During the previous month of November the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) monitored the state and problems of freedom of thought and expression in Egypt. Through its various units’ activities, AFTE issued statements that take a deeper look at some of the issues of freedom of thought and expression currently raised and provided legal aid in cases related to freedom of thoughts and expression.
1. Publications:
AFTE issued the third quarterly report Ongoing violations, analyses the policies of the Egyptian authorities and their various agencies towards the right to freedom of expression, freedom of the press and media, freedom of creativity and artistic expression, academic freedom, digital rights, and the right to peaceful protest and assembly. and the state institutions’ attitude towards supporting or violating these rights.
AFTE also issued The National Center for Translation: Towards decentralized culture paper, after the center developed a new list of translation conditions that imposes censorship on the content selected for translation and the translation itself. it discusses the center’s policies in achieving cultural justice.
AFTE Issued Top secret .. How did laws restrict the circulation of information in Egypt? paper, to review the laws that restrict the circulation of information, and the need to make extensive legislative amendments in this regard, along with passing a law for the circulation of information in Egypt.
2. Statements:
A statement titled AFTE condemns the continued targeting of “TikTok” young men and women and calls for an end to the trials and investigations where AFTE calls on the Egyptian authorities to stop the unfair trials of female content creators, release them and their assistants, and to repeal the Law on Combatting Information Technology Crimes, which is used to place repressive restrictions on the freedom to use the internet.
AFTE signed on the statement 45 human rights organizations are in solidarity with the Executive Director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, Hossam Bahgat, a week before the verdict in an opinion case in rotation with his trial against a tweet Bahgat posted and calls on the Egyptian authorities to cease the harassment against him solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression and his human rights activism
3. Legal Aid:
– Criminal Court orders to extend the detention of Mohamed Mamdouh Abdel Halim for 45 days
– Criminal Court orders to extend the detention of Kholoud Saied Amer for 45 days
– Criminal Court orders to extend the detention of Hamed Sedeek for 45 days
– Criminal Court orders to extend the detention of journalist Amer Abdel-Moneim for 45 days
– Criminal Court orders to extend the detention of Alaa Essam for 45 days
– Criminal Court orders to extend the detention of lawyer Amr Nohanfor 45 days
– Criminal Court orders to extend the detention of Mohamed Salah and “Ahmed Yousry Ghaly for 45 days
– Criminal Court orders to renew the precautionary measures of Islam Ali Mohamed
– Dismissing the appeal of Ahmed Hassanein Mohamed Moussa against his detention order
– The hearing session of the two lawsuits demanding broadcasting the sessions of the house of representatives and the Senate adjourned to next January 2th
– Criminal Court orders to extend the detention of Quranist blogger Reda Abdel-Rahman for 45 days
– Emergency State Security set the lawsuit of Mohamed Oxygen date for adjudication to December 20
– Ayman Abdel Aziz Abdel Halim sentenced to one year in prison
– Rotating Omar Mahmoud Al-Hout for the Sixth time
– Appellate court refuses the request of Haneen Hossam’s defense of recusation of court
– The Trial Session of Dr. Ayman Mansour Nada Adjourned to December 27
– Criminal Court orders to renew the detention of lawyer Mohamed Ramadan for 45 days
– The trial session of Mohamed Al-Qassas adjourned to December 28
– Grievance of four defendants against State Security Emergency Court sentence accepted
– Supreme State Security Prosecution orders to detain Mohamed Amer for 15 days
Webinar: Appeals in the TikTok Trials
AFTE held a webinar titled “Appeals in the TikTok Trials” that comes within a campaign that calls for stopping TikTok trials, the webinar discussed:
– The merits of the verdicts in the TikTok cases issued last June: the beginning and the outcome of these trials, and the differences between the accusations made, between the Egyptian family values, human trafficking, and prostitution, and how they’re related to freedom of expression.
– The various stages of litigation and the legal basis for the appeals in cases of Mawada, Sherry Hanem, and Zomorroda, and the different status of Haneen Hossam’s retrial, and what’s next.
– The interest shown by global rights organizations in these trials and the possibility of issuing a presidential pardon for all accused in the TikTok trials.
In conjunction with passing 300 days since the arrest of researcher and master’s student at the Central European University Ahmed Samir Santawy who has been detained since February 2021 during a visit to his family in Egypt, and now facing a prison sentence of 4 years for his academic work, AFTE launched a video calling the President to overturn the verdict against Santawy, and the attorney general to unconditionally release him.
