure of his place of detention, and full access to all legal rights and safeguards, including communication with his family and lawyer.
- His immediate and unconditional release.
- The opening of a serious and independent investigation into the raid on his home, the destruction of property, and the seizure of personal belongings and money.
- An end to security harassment and unfair trials targeting artists and journalists, and full respect for freedom of expression and artistic creativity.
