Association
In November 2025, a report based on interviews conducted by Amnesty International was published documenting the impact of Law No. 149 of 2019 on associations (the associations law). Several NGOs working in human rights, social development, and media sectors, described concrete difficulties related to registration, access to funding, and state monitoring, and called for legislative reforms aimed at lifting restrictions on the registration of associations, facilitating access to resources, and reducing bureaucratic and security interference, in order to ensure the genuine exercise of freedom of association in Egypt.
Peaceful Assembly
In June 2025, the Egyptian Front for Human Rights documented the arrest of dozens of international activists participating in the Global March for Gaza.
Following these arrests, between 10 and 16 July 2025, Amnesty International documented the arbitrary detention of three Egyptian nationals and five foreign nationals in connection with their participation in, or preparation for, the Gaza March. Several individuals were subsequently placed in 15-day pretrial detention. In addition, the organisation reported allegations of torture and other forms of ill-treatment during detention in some cases: physical abuse by the National Security Agency, including electric shocks and beatings. Egyptian security forces also detained 200 pro-Palestinian activists upon arrival at the Cairo airport and deported them back to their countries after being questioned. According to a lawyer from the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), those arrested were investigated by the Supreme State Security Prosecution on charges including “joining a terrorist group,” “financing a terrorist group,” and “spreading false news.”
During the year 2025, at least a dozen cases of “punishment by proxy” were documented in Egypt, in which authorities targeted the relatives of exiled journalists, activists, and human rights defenders through raids, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, interrogation, travel bans, and other forms of harassment, highlighting a persistent strategy of transnational repression. These practices reflect a wider pattern of repression.
Expression
In parallel, trials involving approximately 6,000 individuals accused of terrorism in retaliation for their political views began in early May 2025, following an eight-month period of referrals to the terrorism courts by the Supreme State Security Prosecution. Access for civil society organisations and media to observe the proceedings has not been permitted. Hearings initially scheduled for June and July were repeatedly postponed or cancelled, reportedly due to the inability to transfer defendants from detention facilities, and many cases were rescheduled for later months.
Since July 2025, online content creators have increasingly been targeted by Egyptian authorities. At least 29 individuals, including women and minors, were prosecuted within a single month. Most cases involve charges related to “violating public morals” or “undermining family values”, applied to social media content such as videos of belly dancing, tattoo art, and other forms of personal expression. For example, in June, 16-year-old Nour Tufaha was sentenced to two years in prison by a juvenile court for appearing in dance videos, judged as “promoting debauchery,” while tattoo artist Fadi Tattoo was prosecuted for sharing videos of tattooing women, deemed to contradict “social traditions.” Authorities justify these prosecutions under Article 25 of Law No. 175 of 2018 on Cybercrime, with penalties ranging from six months to three years in prison.
In positive developments, on 22 September 2025, Abd el-Fattah, a leading voice of the 2011 Arab Spring movement, was granted a presidential pardon by President Abdel Fattah el‑Sisi on 22 September 2025, ending years of incarceration and sparking international attention. In 2014, Alaa Abd el‑Fattah was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was released in 2019, only to be detained again and handed a five‑year sentence on charges of spreading “false information.” In November 2025, he was initially barred from traveling to the United Kingdom to receive the 2025 Courage Under Fire Award. The travel restriction was eventually lifted, allowing him to attend the ceremony and return freely.
In December 2025, the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights reported that pretrial detention was extended for two detainees for an additional 45 days as investigations continue. One of the cases concerns Sherif Ali Mohamed, arrested in 2022 after expressing grievances related to unemployment. He remains in custody despite ongoing health complications, including severe facial nerve pain. The second case involves Mohab, who was detained over alleged online monitoring and social media-related activity. He continues to be held while being required to pursue his university studies from detention.
These ongoing detentions occurred alongside a broader escalation of harsh judicial measures, as Egyptian courts handed down death sentences to 52 individuals across 31 cases in December 2025. Furthermore, the legal files of 55 other defendants were submitted to the Mufti for review in 26 additional cases.
In December 2025, 64 individuals were sent to trial over their support for Palestine.
Some of the defendants were charged for attempting to demonstrate in support of the Palestinian following the October 2023 bombardment of OPT by Israel and have been in pre-trial detention since 2023. Others include those detained and charged for their expression of solidarity within a closed group chat on a social media, also in detention since early 2024. Among the cases is that of Ahmed Bahgat Ezzat, who has been forcibly disappeared for nearly 19 months and is considered a “fugitive” by the Egyptian authorities, despite complaints lodged with the United Nations. The defendants are charged with separate charges offences including joining a terrorist group and unauthorised assembly.
Condemning these trials, EIPR said in their statement:
“EIPHR condemns the baseless referral to criminal trial of the 64 defendants who merely expressed or attempted to express support for Palestine without legal justification and without serious investigation. The violations some of them have endured, culminating with their criminal trial after prolonged detention, can only be interpreted as punishment for exercising their legitimate constitutional right to freedom of expression”.