o Stop Enforced Disappearance [1]
It is a campaign launched by the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) on August 30, 2015 in conjunction with the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance, with the aim of spreading awareness of the seriousness of the crime on Egyptian society, the need to stand up to the crime of in light of the expansion of its use by Egyptian authorities, providing legal and media support and psychological counseling to victims and their families, and lobbying state agencies to reveal the fate of forcibly disappeared persons, to prosecute perpetrators of the crime, to combat impunity, to obtain compensation and reparation for victims, and to put pressure on decision-makers to address the legislative shortcomings in Egyptian laws by issuing a law to criminalize Enforced Disappearance, and to adhere to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
Contents
- Executive summary
- Methodology
- Introduction
- Statistical analysis for cases of forced disappearance in a year
- FD of journalists
- FD during September 2000 events
- FD and Rotational detention (recycling)
- Reappearance after prolonged periods of FD
- Disapperance from places of detention
- Disappearance after summon by national security “the trap”
- Disappearance after presence in government institutions
- FD of women
- FD of children
- Targeting families of the forcibly disappeared
- Recommendations
1. Executive summary
The crime of enforced disappearance (FD) is at the top of the list of violations committed by security agencies, led by the National Security Sector of the Ministry of Interior and General Intelligence Agency, against citizens and political opposition to authority in Egypt. Since 2015, ECRF has launched its “Stop Enforced Disappearance” campaign against the crime of enforced disappearance. It has issued five annual reports, the most recent of which was the annual report for 2020 entitled “Continuous Violation and Absent Justice” in conjunction with its 5th anniversary. Until August 2020, the campaign documented a total of 2723 cases of FD[2], in addition to 306 cases until August 2021, i.e., a total of 3029 cases in the six years since its launch. Despite the continuous calls upon Egyptian authorities to immediately stop the practice of the crime of FD, enact legislation to criminalize it, hold perpetrators accountable and combat impunity, and that investigation authorities deal seriously with the reports and complaints submitted by victims and their families to find the truth of their allegations and provide reparation to the victims if their allegations are proven true, Egyptian authorities continue to insist on the use of FD against citizens and opposition in Egypt.
The Egyptian authorities have not retracted their permanent denial of the crime of enforced disappearance, and the statements by officials in Egypt continue to deny the existence of enforced disappearance, claiming that these people are either absent or have joined armed groups. In light of this denial, authorities launched security campaigns against civil society organizations and activists, specifically those working to document human rights violations and support victims and their families, which often led to the arrest of members of these organizations and the prevention of some of them from traveling or use of their property.
Security agencies did not stop at violating the rights of the forcibly disappeared, but extended the violations to their families. During their journey to search for the fate of their disappeared relatives, the campaign documented that many family members were subjected to intransigence in implementing legal procedures or threats of imprisonment and physical abuse. The campaign also documented that many families of the forcibly disappeared were imprisoned and forcibly disappeared to meet the same fate of their relatives, for no reason other than using peaceful and legal means to search for their loved ones. [3][1]
Due to the fact that enforced disappearance deprives a person from the protection of the law, it makes victims more vulnerable to other violations such as torture and ill-treatment. The “Campaign” has documented many testimonies of severe torture to which the forcibly disappeared are subjected at the headquarters of the National Security and National Intelligence during periods of their disappearance. Also, a number of people reported for their enforced disappearance some periods ago were subjected to extrajudicial killings. Ministry of Interior data claim that these people were killed in an exchange of fire, but their families had submitted reports of their arrest and enforced disappearance periods before their killing. [4][2]
In light of the above, the sixth annual report analyzes the patterns followed by the Ministry of Interior, led by the National Security Sector, in committing the crime of enforced disappearance during the period from August 2020 to August 2021. This report documented the subjection of 306 people to enforced disappearance, including 19 children under the age of 18, distributed over 21 governorates, for varying periods of enforced disappearance, 251 of whom later appeared as “survivors of enforced disappearance”, 36 are still subject to disappearance until publication, and the status of 19 is unknown. The largest share of disappearances this year was during what was known as the events of September 20, 2020, including 124 people. The classification of the current situation with regard to survivors was: 47 people have been released, 40 people acquitted without a case, 162 people are held in pretrial detention, and two people have been sentenced and are serving their sentences. Also, Cairo governorate showed the highest number of victims (93). As for the location of the arrest and disappearance, 131 persons, were arrested from the street.
The report also presents the patterns of disappearance during the past year, as we find that the rotation after periods of enforced disappearance inside one of the official detention facilities after obtaining a decision from a judicial authority to release or acquittal is the dominant feature, and it is one of the patterns that has increased during the last two years[5]. The campaign also documented cases of disappearance from inside Cairo airport of people while traveling outside Egypt or returning from abroad. The report also presents the enforced disappearance of women and children, as well as disappearance from police check points or from within a government agency.
The report clarifies the intransigence faced by the families of the forcibly disappeared while taking these measures to search for the fate of their disappeared relatives, whether inside police stations or prosecution offices. The role of the Public Prosecution and the Supreme State Security Prosecution has also evolved and transformed from an independent judicial body into a main partner in violating the rights of victims of enforced disappearance, whether by rejecting reports of enforced disappearance and not investigating them, or depriving victims of their legal rights during the investigation, and failing to prove that they were subjected to violations inside the headquarters of the National Security during periods of disappearance.
The report concludes with a number of recommendations for the Egyptian government to recognize that security agencies committed crimes of enforced disappearance and torture against citizens and members of the opposition in Egypt, and to hold the perpetrators accountable and combat impunity, as well as the need to enact legislation explicitly criminalizing enforced disappearance in Egyptian law, and the need for Egypt to join the International Convention for the Protection of All persons from enforced disappearance.
2. Methodology
To prepare this report, the FD Campaign documented the reports of enforced disappearance submitted to the campaign by conducting interviews with families of the forcibly disappeared victims and a number of lawyers entrusted to defend them, from August 2020 to August 2021.
Due to the continuous restrictions by security agencies upon families of the victims who are subjected to threats that may reach their arrest and disappearance during the search for their children, in addition to the continuous restrictions faced by human rights institutions including the targeting of some human rights defenders and the arrest of others, the main tool of information collection was phone and online interviews.
Within the framework of the monitoring and documentation process carried out by the campaign, and in the event that it received a report of the disappearance of a person, the campaign reviewed all documents, official papers and legal procedures taken by the victims’ families during their journey to search for their forcibly disappeared relatives in addition to all official measures taken by the families of the forcibly disappeared.
The campaign works through continuous communication with the families of the victims to follow up on new developments since the arrest and disappearance, to follow up on the reappearance of cases, to document data related to their reappearance, and to provide the necessary legal, media and psychological support in the various stages the victims go through.
During the period covered by this report from August 2020 to August 2021, the campaign received a number of reports of enforced disappearance, and the campaign team re-communicated with the complainants. 306 reports of disappearances for varying periods were documented in 21 governorates.
The report also includes some cases that were subjected to enforced disappearance in previous periods and that reappeared during the period covered by the report, or a complaint was received to the campaign about enforced disappearance a year or more ago, provided the complaint had not been included it in the database of any of its previous reports.
The campaign appeals to all those whose family members were subjected to enforced disappearance to immediately communicate with the campaign to provide all means of support and legal and media assistance, and the campaign team affirms that it was and will remain a partner and supporter of the families of the forcibly disappeared in their arduous journey to search for their families, support the full rights of the victims to obtain reparation, and prosecute perpetrators of enforced disappearance, and combating their impunity.
3. Introduction
The crime of enforced disappearance still occupies an advanced position at the top of the list of violations practiced by security agencies in Egypt against citizens, as the Ministry of Interior, represented by the National Security Sector, practices enforced disappearance and the subsequent violations such as psychological and physical torture inside the headquarters of the National Security. However, recent years have witnessed a remarkable development in places of detention during periods of disappearance, as it is no longer confined to unofficial places of detention, and now police departments, prisons, and official places of detention are used to forcibly hide citizens.
After years of the security agencies’ practice of the crime of enforced disappearance, disappearance has become a normal behavior for the security services, and it seems as if it is done automatically within the procedures of seizure and arrest. It has become associated with other violations that are committed accompanied by enforced disappearance on a regular basis, as we witnessed in the events of September 2020 arrests. A large number of victims of the security attack were subjected to enforced disappearance after their arrest. Another repeated violation is “rotation”, which means re-imprisoning the accused in new cases, “rotating them” after they obtain a release decision or a verdict of acquittal. Although security agencies practice recycling in different ways, but the rotation of victims after their enforced disappearance is considered one of the most prominent and common patterns, so it is not surprising that disappearance, as a common security practice, is associated with the most prominent and commonest violations of all, which is the arbitrary arrest of citizens and those whom these agencies consider to be a threat, such as writers, journalists, and activists, and citizens whose behavior security agencies decided constitutes an attack on them.
The journey of enforced disappearance begins from the moment the victim is arrested from the street or the house was stormed by security men and arrested without showing warrants or legal grounds, to find himself blindfolded in one of the unofficial places of detention, which is often one of the headquarters of the National Security to begin his suffering with various forms of torture by members of the National Security in order to extract confessions and obtain information or to terrorize him.
The International Convention defines enforced disappearance as “enforced disappearance means the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by State agents, persons or groups of individuals acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of the person of his freedom or concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which deprives him of the protection of the law.” [6]
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court also included the crime of enforced disappearance, along with premeditated murder, enslavement and torture, among crimes against humanity if committed systematically or on a large scale. [7]
The process of enforced disappearance also results in the violation of a number of basic rights of the individual victim, foremost of which is the violation of the individual’s right to recognition of his legal personality, his right to freedom and security of his person, and his right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel or inhuman treatment.
The harm and suffering as a result of enforced disappearance is not limited to the disappeared person, but the suffering extends to his family to the same extent, as the families of the forcibly disappeared incur a lot of fear and terror over the fate of their disappeared relatives during periods of disappearance and whether they are still alive. There are also other violations that the family of the disappeared person may be exposed to, if the victim is the breadwinner and the head of the family, then another form of suffering is faced by the family as a result of the lack of resources and the increase in the cost of living, which violates the right of the family to an adequate standard of living and the right to obtain protection and assistance. The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance has included in Article 24 of it a definition of the victim that does not include only the disappeared person, but extends the definition to include the family of the disappeared person as victims of the crime of enforced disappearance[8]. The same article also established the need for each state party to take the necessary measures, in addition to searching for the fate of the disappeared person, to take measures to assist the families of the disappeared in financial and social security matters.
The official discourse issued by Egyptian state institutions and official authorities still insists on denying the existence of the crime of enforced disappearance, despite the presence of a number of civil society institutions in Egypt, especially those working to monitor and document human rights violations, foremost of which is the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms through its campaign launched since 2015, which confirms in its periodic reports that hundreds of people have been subjected to enforced disappearance for varying periods of time within National Security headquarters since 2013, and that the accused are pending politicized cases, or entrusted with investigations by the State Security Prosecution, where they are accused of joining a terrorist group. Since then, many if not most of them were subjected to enforced disappearance before appearing as defendants before the prosecution.
Likewise, Egypt’s failure to accede to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance granted it protection from the obligation of member states to issue national legislation to criminalize enforced disappearance, hold perpetrators accountable and combat impunity, which is a permit for the national security sector to engage in a crime without deterrence or fear of accountability. But this will not absolve it from the commitment to the rights contained in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 and the Egyptian Constitution – as well as the provisions of the Egyptian Code of Criminal Procedure – such as the right to safety and security, the right to appear before a judge to consider the legality of imprisonment, and the right to a fair trial, which are rights that protect people from falling prey to the crime of enforced disappearance.
The Egyptian legislator did not criminalize enforced disappearance per se as a crime that violates a number of basic human rights, but in fact the practice of enforced disappearance violates a number of articles of the constitution and national laws whose texts provide protection for the rights violated by enforced disappearance. The Egyptian constitution stipulates the right to personal freedom as inviolable and untouchable, and no one may be arrested except with a judicial warrant or in flagrante delicto[9]. The Egyptian constitution also stipulates that no one who is arrested or deprived of liberty may be subjected to torture or degrading treatment, and that he must be detained in decent places that preserve his dignity. [10]
Also, a number of texts contained in the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, which are national laws, affirm the rights of people not to be detained or imprisoned without legal basis, as well as not to be subjected to torture or physical or moral harm, and to treat those whose freedom is restricted in a manner that preserves their dignity. Also, a number of rights inherent to persons deprived of their liberty, such as their legal right to contact their lawyer and appear before the prosecution within a period not exceeding twenty-four hours, and others are rights approved by national laws. However, violations by National Security remain unchecked, sometimes based on the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2015 and sometimes by violating the articles of this same law.
4. Statistical analysis of cases of FD in a year
During the period between September 1, 2020 and August 1, 2021 the Campaign to Stop Enforced Disappearances documented 306 people subjected to enforced disappearance, including (4) women and 19 children under the age of eighteen, in official and unofficial detention facilities for varying periods of time. The campaign also followed up during this period 251 persons who reappeared during the same period, some of whom had disappeared in earlier periods.
I: Classification of enforced disappearances according to the current status of the victim
The Campaign documented 306 enforced disappearances, 124 of which were documented within the events known in the media as the events of September 20, 2020, all of whom were subjected to disappearance for varying periods of time, with the largest number reappearing during that year, while some remained disappeared.
The following table shows the current status of cases documented during the report period, as follows:
Cases that remain disappeared: 36
Survivor of Disappearance: Cases that appeared after periods of enforced disappearance, and the campaign documented their appearance and knew their fate. (251)
Unknown: Cases that have been documented as being subjected to enforced disappearance, and the campaign team was not able to know their current status until publication, 19 cases.
| No. | Current Status |
| 251 | Survivor of FD |
| 36 | Ongoing Disappearance |
| 19 | Unknown |
| 306 | Total |
II: Classification of cases of enforced disappearance according to the legal status of survivors:
The following table shows the current legal status of the survivors of enforced disappearance, with a total of 251 cases of victims who survived enforced disappearance. 162 victims appeared after a period of disappearance before investigation authorities, which in turn issued a decision to hold them in pretrial detention pending investigations. The campaign also documented the issuance of 47 release decisions of victims, and the release of 40 people from their places of detention without being brought before any judicial body.
| No | Legal status of survivors |
| 162 | Remand detention |
| 2 | Sentenced |
| 47 | Released |
| 40 | Acquitted |
| 251 | Total |
[ML3] [ST4]
III: Classification of enforced disappearances according to age group:
The following table shows the classification of the age groups of victims of enforced disappearance who were documented by the campaign during the period from August 2020 to August 2021. Victims aged between 18-30 years had the largest share in terms of being subjected to enforced disappearance by 47 percent of the total cases, while persons aged 31-40 years came in second place with 65 cases. The campaign also documented the exposure of 19 minor children under the age of eighteen to the crime of enforced disappearance, while the campaign was unable to obtain information about the ages of three of the victims.
| No | Age group |
| 144 | 18-30 |
| 65 | 31-40 |
| 52 | 41-50 |
| 23 | 50 years and older |
| 3 | Unknown |
| 19 | Minor |
| 306 | Total |
IV: Classification of cases of enforced disappearance according to the governorate of disappearance:
The following table shows the geographical scope of enforced disappearances according to the governorate in which the disappearance was committed in 21 governorates nationwide, Cairo and Giza recorded the highest number while and Port Said and Sohag governorates recorded the lowest number of cases of disappearance.
| No | Governorate |
| 93 | Cairo |
| 57 | Giza |
| 46 | Kafr El Sheikh |
| 14 | Alexandria |
| 13 | Minya |
| 11 | Dakahleya |
| 11 | Qalubeya |
| 10 | Sharkeya |
| 8 | Assiut |
| 7 | Luxor |
| 6 | Suez |
| 5 | Aswan |
| 5 | Beheira |
| 4 | Beni Soueif |
| 3 | Ismailia |
| 3 | Gharbeya |
| 3 | Fayoum |
| 3 | North Sinai |
| 2 | Qena |
| 1 | Port Said |
| 1 | Sohag |
| 306 | Total |
V: Classification of cases of enforced disappearance according to place of disappearance:
The following table shows the distribution of cases according to place from which victims were taken before they disappeared. The campaign documented that security kidnapped 131 people from the street, i.e., more than 40% of enforced disappearances. In second place, with 93 cases of arrests of victims from their homes, followed immediately by disappearances from places of detention with 43 cases of disappearances that took place during detention in police stations and departments. It was also documented that security arrested 31 victims from their workplaces.
| No | Location of disappearance |
| 131 | Street |
| 93 | Home |
| 43 | Place of detention |
| 31 | Workplace |
| 3 | Airport |
| 2 | Unknown |
| 1 | Court |
| 1 | Army checkpoint |
| 1 | Police checkpoint |
| 306 | Total |
VI: Classification of Enforced Disappearances According to Periods of Disappearance:
The following table shows the classification of cases of enforced disappearance according to the period of disappearance experienced by the victims, where the period from two days to a week constituted the highest percentage amounting to 80 cases of disappearance.
The campaign also documented 53 cases of victims of disappearance for periods between one to two weeks, 38 victims from two weeks to a month, while seven victims of enforced disappearance were subjected to periods of disappearance lasting more than a year.
The campaign documented the appearance of 7 victims who had previously been documented as disappeared, while it was unable to determine the duration of their disappearance and the details of their appearance based on the wish of their families not to communicate with the campaign. The campaign did not have information about the current situation of 19 victims whose disappearance was documented and could not be followed up.
| No | Cases according to duration of disappearance |
| 80 | 2 days – 1 week |
| 53 | 1 – 2 weeks |
| 38 | 2 weeks – 1 month |
| 29 | 1 – 2 months |
| 28 | 2 – 6 months |
| 9 | 6 months – 1 year |
| 7 | More than 1 year |
| 7 | No date of appearance specified |
| 36 | Still disappeared |
| 19 | No information available |
| 306 | Total |
VII: Classification of enforced disappearances according to the place of first appearance of survivors:
The following table shows the places where survivors of disappearance appeared for the first time, where the Supreme State Security Prosecution recorded the largest number of appearances, 127 cases, with more than 40 percent of the appearances, followed by public prosecutions with 68 cases. The campaign also documented 19 cases where families learned of the appearance for the first time while their relatives were inside police stations, and 6 families learned of the appearance of their relatives for the first time while they were inside prisons, whether public or central; 22 cases were released, and for 8 cases the campaign was unable to identify their place of appearance; 36 cases of enforced disappearance are still pending, as well as 19 documented cases of disappearance that have been referred to as “unknown” to indicate the lack of information regarding their current status.
| No | Place of reappearance |
| 127 | State security prosecution |
| 68 | Public prosecution |
| 36 | Still disappeared |
| 22 | Released |
| 19 | Unknown |
| 19 | Police station |
| 8 | Reappeared but location unknown |
| 4 | Central prison |
| 2 | General prison |
| 1 | Central security camp |
| 306 | Total |
5. FD of journalists
During the past year, the Campaign documented a number of cases of enforced disappearance of journalists, the most prominent of whom was the arrest of journalist Hamdi Mukhtar Ali Muhammad, known as Hamdi Al-Zaeem, a journalist with Al-Hayat newspaper, who was arrested from his home by a force of the National Security and masked individuals at around 1.30 a.m. on January 5, 2021, where they searched the house and confiscated his camera, blindfolded and handcuffed him, and told his family that he would be detained for two days at most to ask him some questions. The next day the same force headed to his house again and confiscated the mobile phones of members of the house, a bag of First Aid and some books, and they left without giving any information about his whereabouts or when he will leave. On January 16, 2021, Hamdi Mukhtar appeared in the Supreme State Security Prosecution in connection with case 955 of 2020, known in the media as the “rotation case”. The prosecution charged him with joining a group, spreading false news and misusing social media.
In February 2021, opposition journalist and writer Gamal El-Gamal was subjected to enforced disappearance upon his arrival at Cairo Airport on board Egypt Air flight No. MS736 coming from Istanbul after years of leaving Egypt because of restrictions upon him[11]. Six days later, on February 28, 2021 he appeared at the Supreme State Security Prosecution in Cairo, he was investigated in connection with Case No. 977 of 2017, known in the media as “Mekamelin 2”, and charged with joining a terrorist group with knowledge of its purposes, deliberately publishing and broadcasting false news, and using a means of social media in publishing that news, according to his lawyer. During the five months he spent in pretrial detention, Mr. Gamal Al-Gamal was transferred to Tora Liman Prison Hospital after his health deteriorated as a result of the delay in his treatment, before he was released and arrived at his home on July 18, 2021. [12]
The campaign also documented the enforced disappearance of journalist Tawfiq Abdel Wahed Ibrahim Ghanem, former regional director of Anatolia News Agency. He was arrested from the street in the 6th of October city in giza when he was on his way to Friday prayers. He was taken to his home in the same area, where the house was searched and a laptop, a mobile phone and a sum of money were confiscated. He disappeared for five days which he spent inside the National Security headquarters in Sheikh Zayed, and on May 26, 2021 he appeared in the Supreme State Security Prosecution, which charged him with joining a terrorist group and a decision was issued to imprison him for 15 days, pending state security case No. 238 of 2021. He is still in pretrial detention at the date of publication. Of this report.
Al-Shuwaikh family forcibly disappeared after their son was tortured inside his prison
Security forces raided the family’s home in 15th of May City, Cairo Governorate, and arrested all family members present in the house, against the background of Ms. Hoda Abdel Hamid’s campaign to demand the protection of her son Abdel Rahman Al-Shuwaikh and the investigation of the sexual assault he was subjected to, followed by repeated assaults with torture inside the high-security Minya prison by prison officials.
On April 26, 2021, Gamal Metwally Ibrahim Al-Shuwaikh, 65 years old, suffering from heart disease and Hepatitis C, his wife Huda Abdel Hamid Muhammad, 55 years old and diabetic, and their daughter Salsabil Al-Shuwaikh, 18 years old, were arrested, according to witnesses at the incident. Security forces photographed Mrs. Huda and her daughter Salsabil in house clothes and arrested them without allowing them to wear appropriate clothes, and they were all taken to an unknown destination. On April 28, 2021, Mrs. Huda Abdel Hamid appeared before the State Security Prosecution in the Fifth Settlement, which in turn accused her of joining a terrorist group and spreading false news and ordered her to be imprisoned for 15 days in connection with Case 900 for the year 2021, while her daughter Salsabil was released five days after the disappearance; her husband remained in disappearance for a few more days until he was released on May 5, 2021. It is reported that Mrs. Huda is still in remand detention inside Al-Qanater prison and prevented from receiving visits.
Human rights organizations issued a joint statement on May 5, 2021 regarding the incident and the subsequent investigation with Ms. Huda regarding what she published of videos and publications, her charges and her imprisonment. Accordingly, the organizations demanded the immediate release of Ms. Huda Abdel Hamid, and to stop the practice of torture and ill-treatment inside Egyptian prisons, the need to hold perpetrators of torture crimes accountable, and immediate and urgent investigation into the reports submitted by the family regarding torture and sexual assault of Abdul Rahman Al-Shuwaikh in the Minya High Security Prison.
6. FD during the September 2000 events
In the first half of September 2020, sporadic protests against the backdrop of reconciliation fines and the demolition of violating buildings coincided with the first anniversary of the calls for demonstrations launched by the exiled contractor, Muhammad Ali, on September 20, 2019, which is one of the largest waves of demonstrations in recent years. The subsequent fierce security attacks in which thousands of citizens were subjected to arrest, search and arbitrary arrest. The campaign documented that 459 people were subjected to enforced disappearance during the security attack in 2019[13]. With renewed calls for demonstrations in 2020, and in light of a state of tension and popular anger in response to the real estate reconciliation law, security forces launched an extensive attack and a security alert in several governorates days before September 20, 2020, which included the mobilization of vast security forces in public places, stopping and searching citizens’ phones and monitoring their social media accounts, which prompted a number of human rights organizations to issue a statement on September 20, 2020 calling for respect for freedom of opinion and expression and the right to privacy, and demanded that security agencies immediately stop arresting citizens randomly and search their phones. It also called for the immediate release of all detainees in connection with the protests in 2019, after a year of unjustified pretrial detention[14]. Although the demonstrations on September 20, 2020, were limited compared to the previous year, they resulted in hundreds of random arrests, followed by enforced disappearance for short periods.
According to the latest update of the database prepared by ECRF on the arrests of the events of September 20, 2020, published on October 8, 2020, the number of arrest reports reached 968 cases, 28 of whom were released, while 805 citizens were presented to security prosecution. Most of them were sentenced to pretrial detention pending investigations, while 135 people were still missing at the time of the publication of the arrest bulletin. [15]
As in 2019, the extensive campaign of random arrests was accompanied by an increased number of disappeared persons. In view of the large number of arrests from different governorates their referral to the Supreme State Security Prosecution, the Ministry of Interior has resorted to keeping defendants inside police stations and Central Security camps, while isolating them from the outside world, denying their presence in security custody and presenting them in batches to the State Security Prosecution in the days following their arrest. Periods of enforced disappearance amounted in some cases to 30 days.
Between September 20th and October 10th, the Campaign documented the disappearance of 124 people, who were arrested from several governorates, most notably Cairo, Giza and some Upper Egypt governorates, specifically Minya, Assiut, Luxor and Aswan. One of those persons remains in disappearance, two victims’ whereabouts could not be confirmed, while 121 people reappeared, most of whom reported that they were held inside police stations or deported immediately after their arrest from the police station to a central security camp due to the high number of detainees. After varying periods of disappearance starting from two days and up to 30 days, 34 of those arrested were released without judicial reports, and the rest, 87 cases, were questioned by the Supreme State Security Prosecution, which released only 15, despite the randomness that prevailed in the process of arresting them.
Supreme State Security cases 880 and 960 of 2020, known in the media as the events of September 2020, had the largest share in the reappearance of a number of enforced disappearances. Among the 124 cases of enforced disappearance documented by the campaign during the events of September 20, 2020, 68 appeared before the Security Prosecution in Supreme State Case 880 of 2020, while 10 disappeared persons appeared in Case 960 of 2020. New suspects continued to appear in the Supreme State Security Prosecution in the period from September 22 to October 10, 2020, with a total number of about 805 citizens, according to the database published by ECRF. They were charged with joining a terrorist group, spreading false news, misusing social media, financing a terrorist group, and participating in demonstrations without legal provisions.
7. FD and rotation of detention “recycling”
Repeated disappearance during rotation is considered a cruel practice to intimidate victims and ensure that they do not regain their freedom as well as non-implementation of decisions of judicial authorities. In practice the victim is hidden and allegedly released from the place of detention while being held in an unknown location for varying periods of time he reappears in front of the prosecution again, is included in a new case, and charges are brought against him based on acts attributed to him during the period between the theoretical release, disappearance and reappearance.
In previous years, especially before 2018, security agencies used to re-arrest victims from their homes, workplaces or others after a period of their acquittal or actual release. The same victim may be subjected to re-arrest and disappearance several times within a short period, but this practice has diminished in contrast to the increase in the phenomenon of rotation after enforced disappearance, so that security authorities are no longer obliged to re-arrest those whom they wish to abuse, while they can circumvent the release order to kidnap victims from places of detention and claim the implementation of the release or release decision, and this is only done with the participation or involvement of the responsible officers in police stations, where detainees are handed over to National Security, and the evidence that they were officially in the station or center is deleted or ignored.
Rotation of Dr. Walid Shawqi, pending state security case 880 of 2020:
After nearly two years of pretrial detention, a decision was issued to release him on August 23, 2020 in State Security Case 621 of 2018. Walid arrived at the Dikirnis Police Station on August 30, stayed for two days and disappeared completely, as the family learned that he had been transferred to one of the National Security headquarters on September 2, 2020. Walid’s disappearance continued for more than a month, as he appeared in the Supreme State Security building on October 6, 2020, where he was questioned in connection with Case 880 of 2020, accused of the same charges as before, with the addition of an accusation of participating in a gathering in the events of 20 September 2020, during which he was under enforced disappearance.
Rotation of researcher and publisher Ayman Abdel Moati, pending State Security case 880 of 2020:
Ayman Abdel Moati obtained a release decision from the First Circuit Terrorism from State Security Case 621 of 2018, in the session held on August 23, 2020, and he was transferred to the police station of his place of residence on August 28, 2020, in implementation of the release procedures. He was detained for two days inside the police station which denied his existence, to appear after 25 days of enforced disappearance on September 17, 2020 before the Supreme State Security Prosecution, which decided to imprison him in case 880 of 2020 after accusing him of joining a terrorist group with knowledge of its purposes, misusing social media, publishing false news and statements and incitement on gathering. [16]
The disappearance of Abdullah Amer Abdo Muhammad Othman for the fifth time:
Security forces arrested Ali Abdullah for the first time in April 2017, when he was nineteen years old. He was subjected to enforced disappearance for 42 days and then appeared in Agouza Administrative Court case 3947 of 2017. On May 26, 2019, he obtained a decision to replace pretrial detention with precautionary measures, and was transferred to Al-Basateen Police Station in preparation for his release on May 29, 2019. His detention at the station awaited the National Security permit for release until June 29, 2019, and his father remained in front of the station awaiting his release, but he did not come out. Abdullah was subjected to enforced disappearance for the second time for more than nine months until he appeared on April 11, 2020, before the Helwan Prosecution; accusations were brought against him of joining a terrorist group while promoting its purposes, and it was decided to imprison him pending investigations in Helwan misdemeanor Case No. 1023 of 2020. On November 18, 2020, the Criminal Court accepted the appeal against his imprisonment and his release with precautionary measures, but the Basateen Police Department denied his presence the following day, claiming his release, after which he began a period of disappearance for the third time on November 19, 2020, for nearly two months until he appeared on January 15, 2021 in font of Hadayek al-Qubba Prosecution pending a new case, bearing Hadayek al-Qubba misdemeanor No. 62 of 2021, of which he was released on March 17, 2021. However, the Hadayek al-Qubba Police Department did not comply with the Public Prosecution’s decision and he was held and his presence in their custody denied for the fourth time. He appeared on May 12, 2021, after about 55 days of disappearance before the First Assembly Prosecution, pending a new case, bearing No. 4777 for the year 2021, and it was decided to detain him in the First Assembly police department after the prosecution’s decision to imprison him pending investigations after accusing him of joining a terrorist group and possessing publications. On May 25, 2021, the First Assembly Misdemeanors Court decided to release him on bail of one thousand pounds. Again, the decision was not executed and he was forcibly disappeared for the fifth time. He remained under enforced disappearance for 54 days, until his appearance before the Dar es Salaam Prosecution on July 19, 2021 which decided to detain him pending a new case, No. 4439 for the year 2021. He was held in the Dar es Salaam Police Department.
The disappearance of Mahmoud Mohye El Adin Abdel Fattah Al-Haddad for the fifth time:
Security forces arrested Mahmoud Mohye El-Din, 43 years old, on October 7, 2019 at night from his home in the village of Sidi Ghazi, Kafr El-Sheikh district. He was disappeared until his appearance on Kafr el sheikh administrative report no. 12250/2019 on the 22nd of November 2019. He was accused of joining a terrorist group, and was held in pretrial detention until the court decided to accept his appeal and released him on bail of 5000 EGP on February 1, 2020. However, he was not released and was subjected to enforced disappearance for the second time until he appeared on February 20, 2020 in case No. 1291 for the year 2020 with accusations of joining a terrorist group. He was released on April 15, 2020 with the guarantee of his place of residence, and accordingly he was transferred from his detention in Tanta prison to the central security camp in Kafr El-Sheikh. The decision to release him was not implemented and he was forcibly disappeared for the third time, starting from the day following his release order and for a period of five months, after which he appeared on August 1, 2020 pending a new case No. 5021 for the year 2020 with the same previous accusations, until he obtained another decision to release him in a hearing on August 15, 2020. Once again, the decision to release him was not implemented, and he was subjected to enforced disappearance again for a period of 53 days until he appeared on October 7, 2020 on a new case No. 8650 for the year 2020, facing the same accusations. After spending more than six months in pretrial detention in Tanta General Prison, he obtained a decision to release him on April 27, 2021 from Case No. 8650 for the year 2020 on a bail of 5,000 pounds, but he was forcibly hidden inside the security forces camp in Kafr El-Sheikh again and for the fifth time security authorities refrained from the implementation of the judicial order issued for his release. Mahmoud Mohye El Din appeared on June 3, 2021 before the Supreme State Security Prosecution, which issued a decision to imprison him in connection with Supreme State Security Case No. 620 for the year 2021, and his detention in Tora maximum security prison known as the Scorpion Prison.
Abdul Rahman Tariq “Mokka”:
On September 10, 2019, Mokka went to the Qasr al-Nil Police Department for the surveillance order imposed upon him by a court ruling “12 hours a day from 6 pm to 6 am for 3 years.” At the end of the 12 hours his family tried to call him and found his phone to be out of reach. They went to the Qasr al-Nil department to ask for him but the department denied his existence until he appeared the next day before the State Security Prosecution in connection with State Security Case No. 1331 of 2019, facing accusations of joining a terrorist group and spreading false news. His pretrial detention continued pending the case, until the Criminal Court decided to release him by precautionary measures on the March 10, 2020. He was transferred to the Qasr Al-Nil Police Department in preparation for his release. On April 12, 2020, he obtained a decision to cancel the precautionary measures and release him under the guarantee of his place of residence, but both decisions were not implemented, as he was forcibly hidden in the Qasr al-Nil police station for 50 days, during which the police department claimed to be waiting for a national security release permit. On April 30, 2020, he was brought before the Supreme State Security Prosecution and rotated on a new case, State Security case No. 588 of 2020 accused of joining a terrorist group and spreading false news using social media. On September 21, 2020, Mokka obtained another release decision with precautionary measures, but the decision was not implemented and he remained in disappearance for more than 60 days inside the Qasr El-Nil Police Station again, until he appeared on December 3, 2020 before the Supreme State Security Prosecution, where he was investigated on charges of joining a terrorist group and financing terrorism, and it was decided to remand him in custody pending case 1056 of 2020. [17]
8. Reappearance after prolonged periods of FD
During the period from August 2020 to August 2021, the campaign documented, the appearance of many forcibly disappeared persons after disappearances for long periods of time, more than two years in some cases, and the re-emergence of many cases who were arrested and disappeared in previous years, where the periods of disappearance reached three years in some cases
During the reporting period, the campaign documented the appearance of seven cases, whose disappearance it had documented in previous years.
Appearance of Manar Adel Abul-Naga and her child Al-Baraa:
The campaign had documented the disappearance of Manar Abul-Naga, accompanied by her husband, Omar Abdel Hamid Abu Al-Naga, and their one-year-old child on March 9, 2019 from their home in Midan el Sa’a in Alexandria. According to the legal claim no. 38626/73J the family filed a complaint against the minister of interior demanding the disclosure of their whereabouts.
During the 23 months of enforced disappearance, the family was unable to obtain information regarding their whereabouts despite a court ruling against the Minister of Interior obligating him to reveal their whereabouts.
On February 20, 2021, Manar appeared with her three-year-old child in the Supreme State Security Prosecution. She was accused of joining and financing a terrorist organization (case no. 970/2020). The prosecution ordered her remand detention for 15 days. She remains in detention until the time of publication.
It is noteworthy that the date of Manar’s arrest is recorded in the prosecution’s report on February 17, 2021, unlike the actual date of her arrest. As for Al-Bara, after he spent two years of enforced disappearance with his mother, he was separated from her when they appeared in the prosecution and handed over to his mother’s family, in accordance with Article 20 of Law No. 396 of 1956, as amended by Law No. 106 of 2015 regulating prisons, which stipulates that “the prisoner shall keep her child in prison custody until he is four years old, provided that she accompanies him during the first two years, and if she does not want him to stay with her, or he reaches this age, he is handed over to the family member entitled to his custody…”, which caused the child a state of panic in view of the separatin after spending his second and third years alone with her.
In a statement issued by a number of human rights organizations, they demanded the speedy release of Ms. Manar Abu al-Naga so that she can return to her child so that both of them can obtain the necessary psychological assistance and rehabilitation. They also demanded that the fate of the husband and father, Omar Abu al-Naga, be cleared, since his fate remains unknown since his kidnapping with His wife and child on March 9, 2019, holding the Ministry of Interior responsible for his safety and life. [18]
Khaled Ahmed Abdel Hamid Saad Suleiman:
The 39-year-old engineer, Khaled Abdel Hamid, was arrested after storming his residence in Cairo at dawn on July 5, 2019. Although his family resorted to inquiring about his place of detention, sending telegrams and issuing reports to the concerned authorities, the place of his detention remained unknown to his family throughout the past two years.
On June 4, 2021, two years after his enforced disappearance, his family learned of his presence in Tora High Security Prison 2, where he had been brought before the Supreme State Security Prosecution, which ordered his remand detention for the usual accusations of joining a terrorist group. His family learned of his appearance only after he was transferred to Tora High Security Prison 2.
9. Disappearance from places of detention
Usually, the victims of this pattern are people who have already been in detention, and are held incommunicado during the completion of the release or release procedures. Whether the person has received a court order of his release or a verdict of acquittal or has completed the court sentence, he is transferred from his place of detention to the police department of his residential district to finalize the procedures. However, what actually happens in political cases is that the person remains in police custody until the police department receives a permit from national security to execute the release order. This is an illegal procedure. National security then decides whether to concede to the judicial order, or to further unlawfully detain the person while informing his family that he is not inside the department and crossing out his name from the department’s official papers, which makes him forcibly disappeared.
The disappeared usually spend their period of disappearance unofficially inside the police station in what is known as the “national security office” or “national security custody” and sometimes they are transferred outside the police station to the headquarters of national security.
In most cases, the disappeared appear pending a new case. Last year 42 of the 43 disappeared reappeared, 11 of whom were released, while one of them was sentenced, and the rest, numbering 31, are still in pretrial detention. The campaign was unable to determine the legal status of one case.
Enforced disappearance of Zaki Ramadan Ahmed Muhammad al-Bayoumi for the fourth time:
Security forces arrested him from his home on July 4, 2017, and he remained in enforced disappearance until he appeared on October 10, 2017 before the Supreme State Security Prosecution in connection with State Security Case No. 760 of 2017. After he exceeded the period of pretrial detention stipulated by law, his release became mandatory. On November 17, 2019, he was deported to Kafr El-Sheikh and was taken to the National Security headquarters there, where he was forcibly disappeared for the second time until he appeared on December 22, 2019 pending record No. 8367/2019, and emergency state security misdemeanor 26/2020. On January 14, 2020, he was sentenced to one year in prison with hard labor and was imprisoned in Tanta General Prison. On December 22, 2020, he had served his prison term on that case and was deported to the National Security headquarters in Kafr El-Sheikh, which ignored the decision to release him and forcibly held him for the third time, until he was presented again pending Hamoul administrative Case No. 345 of 2021, on January 26, 2021. He obtained another release decision to release him on bail of 500 pounds on February 2, 2021, but the decision was not implemented and he was transferred from the Hamoul police station on February 3, 2021 to the Central Security Forces camp to be forcibly hidden for the fourth time for more than a month, until he appeared in front of the Hamoul Prosecution on March 7, 2021 pending Hamoul administrative case No. 1021 of 2021, on charges of joining the Muslim Brotherhood.
Saad Hassan Ali Al-Sunbakhti:
He is 38 years old, after completing the five-year sentence that he spent inside the high-security Minya prison, he was transferred to his police station in Ismailia Governorate in preparation for the completion of the procedures for his release, awaiting National Security to sign his release. However, on June 3, 2020, he was forcibly disappeared and his presence was denied inside the police station, until he appeared after about six months of disappearance before the Supreme State Security Prosecution, and it was decided to imprison him for fifteen days pending investigations in State Security Case 1018 of 2020.
Wael Abdel Fattah Abdel Wahab:
On February 17, 2021, he was transferred to the second Mansoura police station in preparation for his release, after he obtained a verdict of acquittal in Case 4040 of 2020. The second Mansoura police department did not comply with the decision of the judicial authority and he was subjected to enforced disappearance from within the department that denied his existence. His disappearance continued for more than three months, specifically on June 15, 2021. He was released after 118 days of enforced disappearance. It is reported that he was subjected to disappearance the first time when his house was stormed on October 23, 2020, and when it was discovered that he had recently come out of an operation, they did not arrest him and asked him to report to National Security after a week, and when he went on November 2, 2020, he was subjected to enforced disappearance for a period of 28 days and was presented to the Public Prosecution after that, and was remanded in custody pending case No. 4040 of 2020, in which he was accused of joining a group and holding secret meetings. His detention was renewed several times until the case was referred to trial and a verdict was issued for acquittal in case No. 4040 of 2020 on February 16, 2021.
10. Disappearance after summon by national security “The trap”
The National Security Agency is the main perpetrator in the crime of enforced disappearance. Whether the victim is arrested from home, place of detention, or other places, the security force conducting the arrest process often includes, if is not exclusively formed of elements of National Security.
During the past three years, with the frequent arrest and disappearance of the same person, and the release of many detainees while maintaining precautionary measures, it has become common for National Security officers to communicate directly with citizens and request their attendance for interrogation on a regular basis or what is known as “follow-up” in their headquarters which is, of course, contrary to the law. Therefore, it has become a habit for some individuals to voluntarily go to departments or headquarters affiliated with the National Security to meet their officers at the request or summons from them. It is also difficult for the family to legally prove the incident. The matter may take place in another, less direct way, when the security forces force the arrested person in their custody to communicate with one of his relatives or friends and ask him to come to meet him in a specific place, where he is ambushed and arrested at the appointed time for the meeting.
The disappeared may appear after a while pending new cases, and some of them are released without being presented to the prosecution after a period of enforced disappearance.
Ahmed Samir Santawi:
A researcher and a master’s student at the Central European University in Austria, he is 29 years old. He returned to Egypt on December 15, 2020, and upon his arrival at Sharm El Sheikh International Airport, he was stopped and interrogated by the airport police, then released. While he was traveling to Dahab, South Sinai, his residence was raided on January 23, 2021 at two in the morning from a security force, accompanied by a National Security officer; they searched the house, and photographed the national ID cards of the residents inside. Two surveillance cameras were also confiscated, and they asked him to report to the National Security Office upon his return. On the morning of January 30, Ahmed went to the National Security Office, and they asked him to come again two days later, and indeed he went again on February 1, 2021, where he was kept inside the 5th settlement police station and hidden by the National Security, and his family sent a telegram of the incident to the Public Prosecutor on February 4, 2021 by the number 10481702504. He remained disappeared for days until his appearance on February 6, 2020 at the Supreme State Security Prosecution, which investigated Ahmed on the accusations against him of joining a terrorist group, broadcasting false news, and using an account on social media to spread false news, and decided to imprison him pending investigations in state security case. 65 for the year 2021.
Islam Muhammad Orabi:
Islam received a phone call on December 26, 2020, while on his way to work, from one of the police secretaries of the National Security Agency, who summoned him to come to the National Security branch in Shubra al-Khaimah, “the villa”, threatening him in the event of his non-attendance. Islam responded to the request to attend and went to the headquarters of the agency, where he was forcibly disappeared for a week, after which he appeared in the Shubra El-Kheima Prosecution to be investigated in Shubra El-Kheima II misdemeanor Case No. 162 of 2020. His pretrial detention continued until he obtained his release on February 16, 2021, on a bail of 3,000 pounds, which was paid. However, he was unlawfully detained in Shubra El-Kheima II police station until the beginning of March, when the police station denied his presence and was subjected to disappearance for the second time. He was released on April 6, 2021, more than a month and a half after the Public Prosecution’s decision to release him.
Ali Kamel (a pseudonym):
On April 18, 2020, he was summoned for the first time by National Security in Port Said, because of his prayers on the sidewalk in front of the shop where he works, and he pledged not to repeat that and went out on the same day, and on August 13, 2020, he was summoned again on the pretext to be “asked a couple of questions.” He disappeared for more than a month until he appeared on the 27th of September 2020 on a state security case from which he was released. He disappeared for the second time until he appeared in front of state security prosecution on the 1st of January 2021 and is still in pretrial detention.
11. Disappearance while present in government institutions.
The pervasiveness of the security services’ authority within government institutions and public utilities, and the security services’ keenness to control all forms of civil life, in light of a renewed state of security alert and a state of emergency, made the citizen’s presence in front of an official employee of the Ministry of Interior not just a routine procedure that is supposed to run smoothly, but rather a matter full of dangers.
During the report period, the campaign documented a number of cases of enforced disappearance from official places, where victims were stopped, arrested and disappeared without any introduction. The report mentions them here under pseudonyms upon their request or that of their families. In the case of Ali Ahmed (a pseudonym), the victim was arrested from the Al-Basateen Traffic Unit in Cairo Governorate during the renewal of his driver’s license, and because of a verbal altercation, the detectives arrested him on September 21, 2020 and forcibly disappeared him until he appeared 12 days later in the Supreme State Security Prosecution pending one of the cases accused of protesting. The same thing happened with Muhammad Sharif (a pseudonym), on November 25, 2020. He was summoned to the Ismailia Traffic Unit to renew his driver’s license, but he was kept inside and communication with him was interrupted, and when the family asked about him in the Traffic Investigation Unit and his police department, his existence was denied.
The matter is not much different at police checkpoints. During the past year, the campaign documented three new cases of people who were subjected to enforced disappearance after being arrested from police or military checkpoints. The first case was Ahmed Magdy (a pseudonym) who was arrested and disappeared on his way to work on August 15, 2015 while passing through an army checkpoint in the city of El-Arish, while Mohamed Ibrahim (a pseudonym) was subjected to disappearance after being arrested and searched at a police checkpoint in Suez Governorate while traveling to Dahab. On September 5, 2017, the matter was repeated with Ahmed Mustafa (pseudonym), who was arrested and disappeared from a police checkpoint in the seventh district of Nasr City on August 10, 2019. The arrest and disappearance happened exactly the same way on all three occasions despite the different locations and time frames. Every time a worker’ transport bus was stopped to search and seize one or two individuals without giving reasons and letting the bus leave without them, and with the interruption of communication with their relatives, the family goes to ask about them, whether at the same checkpoint, or in a police station affiliated with it, and they are met with nothing but denial. All three remain missing.
The campaign also documented that Mahmoud Abdullah (a pseudonym) was arrested on March 2, 2020, from inside a courtroom in Alexandria Governorate, when he was visiting one of his arrested friends and a security officer asked him for his ID and why he was in court before he was arrested. His disappearance continued inside a National Security headquarters for a period exceeding four months, until he appeared on July 23, 2020 in one of the Alexandria Governorate prosecutors, and it was decided to imprison him on charges of joining a group, promoting its purposes and possessing publications.
Disappearance from inside Cairo International Airport:
It is a continuous pattern documented by the campaign since its inception, and is one of the most practices of the National Security Agency to arrest opponents or “wanted persons”, while they are either passing through or arriving at Cairo airport, despite not being included on the anticipation or travel ban lists or having any judicial order against them. Perhaps the most prominent of these incidents in the past years is what happened with lawyer Ibrahim Metwally[19], coordinator of the Association of the Families of the Forcibly Disappeared in Egypt, journalist Ahmed Gamal Ziada[20] upon his return from Tunisia, activist Muhammad Walid[21] when he was on his way to Saudi Arabia where he works, and writer Gamal Al-Gamal at the beginning of this year, all of whom He were arrested at Cairo Airport and then detained and interrogated by National Security at the airport, and eventually were handed over to one of the National Security headquarters.
Last year, the Campaign to Stop Enforced Disappearance received five reports of people arrested and disappeared from Cairo International Airport, in the years 2019 and 2020, all of whom appeared after varying periods of disappearance, and one case in 2015 is still under disappearance. Muhammad Mamdouh (a pseudonym) was arrested at Cairo International Airport upon his arrival from Sudan to attend his brother’s wedding on January 14, 2019. Ahmed Mansour (a pseudonym) was also arrested at Cairo International Airport when he was returning from work in Saudi Arabia accompanied by his wife and his three children on October 8, 2020, and his disappearance continued for more than a month until he appeared on November 14, 2020, before the Public Prosecution, accused of joining a terrorist group. The campaign also documented on December 13, 2020, that security agencies arrested Mohamed Fathy (a pseudonym) and held him upon his arrival at Cairo Airport on December 2, 2020 after being deported from an Arab country. Mahmoud Saeed (a pseudonym) was also subjected on August 2 2020 to enforced disappearance from the airport, as he arrived in Egypt on vacation from his work in Saudi Arabia. His disappearance continued until he appeared on September 10, 2020 before the prosecution, and it was decided to remand him in pretrial detention pending one of the cases. It is noted that all the victims were remanded in custody and included in various cases after periods of disappearance they spent between detention at Cairo airport – a matter that lasts for days in some cases where they are subject to investigation by the National Security during it – and then deported to the headquarters of the National Security in which the investigations are repeated. The disappearance continues until the officer in charge decides to hand them over to the prosecution.
The campaign documented another case of disappearance of a woman carrying the nationality of an Arab country – the family did not authorize us to give her name – but she is still under enforced disappearance since December 2015. She had been visiting her family in Qatar for six months. and upon her arrival at Cairo Airport all communication with her family was cut.
12. FD of women
Since its launch in August 2015, the campaign has been witnessing the role of families, especially their women members, who were at the forefront of the struggle to know the fate of their relatives and preserve their rights, and this is what made them targeted by security agencies involved in enforced disappearances. Over the years women have been paying the price by becoming victims of enforced disappearance in different ways.
Women are affected by the crime of enforced disappearance in many different ways. When one of their relatives is forcibly disappeared, especially if he is the breadwinner in his family, women face a huge financial burden that makes them obligated to provide an income for the family alone in some cases. On the other hand, we cannot ignore that some of them are exposed to societal marginalization or stigmatization as a result of accusations attributed to them and their families, in addition to the burden resulting from the journey of searching for the forcibly disappeared family member and the psychological pain and financial pressure that the journey includes. This has been referred to in Article 19 of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Disappearance, which indicated the need for victims of disappearance, as well as their families or those who were dependent on them, to receive appropriate compensation and to rehabilitate them to the fullest. [22]
On the other hand, women are subjected to direct targeting by security agencies simply because they demand the rights of their relatives, which the agencies consider an attack on them, and therefore arrest and hide them, which is a recurring matter that the campaign has documented several times over the past years. This happened this year with Mrs. Hoda Abd Al-Hamid Mohamed Ahmed, who was arrested from her home in the 15th of May district in Cairo, after she had been appealing over the previous days to officials on social media to intervene to save her son, “Abdul Rahman Al-Shuwaikh”, who is detained in the Minya High Security Prison from prison officials where he was tortured and sexually assaulted under the supervision of prison officers. Two days after her enforced disappearance, Mrs. Hoda appeared in front of Supreme State Security Prosecution, and she was investigated and accused of joining a terrorist group and spreading false news, and a decision was issued to imprison her pending Case 900 for the year 2021. She is being held at Qanater prison, denied family visits and deprived of her medication despite her diabetes.
Among the forms of targeting women are also their arrest and disappearance in order to take revenge on their relatives or pressure them or force person wanted by the security to surrender, where women are treated as “bait” through which their relatives can be lured. Security authorities rely on the fact that women and children are a weaker link and can put pressure on their families, regardless of the psychological and physical harm they face because of these practices.
At the beginning of 2021, some news websites and human rights organizations circulated on May 3, 2021 that security forces of the 10th of Ramadan city in the Sharkia Governorate arrested Mrs. Nusseibeh Al-Sayed Ahmed and her three sons, Al-Bara, 8, Anas, 6, and Islam, 3, as the forces stormed the house, breaking and scattering its contents and arresting them all, to force her husband to turn himself in, and without any consideration for her health condition, since she was suffering several diseases at the time of her arrest. After three days of enforced disappearance, they were all released. [23]
On November 10, 2020, at 10:30 am, a force from the National Security and the police raided the residence of female student Isteshhad Kamal Rizk Eidiya, in Sharkia Governorate, searched it and confiscated her laptop and mobile phone. After confirming her identity, she was arrested and taken in a microbus to the National Security headquarters in Zagazig, where her disappearance lasted for eight days, after which she appeared in the Supreme State Security Prosecution in Cairo, and was investigated in connection with State Security Case No. 680 of 2020 accused of joining the Brotherhood and misusing social media.
Kholoud Said Amer, 36 years old, researcher and translator at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Eight months after her remand detention in state security case 558/2020 she received a release order on the 13th of December 2020. She was transferred from Qanater women prison to Al-Montazah Police in preparation for her release, but she was unlawfully detained inside the station, waiting for the National Security to sign her release. On December 26, 2020, she was subjected to enforced disappearance, as the Montazah Department denied her presence in custody. Kholoud’s disappearance continued for twenty-eight days, which she spent inside the National Security headquarters in Abies, Alexandria, until she appeared on January 11, 2021 at the Supreme State Security Prosecution and was recirculated on a new case bearing No. 1017 of 2020. The Public Prosecution charged her with joining a terrorist group, spreading false news, and misusing social media, and she is still being held in pretrial detention pending this case. [24]
Although women victims of enforced disappearance are fewer in number than men, and by a large difference in some years, women face types of violence based on their gender, and they are subjected to different forms of gender-based violence such as physical and sexual violence or threats of it, in addition to societal stigmatization in some cases. [25][ST5]
13. FD of children
Since the campaign began its work in 2015 and until now, we have documented the subjection of children under the age of eighteen to enforced disappearance. Security agencies have not deterred from arresting children and forcibly disappearing them. Rather, the matter has expanded to take several forms, in which children suffer under the weight of the crime of enforced disappearance. The child is considered a victim when he is arrested, held in solitary and in isolation from the outside world so that security agencies can interrogate him and obtain information about adults he knows, or extract confessions, or he is targeted by forcible disappearance to pressure or reach a member of his family, as in the case of the child Ahmed Saeed (pseudonym), and sometimes he is subjected to disappearance accompanied by one or both of his parents, such as was the case with the girl Alia Mudar[26] and the child Al-Baraa Abu Al-Naga. At other times, the child is indirectly a victim of enforced disappearance within the network of victims suffering from the disappearance of a family member. [27]
Despite the stress of international conventions and Egyptian law on the need to protect detained children and take into account their special needs, as stipulated in Articles (37), (40) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and Articles 112 and 119 of the Egyptian Child Law[28] to regulate the period of a child’s detention and ensure safety and access to appropriate care and not to be abused during his deprivation of liberty. However, all these rights are ignored when a child is subjected to enforced disappearance, in which security agencies do not differentiate between an adult and a minor. Minors are arrested and hidden in the same illegal facilities where adults are naturally detained. Some of them are subjected to torture during their disappearance, as in the case of the child Ibrahim Shaheen, who was previously referred to as being subjected to torture during his disappearance. Some children are also subjected to disappearance more than once, as is the case of child Abdullah Boumediene and Ubadah Gumaa, all of whom remain in disappearance until the date of publication[29].
In the event that a minor appears before the prosecution after a period of his disappearance, their legal rights stipulated in the Child Law are often ignored, which is what happened with the children arrested in the events of September 20, 2020, where the campaign documented the cases of 12 children between the ages of eleven and seventeen, all males, who were arrested at random from the governorates of Cairo, Giza, Alexandria and Aswan, forcibly disappeared for different periods, ranging between two to twenty-one days. Five of them were released, while 7 others were presented to the Supreme State Security Prosecution. The prosecution released 5, and two others were remanded in custody for fifteen days, in violation of Article 119 of the Child Law No. 12 of 1996, which stipulates that “a child under fifteen years of age shall not be remanded in custody, and the Public Prosecution may place him in one of the observation houses for a period not exceeding one week, except upon a court order according to procedures of remand detention mentioned in the law of criminal procedures.
The prosecution can also order the handing over of the child to one of his parents or a person who has guardianship over him and to present him to the prosecution upon every summon. The breach of this duty shall be punished with a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds”. After the prosecution’s decision, one of the children was taken to the Giza central prison and another was detained at the Alexandria Security Directorate. As for the places of detention during the time of the disappearance of the twelve children, they varied between police stations and National Security camps, accompanied by other adults, in another violation of the Child Law, specifically Article 112, which stipulates: Children may not be detained, imprisoned or incarcerated with adults in one place, and the detention order must take into consideration the age, sex and type of crime. Any public servant or person charged with a public service who detains, imprisons or imprisons a child with one or more adults in one place will be punished by a prison sentence between three months and two years and/or a fine ranging between 1000 and 5000 LE[30].
It is worth noting that 6 out of 7 children were presented in state security case 880 of 2020, while the seventh child was presented in state security case 960 of 2020.
The appearance of the child El Barra’a Omar Abdel Hamid Abu Al-Naga after two years of disappearance
Al-Baraa’s appearance, accompanied by his mother, at the Supreme State Security Prosecution on March 1, 2021 caused wide reactions. It is not usual for a one-year-old child to disappear, and it is also unusual for him to be hidden for two years. Taken with his mother as an infant he reappeared as a toddler, able to walk and talk. He was suddenly expected to leave his mother, with whom he lived alone for two whole years, and go with strangers – in his view – which terrified him. The statement issued by the human rights organizations regarding the incident referred to the condition in which Al-Baraa appeared and his panic when he was separated from his mother because she was unable to take him with her according to the prison regulations. The organizations quoted his uncle asking, ‘are we supposed to be happy for El Baraa’s return to us after two years of enforced disappearance? Should we not be grieving for the situation we are witnessing?!! A child who does not know his family, who is scared of them, screaming that he wants to return to the room he shared with his mother, screaming for his mother. A child who is not used to dealing with people in plain clothes after spending two ears with people in uniform?? We grieve the psychological destruction of the child who was discharged after nearly two years, totally traumatized. God help us to treat him from what he had suffered”. [31]
Despite the wide reactions to the appearance of Ms. Manar and her child, and the statement of human rights organizations regarding the incident and its accompanying claims, in addition to the administrative judiciary ruling that the family obtained, the Public Prosecution or the Child Prosecution did not open an investigation into the incident, which is considered serious and deserves to be investigated. Victims in this incident also deserve to be compensated and redressed to the extent of the serious damage they have suffered, as well as to hold those responsible for their disappearance accountable and to ensure that the matter does not recur even if no official complaint has been submitted by the victims, which is what is stipulated in Article (12) of the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from enforced disappearance. [32]
14. Targeting families of the forcibly disappeared
The suffering of families of the forcibly disappeared does not stop at the consequences of the disappearance of one of their members, or what families incur in the search for their children and their families, and the economic and social crises that afflict them as a result of the absence of a family member, especially if he is the breadwinner. The families themselves may become victims of verbal and sometimes physical violence, threats of arrest or enforced disappearance. Family members may suffer a painful fate, such as if a family member is arrested at random just for his presence during the arrest process of one of his relatives, or the security forces go to arrest one of the victims and not find him, so a family member is arrested to force him to surrender. Often Victims of this practice are women or minor children, who may remain in disappearance with their relatives for long periods of time, and may appear after disappearance and be included in a case while their relatives remain disappeared, and in some cases remain in disappearance despite the wanted person turning himself in.
Security forces usually go to the house of the person to be arrested, which puts his family in the face of security personnel who are present without an official capacity or warrant from the prosecution to arrest or search. In addition to the panic that befalls the family and the destruction caused by the security raid, some of them may enter into an argument with the security which can result in orders of house arrest, taking away their phones and threatening them in case they try to communicate with the outside world. The violence against the family may turn verbal and physical.
During the past year, the campaign documented the exposure of 14 families to incidents, in which they were targeted or abused in different ways, where five families were targeted by security forces with arrest and disappearance in the same incident of the intended arrest.
The first of these dates back to January 2019, when a family’s house was stormed in Wadi al-Natrun and four brothers, their father and a cousin were arrested. After variable periods of FD some of them appeared as defendants in state security cases, while one of the brothers and his cousin remain disappeared two years later. Another report received by the campaign from Suez Governorate in June 2019 about the police and National Security forces arresting the victim, his brother, his brother’s wife, his mother and sister from the house that the family rented for summer vacation in Ain Sukhna in the early hours of June 27, 2019. His mother, sister and brother-in-law were released, while the two brothers’ disappearance continued for two years. One of them appeared in June 2021 at the Supreme State Security Prosecution and was released, while the other is still in disappearance until now.
During the events of September 20, 2020, a security force in Luxor Governorate, on September 22, 2020, raided the house of a citizen and arrested him with his two sons and hid them for five days, then presented them to the Supreme State Security Prosecution and decided to imprison them in connection with Case 880 of 2020. This again happened in Cairo, where on September 23, 2020, security forces stormed the house of three brothers and arrested them, until they all appeared on October 1, 2020, at the State Security Prosecution, pending case 880 of 2020. The same thing was repeated when a citizen saw his brother being arrested in front of their house on one of the streets of Helwan area, in Cairo on September 23, 2020. When he went to talk with the security force to ask about the reason for the arrest of his brother they arrested him as well, and both of them were subjected to enforced disappearance until they appeared together before the Supreme State Security Prosecution in Cairo on October 4, 2020, and interrogated in connection with State Security Case 960 of 2020 Inspection.
The campaign also documented the arrest and disappearance of two victims while they were asking about their disappeared relatives inside a police station. One of the incidents occurred on November 24, 2018, when Muhammad Mahmoud (pseudonym), according to his lawyer, was arrested from inside the Abu Hammad Police Department’s office at 2:00 p.m. while going to the police station to ask about his arrested brother and then disappeared for 18 months until his appearance and presentation to the Public Prosecution on May 9, 2020. The other incident occurred on September 21, when Muhammad Abd Al-Rahman (a pseudonym) was arrested and disappeared when he went to the Al-Basateen Traffic Unit to ask about his cousin, who was detained inside the traffic unit following a verbal altercation that occurred while he was renewing his license. He appeared in the Supreme State Security Prosecution and was investigated in Case 880 of 2020, known in the media as the events of 20 September.
The campaign also documented that three families were targeted by the arrest of one of their members because the wanted person was not present at the time of the house security raid, or to force the person wanted by the National Security to surrender. The most prominent of these cases took place in Arish on April 20, 2018 when Ahmed Saeed (a pseudonym), 16-year-old, was arrested to force his father to surrender. His father surrendered himself to the North Sinai Security Directorate at a later time in order for his son to be released, but both of them were subjected to disappearance. The father appeared more than two years later and was presented to the Ismailia Prosecution, while the fate of the child is still unknown.
Four other families also reported that they were subjected to another form of targeting, which is the assault on them with insults or beatings, or both, by security forces that arrested their relatives. All of them complained about the arresting forces hurling insults and threatening their families, while insulting and twisting the arm of a fifteen-year-old daughter who pleaded to them not to arrest her father for the second time.
Obstructing families during the search for the disappeared:
The families of the forcibly disappeared begin the journey of searching for their relatives immediately after their arrest, so they initially go to inquire about them in the surrounding police stations. When they are faced with the denial by the police of taking custody of their relatives, the families submit reports of the incident to the competent prosecution. Families do not stop asking about their children in places of detention or inquiring about them at the Prisons Authority throughout the period of their disappearance.
The families of the disappeared face different forms of intransigence on the part of the authorities responsible for enforcing the law and protecting the rights of citizens, which they resort to in the hope of finding their relatives and for their children to obtain the legal protection guaranteed by the constitution.
Perhaps the most common form of intransigence is the police departments’ refusal to file the disappearance complaint or refusing to tell the family the serial number of the report, which is accompanied by either promises to inquire about the whereabouts of the disappeared in an informal manner, or threats to arrest them if they try to file the complaint again. This could amount to insulting the family and threatening them with arrest for terrorism, being foreign agents or spreading false news.
As a result of these arbitrary measures and this intransigence, families are forced to write a telegram to the concerned authorities, whether the Attorney General or the Minister of Interior, as well as write a report to the Attorney General about the incident. Sometimes the families have to visit several police stations, 5 or 6, to be able to report the incident, exposing themselves to more danger and threats, in addition to the fact that the matter may eventually fail, and some families are sometimes forced to withdraw from taking a legal action as a result of their feeling threatened.
During the last year, the campaign received twelve complaints from families and relatives of victims stating the intransigence of more than one party towards them while they used the legal means to redress their families and know their fate. Complaints varied between refusal by police stations to file a reports of the disappearance (five families in various police stations, including the Aswan I police station, the Zagazig II police station, the Amiriyah and Zaytoun police stations, the Dakhleya police station, and the Badr city police station, in which the responsible officers tried to dissuade a family member from writing a report accusing the National Security, and trying to force her to write an incident contrary to the truth “absence report.” Three families of the disappeared also reported intransigence by the Public Prosecution, where the Beyla Prosecution Office in Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate refused to authorize the extraction of an official copy of the report of the disappearance of one of the victims, while the Public Prosecution Office in Alexandria refused to issue a report of unlawful detention and enforced disappearance of another. Two families were threatened by National Security to deter them from taking any legal measures that would prove that their relatives were subjected to enforced disappearance.
15. Recommendations
The Campaign to Stop Enforced Disappearances recalls here some of the most important recommendations that it has been repeating since 2015. The Campaign to End Enforced Disappearances recommends the following:
− Egyptian authorities must acknowledge the commission of enforced disappearance crimes against citizens and opponents of the authority in Egypt, and immediately declare their refusal to commit crimes of enforced disappearance, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, disclose the places of detention of the forcibly disappeared, and pledge to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes by the national security sector and any security agencies.
− The Ministry of Interior, foremost the National Security Sector, should immediately stop the practice of enforced disappearance and the detention of citizens in unofficial places of detention, respect the judicial authority’s decisions to release citizens, disclose the places of detention of the forcibly disappeared and bring them to trial if they are accused in cases not related to the exercise of their constitutional rights. It should cooperate with the families of the forcibly disappeared in their journey to search for their relatives, and stop the intransigence against them in taking the necessary measures.
− Egyptian authorities should criminalize enforced disappearance as a crime with no statute of limitations, adopt the definition of torture approved by the 1984 Convention against Torture in the Egyptian Penal Code, accede to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance 2006, the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, and join the Rome Statute of the Court International Criminal.
− The Public Prosecution must consider measures taken by the families of the forcibly disappeared, including communications and telegrams that prove the facts of the arrest of their relatives by security agencies, and conduct investigations quickly, and inform the families of the disappeared of the results of the search and investigation into the disappearance of their relatives, as well as activating the role of the Public Prosecution in monitoring and supervising prisons, departments, national security headquarters, central security camps and military prisons.
− The Supreme State Security Prosecution should immediately stop violating the legal rights of defendants, threatening them and forcing them to confess, and should investigate the incidents of enforced disappearance that people are subjected to, as well as the necessity to investigate citizens’ allegations of torture and ill-treatment inside headquarters of the National Security during periods of disappearance, and to question them as victims and refer them to the Forensic Medicine Authority to document the injuries.
− The Egyptian Ministry of Interior should immediately stop committing extrajudicial killings, should bring defendants to courts of law, and stop using the fight against terrorism as a pretext for extrajudicial killings and human rights violations, as well as the need to protect the families of the forcibly disappeared and ensure that none of the participants in the investigations is threatened and intimidated.
− The Egyptian authorities should stop harassment of non-governmental organizations, especially those working to support and advocate for human rights, and stop the violations against members of these organizations and human rights defenders and the obstruction of their role in supporting victims of enforced disappearance and protecting human rights.
[1] Official campaign Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/StopForcedDisappearence
Website of the campaign http://stopendis.org
[3] The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, a joint statement regarding the arrest and disappearance of Ibrahim Metwally, Coordinator of the Association of the Families of the Forcibly Disappeared, is available at: https://www.ec-rf.net/%D8%A5%D8%B9%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%84-%D9%88-%D8%A5%D8%AE%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%8A%D9%85-%D9%85%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%84%D9%8A-%D9%85%D9%86%D8%B3%D9%82-%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B7/
[4] Campaign to Stop Enforced Disappearances: Ongoing Violation and Absent Justice, August 2020
[5] Until further notice, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, June 22, 2020, available at the following link
[6] Article 2 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance 2006, https://bit.ly/2MZNTDE
[7] Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, adopted in Rome on July 17, 1998, https://bit.ly/2TTchb5
[8] Article 24 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance 2006, https://bit.ly/2MZNTDE https://bit.ly/2MZNTDE
[9] Article 54 of the Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt 2014 https://bit.ly/29WXTYZ
[10] Article 55 of the Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt 2014 https://dostour.eg/2013/topics/rights-freedoms/rights-duties-26-5/
[11] Lawyer Nasser Amin’s statement via his personal account on Facebook dated February 28, 2021, available at: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2788558508127293&set=a.1659820581001097
[12] Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, Register of Detainees, Gamal El-Gamal, on 3 May 2021: https://www.facebook.com/ecrf.net/photos/a.344802732350133/1914225622074495
[13] Ongoing Violation and Absent Justice, The Fifth Annual Report of the Campaign to Stop Enforced Disappearances, available via: https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=https://www.ec-rf.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/output.pdf&hl=ar
[14] Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, human rights organizations call on the Egyptian government to respect freedom of opinion and expression and to stop arbitrary arrests of citizens, joint statement, available via: https://www.facebook.com/CIHRS/posts/3454151657977578
[15] The latest update of the emergency room documentation of the events of September 20, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, October 8, 2020, available via the link: https://www.facebook.com/ecrf.net/posts/1745856928911366
[16] The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, press release, October 19, 2020: https://www.anhri.info/?p=19581
[17] The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, after his disappearance for more than 60 days… Rotating Mokka for the third time in a new case, press release, December 5, 2020, available via: https://www.facebook.com/ecrf.net/posts/1800033236827068/
[18] The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, for the release of Mrs. Manar Abul-Naga and her return to her child, joint statement, March 1, 2021, available via: https://www.facebook.com/ecrf.net/photos/a.344802732350133/1865542983609426
[19] Campaign to Stop Enforced Disappearances, 10 September 2017
[20] Ahmed Gamal Ziada, “About those people below”, Raseef 22 https://raseef22.net/article/1083930
[21] Bread and Freedom Party, press release regarding the disappearance of one of its members, October 1, 2019
https://www.facebook.com/482076265241200/photos/a.482921735156653/2501915156590624/
[22] Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, Article 19: “People who have been victims of enforced disappearance, and their families, shall be compensated, and shall have the right to obtain appropriate compensation, including the means for their full rehabilitation as possible. In the event of the death of a person as a result of enforced disappearance, his family is also entitled to compensation.”
[23] Al-Shehab Center for Human Rights, May 5, 2021: https://www.facebook.com/elshehab.ngo/posts/2887779601494949
[24] Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, Register of Detainees, Producers of Culture and Arts
https://www.facebook.com/ecrf.net/photos/a.344802732350133/1973750986121958/
[25] Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, Stations of Humiliation: Report on Gender Violations against Women, June 26, 2021: https://www.ec-rf.net/%d9%85%d8%ad%d8%b7%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d9%84%d9%84%d9%85%d9%87%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%a9-%d8%aa%d9%82%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d8%b9%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%aa%d9%87%d8%a7%d9%83%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ac/
[26] The Campaign to Stop Enforced Disappearances, the semi-annual report, for the period “September 2018 – February 2019” from unknown to unknown https://stopendis.org/?p=6147&fbclid=IwAR2a2pd3xnPzKv02LvJqkaygmfPfdqKlSHIGvaz02eJNg7QYef1kPKRthzg
[27] Article 24 of the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance “For the purposes of this Convention, “victim” means the disappeared person and every natural person who has suffered direct harm as a result of such enforced disappearance.”
[28] Egyptian Child Law No. 126 of 2008, Chapter Eight, Criminal Treatment of the Child
[29] Continuous violation and absent justice, op.
[30] See the texts of the articles of the Child Law No. 12 of 1996.
[31] The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, for the release of Mrs. Manar Abul-Naga and her return to her child, previous reference
[32] Article 12, Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance “Each State Party shall guarantee to whoever alleges that a person has been a victim of enforced disappearance has the right to report the facts to the competent authorities. These authorities shall examine the claim promptly and impartially and, if necessary and without delay, conduct a thorough and impartial investigation. Measures shall be taken. Adequate, where appropriate, to ensure that the complainant, witnesses, relatives of the disappeared person and their advocates, as well as those involved in the investigation, are protected from any ill-treatment or intimidation as a result of the complaint submitted or any testimony given. Where there are reasonable grounds to believe that a person has been the victim of an enforced disappearance, the authorities referred to in
paragraph 1 of this article shall carry out an investigation even if no formal complaint has been lodged.