In conjunction with Human Rights Day, the Committee for Justice issued a press release which confirmed that the reality on the ground in Egypt 100 days after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi launched the National Human Rights Strategy on September 10, confirms that this strategy is mere ink on paper.

Over these 100 days, CFJ documented legislative and human rights violations and mass executions in Egypt. The release also indicated that despite the abolition of the state of emergency, on October 25, 2021, it was accompanied by amendments to the laws on fair trial that further undermine its guarantees.

It’s also mentioned that within this period, the Egyptian judiciary issued a final death sentence against three defendants in a case known in the media as the “Al-Mourabitoun Cell.” Also, it issued a life sentence for several defendants, punishing one with 15 years imprisonment and 10 years for another. It also sentenced a female defendant to three years in prison for joining a terrorist group in the case known as ISIS El-Zawya El-Hamraa.

The organisation also documented 1,046 arbitrary arrests in 10 different governorates, and 187 cases of enforced disappearance, including 11 people who were forcibly disappeared in detention places after obtaining a verdict of acquittal from the Emergency State Security Court, and then new charges were brought against them (recycling).

Fifty-three defendants were subjected to renewed detention (recycling) such as the detainees of the Central Security Forces camp in Aswan. They were acquitted and then the security forces transferred them to the Fifth Settlement in Cairo to the headquarters of the Supreme State Security Prosecution for interrogation in connection with a new case, and then they were transferred to the Qanater Prison for men, a journey that lasted 72 hours, just two days after they survived the deadly floods in Aswan.

The report also documented the death of 10 detainees in detention during October and November, the majority of whom were deprived of health care. Also, 17 health care denial violations in at least eight detention facilities were recorded, including critical or critically ill cases. The organisation also documented several complaints of escalating violations, ill-treatment, and torture in at least six detention facilities. CFJ stressed that all these facts confirm that the terms of this fake strategy have no effect on the ground. Violations continue, and the politicisation of the judiciary and the promulgation of oppressive laws to suppress dissenting voices continues unabated, proving that this step was nothing more than a formality by the Egyptian authorities to reduce international pressure on them.

The organisation called on the Egyptian authorities to implement the provisions of the National Human Rights Strategy in a genuine manner, support human rights in Egypt with actions, not words, stop manipulating laws and making them subservient to the service of the regime, improve the atmosphere for political and human rights work in the country, and immediately release prisoners of conscience and human rights defenders who are arbitrarily detained.