Fighting for justice: Day of the Endangered…
We honour the courage and commitment of lawyers around the world who fight for justice, ahead of the Day of the Endangered Lawyer on 24 January.
A Fattah el-Sisi, president of the Arabic Republic of Egypt.
We are concerned about the arrest, detention and prosecution of former Egyptian parliamentarian and lawyer Zyad el-Eleimy. On 25 June 2019, he was arrested in Cairo and brought to the State Security Prosecution.
Others were also arrested that day – including political campaigners and journalists - and were accused of leading a plot to “bring down the state.”
Mr el-Eleimy is part of a group of individuals seeking to identify potential candidates to take part in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Egypt. Egyptian state authorities refer to this group as the “Hope Coalition”.
Mr el-Eleimy is now a defendant in case number 930 of 2019. He’s being held in pre-trial detention in Tora prison and faces potential charges of:
He suffers from asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure and his health has deteriorated in detention.
We called upon the Egyptian authorities to:
We will continue to monitor Mr el-Eleimy’s situation, and that of other lawyers and human rights defenders in Egypt, as well as actions undertaken by Egypt to implement the recommendations listed above.
25 June 2019 – Zyad el-Eleimy and several other political campaigners and journalists arrested
December 2019 – Zyad el-Eleimy questioned in relation to another case about an interview he gave in 2017 to the BBC
17 February 2020 – Mr el-Eleimy's lawyers reported tht criminal proceedings were against him for his part in case number 43 of 2017
18 February 2020 – case number 43 first heard but postponed until 3 March
9 March 2020 – we wrote to the Egyptian president