The Egyptian authorities and affiliated groups have responded to recent reporting by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, an Egyptian human rights group with a focus on Egypt’s militarized North Sinai, with a smear campaign and threats against the group and its director, Ahmed Salem, 18 civil society organizations denounced today. Salem, a United Kingdom-based Egyptian human rights activist, said that, through intermediaries close to Egyptian authorities, he received threats that he “would be brought back to Egypt” if he did not drop his work. Such campaigns have frequently involved transnational repression, targeting human rights defenders based outside Egypt, including by harassment, arbitrary arrests, prolonged detentions and prosecutions of family members of those living in exile. According to Human Rights Watch’s research, thousands of North Sinai residents have been subjected to mass arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, abduction, torture, and extrajudicial killings. Signatories:Amnesty InternationalCairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)Committee for JusticeDemocracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against TortureEgyptian Front for Human Rights (EFHR)Egyptian Human Rights Forum (EHRF)EgyptWide for Human RightsEl Nadeem CenterEuroMed RightsFairSquareHuman Rights WatchInternational Commission of JuristsInternational Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)International Service for Human RightsMiddle East Democracy Center (MEDC)The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE)The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Source: The North Africa Journal February 26, 2024 16:05 UTC