Egypt: Ahead of Ahmed Aboul Fotouh’s trial, rights organizations demand the dismissal of the retaliatory case against him
april 26, 2025
The undersigned human rights organizations are gravely concerned as the trial of Ahmed Aboul Fotouh approaches, with its first session on Sunday, 27 April. Ahmed is the son of Dr. Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, head of the Strong Egypt Party, and the trial stems from Ahmed’s publication of information about the violations his father faced in prison. This trial represents a continuation of the authorities’ systematic wielding of retaliatory measures against political opponents and their family members. The organizations condemn the holding of the trial before the Emergency State Security Criminal Court, which has an alarming record of issuing harsh sentences against political dissidents, journalists, and human rights defenders, amid an overall judicial failure of to ensure the minimum guarantees of a fair trial. The organizations demand the dismissal of all charges against Ahmed Aboul Fotouh, and further underscore the urgent necessity of ending the Egyptian government’s retaliatory policies, which only serve to further tighten the security stranglehold over Egypt’s public sphere.
On 16 April, security forces arrested Ahmed Aboul Fotouh at the Katameya Traffic Unit, while he was renewing his driver license. The arrest was in implementation of a 15-year prison sentence issued in absentia against him in May 2022 by the Emergency State Security Court on false charges. According to the case documents, Ahmed Aboul Fotouh is accused of joining a terrorist group with knowledge of its objectives. This is in the same case (No. 1059 of 2021 Emergency State Security Felonies, registered as No. 707 of 2021 New Cairo Court), in which his father was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh’s deputy, Mohamed al-Qassas, and Moaz al-Sharqawi, the former vice president of the Tanta University Student Union, were sentenced to a decade in prison. Numerous human rights organizations condemned this sentence at the time, as it was issued by an exceptional court that failed to ensure fundamental due process guarantees, and whose rulings are not subject to appeal. Regrettably, these authoritarian practices have become codified under the proposed new Criminal Procedure Code recently approved by Parliament.
This exceptional state security court has a history of issuing harsh sentences against political opponents and human rights activists in unfair trials. The same court sentenced political activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, currently on hunger strike, to five years in prison. Although his sentence ended last September, the authorities still refuse to release him. Among many other politically-motivated cases, the court sentenced to prison blogger Mohamed Radwan (Oxygen) and human rights defender Hoda Abdel Moneim, to five and four year sentences respectively. Although Hoda Abdel Moneim was due to be released in October 2023, she was ‘recycled’ in two new cases involving the same charges and remains unjustly detained. ‘Recycling’ is an unlawful practice increasing enacted to indefinitely extend detention, especially in retaliation against political opponents, by bringing a new case against a detainee at the expiry of their sentence in a previous case.
Since Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh’s imprisonment in February 2018, his son Ahmed has been active in documenting and publicizing the violations and the arbitrary measures his father has faced in solitary confinement, resulting in a deterioration in his mental and physical health and recurrent heart attacks. Despite his solitary confinement, the authorities have further persecuted Abdel Moneim. He was later charged under an additional case (No. 786 of 2020) last December and the prosecution recently decided to refer him to the terrorism court on charges of leading a terrorist group and financing terrorism.
We the signatories demand the immediate release of Ahmed Aboul Fotouh and the dismissal of the charges against him. We further demand the release of his father, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, his deputy, Mohamed al-Qassas, and activist Moaz al-Sharqawi, and all prisoners of conscience, politicians, and human rights defenders detained for peaceful dissent. We further demand an end to the exploitation of the judicial process to settle political scores under a legal guise, which includes putting an end to retaliatory security prosecutions, the illegitimate practice of ‘recycling’, and an end to the prosecution of human rights defenders and opposition figures under counterterrorism charges in exceptional courts.
Signatories:
- Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
- EgyptWide for Human Rights
- Egyptian Front for Human Rights
- Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF)
- Foundation for Law and Democracy Support
- The Egyptian Human Rights Forum
- Sinai Foundation for Human Rights
- El Nadeem Center
- Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)
