URGENT ACTION

HEAVY SENTENCES AGAINST UNJUSTLY JAILED COUPLE
On 5 March, an emergency court sentenced Aisha el-Shater and her husband lawyer Mohamed Abo Horeira to ten and 15 years in prison, respectively. They were convicted on bogus charges stemming from their family links and peaceful exercise of their human rights following a grossly unfair trial. The Egyptian authorities have been subjecting Aisha el-Shater to torture by holding her in prolonged solitary confinement and denying her access to adequate healthcare for her serious health condition. The couple have also been banned from any family visits for over four years. Concerns over Mohamed Abo Horeira’s wellbeing have also been heightened amid alarming reports of torture and other ill-treatment in Badr 3 prison where he is held.

TAKE ACTION: WRITE AN APPEAL IN YOUR OWN WORDS OR USE THIS MODEL LETTER

President Abdelfattah al-Sisi
Office of the President
 Al Ittihadia Palace, Cairo,
Arab Republic of Egypt
Email: p.spokesman@op.gov.eg
 Twitter: @AlsisiOfficial
Your Excellency,

On 5 March, an Emergency State Security Court (ESSC) sentenced Aisha el-Shater, the 42-year-old daughter of senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Khairat el-Shater, and her husband lawyer Mohamed Abo Horeira to ten and 15 years in prison, respectively, after convicting them of bogus charges stemming from their human rights work and peaceful dissent. The court also convicted Ezzat Ghoniem, founder of the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), a rights group, human rights lawyer Hoda Abdelmoneim and 26 others and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from five years to life; one defendant was acquitted. The court also ruled to add the 30 convicted defendants to the “list of terrorists” which leads to asset freezes and travel bans and place them on police probation for five years after prison. Their trial, referred to as the " ECRF case” by Egyptian media, which began on 11 September 2022, was grossly unfair with defendants denied their rights to adequate defence, not to self-incriminate and to genuine review by a higher tribunal. After over four years in abusive pretrial detention, the defendants were indicted in August 2022 on multiple charges, including joining, funding and supporting a terrorist group (the Muslim Brotherhood) and spreading “false news” about human rights abuses by security forces through the ECRF’s Facebook page. Verdicts by ESSCs are final and cannot be appealed.

Aisha el-Shater, who suffers from aplastic anaemia, a rare and serious condition affecting the blood, has been held at the al-Qanater women’s prison clinic since December 2020, amid the authorities’ refusal to transfer her to an adequately equipped outside hospital to ensure that she receives the specialist and ongoing treatment she needs. Mohamed Abo Horeira is held in Badr 3 prison, amid mounting evidence of prisoner abuse there. Since their arrests in November 2018, the authorities have barred Aisha el-Shater and Mohamed Abo Horeira from visits, as well as written and phone communication, with their family and lawyers. Their treatment violates the absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment.

We urge you to ensure that Aisha el-Shater, Mohamed Abo Horeira and others convicted in connection to the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms are immediately and unconditionally released and that their convictions and sentences are quashed as they stem solely from the peaceful exercise of their human rights or peaceful dissent. Pending their release, we call on you to ensure that they are provided with the means to regularly communicate with their family and lawyers and with access to adequate healthcare including outside prison.

Yours sincerely,
Additional information

On 1 November 2018, Aisha el-Shater and her husband Mohamed Abo Horeira were arrested from their home in Nasr City, Cairo. Amnesty International learned that Aisha el-Shater was forcibly disappeared for 20 days, during which period she was held at the headquarters of the National Security Agency in the Abbasiya neighbourhood of Cairo and subjected to beatings and electric shocks. On 21 November 2018, she appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP), where prosecutors ordered her pre-trial detention pending investigations on terrorism-related accusations. Before her arrest, she spoke out on her account on Facebook about human rights violations in Egypt including enforced disappearances, torture and other ill-treatment. Prior to his arrest, lawyer Mohamed Abo Horeira represented detainees suspected of membership in the Muslim Brotherhood. Following his arrest, he was held in an undisclosed location for nearly four months where he was subjected to threats and was hit on the head while handcuffed and blindfolded.On 1 November 2018, following the arrests of Aisha el-Shater, Mohamed Abo Horeira and 29 other human rights defenders and lawyers, the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), which documented enforced disappearances and the use of the death penalty and provided legal aid to victims, announced the suspension of its human rights work.
Officials at al-Qanater women’s prison held Aisha el-Shater in solitary confinement in a small poorly ventilated cell, without a bathroom, from January 2019 to December 2020. Aisha el- Shater has aplastic anemia, a rare and serious condition affecting the blood, which increases the risk of infections and uncontrolled bleeding. Despite this, the authorities have denied her access to adequate and specialized healthcare in an outside hospital. Her health deteriorated in detention, and she was admitted, while handcuffed, to Al-Qasr al-Ainy hospital twice in October 2019, with significant bleeding, and was given a platelet transfusion. During the 15 May 2022 trial hearing, the ESSC ordered for Aisha el-Shater’s examination by a committee of three doctors to advise on whether she needs treatment outside prison. As she is banned from communicating with the outside word, her family and lawyers have no information on whether the examination had taken place.
Since February 2023, concerns about cruel and inhuman detention conditions in the Badr 3 prison, around 70 kilometres east of Cairo, have increased amid leaked letters by prisoners indicating a proliferation in suicide attempts by prisoners, who have been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including deliberate denial of healthcare, exposure to extreme cold, camera surveillance around the clock, and bombardment with bright lights 24 hours a day. Prisoner letters paint a frightening picture of starving detainees held in isolation, whose despair at the injustices suffered for years has led some to attempt suicide and others to go on hunger strike. Concerns were further heightened after some prisoners held in Badr 3 complained during a detention renewal hearing, held online on 13 March 2023, about being stripped naked and beaten. Since the Badr Prison Complex became operational in mid-2022, the authorities have banned family visits to all prisoners in Badr 3. Prison officials also ban prisoners from any phone or written communication with their relatives, effectively subjecting them to incommunicado detention. Given that the detainees are cut off from the outside world, little information is known about their current situation amid concerns for their well-being and mental health and reports of prison authorities subjecting prisoners to punitive measures for complaining about their treatment including by transferring some to unknown locations and placing others in solitary confinement. Prison officials also refuse to accept deliveries of food, clothes, and other essentials to prisoners from their families, despite well-documented patterns of prison authorities failing to provide those in their custody with sufficient food, potable water, basic items for personal hygiene, adequate clothing and bedding.
On 25 October 2021, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi announced that he would not extend the state of emergency, in force since 2017, which allowed for the creation of ESSCs. Article 19 of the law governing the state of emergency stipulates that ongoing trials are to continue even after the state of emergency is no longer in force.  Proceedings in front of ESSCs are inherently unfair. Defendants are denied the right to appeal their convictions and sentences to a higher independent tribunal. Only the president retains the power to authorize, quash or commute sentences or to order a retrial. Throughout their investigation and trial proceedings, which began on 11 September 2022, defendants in the “ECRF case” were banned from speaking to their lawyers in private. Several were interrogated by SSSP prosecutors without their lawyers present. The court hearings were held in secret in the Badr Prison Complex. Observers, members of the public and relatives of defendants were banned from the hearings. Lawyers also said they were not permitted to access their clients’ case files during the investigation. They also said that the court relied on eyewitness testimonies by NSA officers, which were accepted without adequate cross-examination, and did not allow all defendants to speak in court.
PREFERRED LANGUAGE TO ADDRESS TARGET: Arabic, English or your own language.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: 12 May 2023
Please check with the Amnesty office in your country if you wish to send appeals after the deadline.

NAME AND PRONOUN: Aisha el-Shater (she/her), Mohamed Abo Horeira (he/his)

LINK TO PREVIOUS UA: www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde12/5697/2022/en/

Additional TARGETS

Please send copies to:

Assistant Foreign Minister for Human Rights and International Social and Humanitarian Issues
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Corniche el-Nile, Cairo, Egypt.
Fax: +202 2574 9713
Email: contact.us@mfa.gov.eg
Twitter: @MfaEgypt

Mr Sherif Ahmed Mahmoud Kamel  
Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt  
26 South Street, W1K 1DW 
Fax: 020 7491 1542 
E-mail address: egtamboff@gmail.com; Egyemb2020@gmail.com 
Salutation: Your Excellency