Cairo: 19 April 2020

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) condemns the ruling issued by Cairo Criminal Court to place leftist lawyer and former MP Zyad al-Elaimy on the terrorism list for a period of five years, in an arbitrary and unfair trial where only the decision was announced.

Cairo Criminal Court ruled that lawyer and former MP Zyad al-Elaimy and others be added to the terrorism list without giving them or their lawyers the opportunity to present their pleadings or refute such allegations. The decision was also issued without announcing it except on Saturday April 18, although it was handed down Thursday April 16 but neither Elaimy’s lawyer nor family learned about until yesterday.

The ruling constitutes a new episode of the government’s ongoing years-long crackdown on democracy advocates. It will result in the withdrawal of al-Elaimy’s membership of the Egyptian Bar Association upon the amendments made to the Terrorist Entities Law which were approved by the Parliament on 3 March 2020.

ANHRI regrets to announce that such decisions undermine the principle of the rule of law and the procedural legitimacy of trials. They also indicate that unfair laws are being exploited to crackdown against opponents with different affiliations- whether leftist, Islamist, liberal, or nationalist- so that countering terrorism can be used as a pretext for suppression, especially that the partial curfew and the state of flux Egypt witnesses represents an opportunity to continue such repression.

It’s worth mentioning that lawyer and former MP Zyad al-Elaimy was arrested on 25 June 2019 before he was referred to the Supreme State Security Prosecution for investigation into the Case No. 930 of 2019 State Security, on charges of: colluding with a terrorist group to achieve its goals, publishing and broadcasting false news and statements, misusing social media. He was then ordered to be held in pretrial detention, until on 20 March 2020, Al-Muqattam Misdemeanor Court sentenced him to one year in prison and a fine of EGP 20,000 for “publishing false news” against the backdrop of a complaint filed against him by a citizen in 2017.