Release Immediately Ahmad Abdallah, the Head of Board of Trustees of Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF)

April 25, 2016
ECRF condemns the arrest of PhD Engineer Mr. Ahmad Abdallah, the head of Board of Trustees of Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms and calls for his immediate and unconditional release. Today at 3:00 AM Cairo time, special heavily armed police forces arrived in four vans. Police forces broke into Mr. Abdullah’s house in fifth settlement district, searched his home, arrested him and confiscated his laptop and mobile phone them transferred him to New Cairo police station. . The East Cairo Prosecution in relation to protests in April 2016 had issued an arrest warrant earlier against Mr. Ahmad Abdallah. Therefore, by 9:00 AM, the police transferred him to east Cairo prosecution for further investigation.
ECRF fears that the arrest of Ahmad Abdallah is related to the ongoing case where 46 other activists are being summoned on the background of the wave of the protests hitting Cairo after the incident of selling Tiran and Sanafir Islands in a bid to crackdown such demonstrations and calls on April 25, 2016.
At least more than 100 people were arrested in eight different governorates including Cairo and Alexandria. These detentions have targeted a number of public figures, human rights defenders and political activists. According to lawyers in the field, as more protests are planned today, the number is expected to increase within the next few hours
The brutal crackdown we are facing today in Cairo and other governorates appears to be a result for the interior ministry announcement yesterday, which states, “The interior ministry will respond with the utmost firmness and decisiveness to any action that could disturb public security or attacking any public facilities.” This statement followed Mr. President Abdul Fattah Al Sisi’s when he declared that some groups are trying to interrupt public security and he accounted both police and armed forces to stop such acts.
ECRF demands the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Ahmed Abdullah and others who have been arrested over the past few days under trivial accusations, and we declare our concern regarding the brutal crackdown currently affecting everyone with no exceptions in Egypt.
ECRF considers the arrest of Ahmed Abdallah and others to be a serious breach of Egypt’s international obligations and Egyptian constitution specifically with regard to the right to peaceful assembly, freedom of association, expression and the right to fair trial. ECRF will submit a complaint to the United Nation’s human rights mechanisms regarding the arbitrary arrest and detention of Ahmed Abdallah, as a human rights defender and a political activist, who peacefully exercises his basic civic freedoms.
Earlier in January 2016 preceding the revolution fifth anniversary, there was an attempt to abduct Ahmad Abdallah from a coffee shop in Cairo accusing him of mobilizing the masses and calling for protests on that day.April 25, 2016
ECRF condemns the arrest of PhD Engineer Mr. Ahmad Abdallah, the head of Board of Trustees of Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms and calls for his immediate and unconditional release. Today at 3:00 AM Cairo time, special heavily armed police forces arrived in four vans. Police forces broke into Mr. Abdullah’s house in fifth settlement district, searched his home, arrested him and confiscated some papers and belongings then transferred him to New Cairo police station. . The East Cairo Prosecution in relation to protests in April 2016 had issued an arrest warrant earlier against Mr. Ahmad Abdallah. Therefore, by 9:00 AM, the police transferred him to east Cairo prosecution for further investigation.
ECRF fears that the arrest of Ahmad Abdallah is related to the ongoing case where 46 other activists are being summoned on the background of the wave of the protests hitting Cairo after the incident of selling Tiran and Sanafir Islands in a bid to crackdown such demonstrations and calls on April 25, 2016.
At least more than 100 people were arrested in eight different governorates including Cairo and Alexandria. These detentions have targeted a number of public figures, human rights defenders and political activists. According to lawyers in the field, as more protests are planned today, the number is expected to increase within the next few hours
The brutal crackdown we are facing today in Cairo and other governorates appears to be a result for the interior ministry announcement yesterday, which states, “The interior ministry will respond with the utmost firmness and decisiveness to any action that could disturb public security or attacking any public facilities.” This statement followed Mr. President Abdul Fattah Al Sisi’s when he declared that some groups are trying to interrupt public security and he accounted both police and armed forces to stop such acts.
ECRF demands the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Ahmed Abdullah and others who have been arrested over the past few days under trivial accusations, and we declare our concern regarding the brutal crackdown currently affecting everyone with no exceptions in Egypt.
ECRF considers the arrest of Ahmed Abdallah and others to be a serious breach of Egypt’s international obligations and Egyptian constitution specifically with regard to the right to peaceful assembly, freedom of association, expression and the right to fair trial. ECRF will submit a complaint to the United Nation’s human rights mechanisms regarding the arbitrary arrest and detention of Ahmed Abdallah, as a human rights defender and a political activist, who peacefully exercises his basic civic freedoms.
Earlier in January 2016 preceding the revolution fifth anniversary, there was an attempt to abduct Ahmad Abdallah from a coffee shop in Cairo accusing him of mobilizing the masses and calling for protests on that day.