GENERAL
The state of civic space in Egypt is rated as ‘closed’ by the CIVICUS monitor. Freedom of expression continues to be muzzled in Egypt, with activists and human rights defenders regularly targeted, illegally detained and charged with unsubstantiated charges. While in the reported-on period showed positive developments, namely in the release of around 90 detainees held on political charges in April 2026, other cases of restrictions on the freedom of expression quickly took hold: a filmmaker arrested from his home and held in pretrial detention, an HRD sentenced to one year behind bars and civil society lawyers and activists arrested for organising an event in solidarity of political detainees.
These events are reflective of a broader pattern of contradiction in Egypt’s mode of restricting civic rights where selective releases of political prisoners become clouded by the selective arrests of others.
#Egypt: CPJ calls on Egyptian authorities to immediately release political commentator Ahmed Douma, who was arrested on April 6 at the Supreme State Security Prosecution headquarters following a six-hour interrogation. https://t.co/xZfHwFtwCE
— CPJ MENA (@CPJMENA) April 7, 2026
Expression
FAMED POET AND HRD SENTENCED AFTER PRESIDENTIAL PARDON IN 2023
On 6th April 2026, Egyptian authorities detained human rights defender and poet Ahmed Douma following a summons he had received to present himself to the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP). During the interrogation, it came to light that he was accused of “spreading false information…with the intent to disturb public peace and spread panic” for having written an article entitled “From Prison Within the State to a State Within the Prison” in the Arabic media outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, detailing detention conditions inside Egyptian prisons. He was subsequently held in pretrial detention for two months. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), alongside numerous human rights organisations, criticised the detention and called for his release, considering it another episode of endless judicial harassment against Douma. According to EIPR, since his release by presidential pardon in August 2023, Douma had been subjected to seven investigations opened against him in less than two years, consistently linked to his articles and public statements. On 3rd June 2026, the poet was sentenced to a year behind bars. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) decried the sentencing, calling for his unconditional release.
Douma had previously spent a decade behind bars where he was regularly held in solitary confinement, deliberately denied medical care and tortured, according to Amnesty International.
FILMMAKER ARRESTED AFTER HOME RAID
On 11th May 2026, Egyptian filmmaker and screenwriter Omar Salah Marei was arrested after police raided his home, allegedly confiscating laptops, mobile phones and seizing sums of cash, and kept him in an undisclosed location for several days. On 16th May, he was brought before the Supreme State Security Prosecution and ordered to 15 days of pretrial detention pending investigation on charges of “spreading false news”. Their reliant evidence allegedly being his social media posts, in which he criticised Egypt’s film industry and the state’s dominance over it. According to Marei’s lawyers, ever since his arrest, he has been denied medical treatment linked to preexisting thyroid condition.
SUPREME STATE SECURITY AGENCY RELEASES DETAINEES HELD ON POLITICAL CHARGES
On the same day as Ahmed Douma’s interrogation, Egypt’s Supreme State Security Agency ordered the release of around 90 detainees held on political charges, according to the EIPR. Among them were political activists Sherif El-Rouby and Nermin Hussein, members of the April 6th Youth Movement who had played an integral role in organising Egypt’s 2011 Arab Spring protests. El-Rouby, who had been the official spokesperson for the movement, had previously been released in 2022 by presidential pardon. Three months into his release, he was once again detained for having publicly spoken of the financial and societal difficulties that previous detainees face upon their release. He remained four years behind bars, allegedly experiencing multiple cases of medical negligence. As for Nermin Hussein, she had been held in pretrial detention for six years, despite the legal limit of pretrial detention being set to eight months by Article 124 of the new Criminal Procedure Code No.174 of 2025. To bypass this, authorities in Egypt use a tactic called “rotation” in which detainees are added as potential suspects in new cases to justify extending pretrial detention, which take the form of 15- and 45-day increments.
Among those who were released were detainees who had been arrested for participating in a protest decrying the Israeli genocide in Gaza in October 2023, including Sami el-Gendi and lawyer Mahmoud Nasser. Also, Arab Spring protester Ahmed Orabi, who had been in pretrial detention since November 2022 on charges of “joining a terrorist group” and “spreading false news”, was additionally released.
Abdullah Mohamed El-Sayed, resident of the Tawsoon neighborhood in Alexandria whose inhabitants were being displaced to make way for a highway, was also among those released. El-Sayed was his workplace when he was arrested on 11th September 2025 and accused of “joining a terrorist group”, “spreading false news” and “misusing social media platforms”, for posting a video of authorities removing a sticker saying, “we will not leave our homes”.
El-Sayed Ali Fahim Abu Al-Maati, known as “El- Sayed Moshaghib”, a prominent leader of the Ultras White Knights, a hardcore fan association for Egypt’s Zamalek Football Team, was additionally among those released after spending 11 years behind bars in pretrial detention. He was arrested in 2015 in connection to what came to be known as the “Air Defense Stadium Incident”, where police forces fired at stadium goers outside the over-crowded stadium, leading to a stampede that killed 20 people. After two years in pretrial detention, he was sentenced in 2017 to seven years in prison for “possession of explosives, vandalism of public facilities and assault against security forces”. While in prison, he was added as a potential suspect in several other investigations, thus leading to the continual renewal of his pretrial detention.
Peaceful Assembly
RELEASED DETAINEE RE-ARRESTED HOURS INTO HIS RELEASE
Hours into his release in April 2026, while friends and family gathered in the streets to celebrate his liberation, as “El- Sayed Moshaghib (see incident above in expression section) and five of his friends were rearrested on charges of “unlawful gathering and protesting”, as well as the “possession of fireworks” and “obstruction of traffic”. The Ministry of Interior issued a statement to justify his re-arrest, describing the celebration of his release as a “riot” which caused “public alarm”.
CRACKDOWN ON HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYERS AND ACTIVISTS
On 25th May 2026, police authorities detained members of the Committee for the Defense of Prisoners of Conscience, an Egyptian civil society initiative launched by activists, political parties and lawyers to advocate for the release of political detainees, after they had organised an event called “Prison is Not their Place” to show solidarity with prisoners of conscience in Egypt. According to the Committee, which had published a statement on 17th May, families of political detainees were experiencing harassment, threats and even detainment following their participation in the event.
Amongst those detained were lawyers Mohamed Abou Al-Diyar and Wafaa Al-Masry, as well as political activist Hanan Al-Tantawi. Al-Diyar had previously been detained for his role as campaign manager for politician Ahmed El-Tantawi during the 2023 presidential elections and sentenced to one year behind bars. Tantawy and El-Masry were charged with “spreading false news” and released on a bail of 50,000 Egyptian pounds (USD 950.25) each while Al-Diyar was detained for 15 days in pretrial detention and charged with joining a banned group.
Just a day before its members’ arrests, the Committee had published a statement decrying the prolongment of activist Nael Hassan’s pretrial detention by 15 days. Hassan, who is charged with “spreading false news and using an online platform to promote terrorist ideas”, had gone to the National Security Agency in Alexandria on 21st May following a phone summons, after which he was subsequently arrested and forcibly disappeared until appearing before the Supreme State Security Prosecution. He was previously arrested in August 2025 and released on the same day, and on 21st April 2017 and released a year later.