Prepared by: AFTE’s Monitoring and Documentation Unit
Content
Methodology
Introduction
First axis: What do academics face after their release?
- Dismissal or suspension from work
- Travel bans
- Difficulty of finding jobs in private institutions
- Lack of official channels to adjudicate disputes
- Difficulty of obtaining official documents
- Psychological and financial problems
Second axis: The legal framework regulating the rights of academics
Third axis: Other violations faced by academics
Conclusion and recommendations
Methodology
This report is based on testimonies of Egyptian academics and researchers who study abroad and were imprisoned and released. The researcher who prepared this report has contacted seven Egyptian academics and researchers who were previously imprisoned in political cases but faced multiple violations after their release. The researcher asked the seven mainly about the reason for their imprisonment, its duration, the case’s number, the date of release, in addition to the major violations they faced after they were released.
Three testimonies were made over the phone, two via the internet, and two face-to-face. The report also relies on information provided by AFTE’s Legal Aid Unit and official papers and documents belonging to the seven cases.
Introduction
Academic freedom in Egypt has been facing systematic and continuous violations for nearly ten years. These violations can be classified into administrative, security and judicial violations. Pretrial detention comes on top of these violations, which the security services commit against academics and researchers coming from abroad to punish them for exercising their right to expression and their right to academic freedom. These violations are committed for multiple reasons, including opposing state policies, tackling taboo research issues, and posting on social media.
Academics and researchers are not only subjected to pretrial detention, but they also face violations after their release that prevent them from resuming their career. These violations include the difficulty of returning to their university jobs, banning them from travelling, preventing them from working in private institutions, the lack of official channels through which they can resolve their disputes, and the difficulty of obtaining official papers.
These obstacles cause the released academics and researchers further financial, health and psychological problems. This report highlights the sufferings those academics and researchers face after they leave prison, especially in light of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi’s directives to the presidential amnesty committee to take effective measures to integrate the released detainees into work and solve the problems they face in various institutions. Last May, the amnesty committee, which looks into cases of those held in pretrial detention, announced that it was working on reintegrating the released detainees and solving the procedural problems they face, such as banning them from travelling or seizing their funds. [1]Nevertheless, none of these problems has been solved so far.
Sisi’s directives came after political activist Sherif al-Rouby was re-arrested three months after his release, thus shedding light on the conditions of those released. Days before his arrest, Rouby talked in several Facebook posts about the financial and psychological sufferings he and others faced.[2]
Other countries have attempted to reintegrate former prisoners, but they focused on criminal and terrorist prisoners other than political ones. Many countries introduced successful programs to rehabilitate criminal prisoners, such as the financial literacy program for prisoners in Ethiopia, the work and study program in Uruguay, the free education program for prisoners in India, the reading for freedom program in Italy, and other effective programs[3]. As for the reintegration of returning terrorists, many countries adopted relevant programs, including Morocco[4] and Jordan[5]. These programs also include “Masar” in the UK, “Hayat” in Germany[6], and “Aarhus” in Denmark[7]. Reintegration programs for returning terrorist fighters had several axes, including dialogue with the terrorists and reshaping their relationship with religion and society.[8]
With regard to the reintegration of former political prisoners, Northern Ireland adopted a different policy which began with the early release of political prisoners following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998[9]. The agreement stipulated the importance of taking measures to facilitate the reintegration of prisoners into society by providing support both prior to and after release, as ex-prisoners were seen as heroes not only in conflict but also in post-conflict society, and the social value in ensuring their reintegration was taken into consideration.[10]
In this report, we address the sufferings of academics and researchers who faced numerous violations after their release from prison.
First axis: What do academics face after their release?
Academics and researchers face violations and problems that hinder their academic careers and lives after their release. According to the testimonies obtained by the Monitoring and Documentation Unit, these violations include the following:
- Dismissal or suspension from work
Some academics face difficulties in returning to their jobs after their release from prison, as universities dismiss them for their absence without reason and refuse to allow them to return to work, as in the case of assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering, Beni Suef University, Mohamed Mohieddin.
A former member of the Shura Council and member of the constituent assembly that was formed in 2012 to draft a new constitution, Mohieddin was arrested on 23 February 2019 for his participation in the “Union for the Defense of the Constitution” online campaign to collect signatures rejecting the 2019 constitutional amendments. The Public Prosecution issued a decision to release him in June 2022, pending investigation into Case No. 277 of 2018 (Supreme State Security Prosecution), after he spent nearly 40 months in pretrial detention.
Immediately after his release, Mohieddin tried to return to his work at Beni Suef University, but in vain. The university told him that it issued a decision on 10 August 2022 dismissing him due to his absence from work, when he was in pretrial detention. The university requires that he submit a document stating the period of his detention, but the prosecution does not grant such a document to those whose detention has exceeded two years. The prosecution requested to address the university directly, but the university refused to address the prosecution and ask about the period of his detention, although the university used to pay Mohieddin half of his salary while he was imprisoned.
Mohieddin submitted requests to the university, the presidential amnesty committee, and the National Council for Human Rights, and he received promises to return to work, but none of these promises has been fulfilled.
In the same context, Shadi al-Ghazali Harb faced difficulties in returning to his work. He was a faculty member at the Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University.
Harb, who was a leading member of the opposition Constitution Party, was arrested in connection with Case No. 621 of 2018 (Supreme State Security Prosecution). He was held in pretrial detention from May 2018 to March 2020.
Immediately after his release from prison, Harb submitted a request to return to his work at the Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Surgery, but the Cairo University rejected his request. Thus, he could not get the promotion he deserved from assistant professor to professor, as the university dismissed him for his absence from work.
Harb filed a lawsuit before the Administrative Judiciary Court against the university. In July 2022, the court ruled that he should be reinstated and that the university’s decision to suspend him was illegal. However, the university has not implemented the ruling yet, in clear intransigence towards Harb.
- Travel bans
Some researchers who study abroad told AFTE that they were arrested upon their return to Egypt on short family or academic visits, and had since been banned from travelling.
One of those is Waleed Salem, a doctoral researcher at the University of Washington whose thesis discusses the history of the Egyptian judiciary. Salem was arrested in May 2018 after he met a university professor in the course of his doctoral dissertation.
Salem appeared before the State Security Prosecution in May 2018 in connection with Case No. 441 of 2018 (Supreme State Security Prosecution). He was held in pretrial detention for about six months in Tora prison. On 10 December 2018, his pretrial detention was replaced with precautionary measures. On 22 February 2019, the Supreme State Security Prosecution cancelled the precautionary measures and released him under the guarantee of his place of residence.
Salem tried to travel on 8 May 2020, but the Cairo Airport security authorities banned him and confiscated his passport without giving reasons or informing him that any judicial order had been issued against him. His name was not included in the Public Prosecutor’s travel ban list. As a result, he had to issue a new passport.
Salem was banned from travelling for the second time on 24 May 2021, when the Cairo Airport authorities stopped him and told him that his name was placed on the travel ban list by a decision issued a day earlier by the Public Prosecutor, without giving clear legal reasons or a specific period for the ban. Thus, he could not resume his study or see his daughter since 2018.
In the same context, Ahmed Samir Santawy, an anthropology master’s student at the Central European University in Vienna – Austria, was banned from traveling in August 2022. The Cairo International Airport security authorities stopped him and informed him that he was banned from traveling, without giving any reason. When he went to the interior ministry’s department of passports, he was told that he was banned from traveling as per a decision from a security body, with no official decision to that effect. Santawy cannot resume his study online.
Santawy was arrested upon his arrival in Egypt for a family visit in February 2021. The Supreme State Security Prosecution initially investigated him in connection with Case No. 65 of 2021 before adding him to a new case, No. 774 of 2021 (Supreme State Security), which was urgently referred to the Emergency Supreme State Security Court, which in June 2021 sentenced Santawy to four years in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of 500 pounds on charges of spreading false news from outside the country. On 4 July 2022, the Emergency State Security Misdemeanour Court issued a new ruling in Case No. 774 of 2021 sentencing Santawy to three years in prison. This came after the previous sentence of four years in prison and a fine of 500 pounds was cancelled. Santawy was released under a presidential pardon last July.
Likewise, Patrick George, a master’s researcher at the University of Bologna in Italy, was banned from traveling after his release. He was arrested upon his arrival at Cairo Airport on 7 February 2020, coming from Italy on a family visit. He was then taken to a National Security building in Cairo where he was tortured for writing an article about Egypt’s Copts that was published on the Daraj website. He was taken to Mansoura, north of Cairo, the next day. On 8 December 2021, the Emergency State Security Court released him pending investigation into Case No. 7245 of 2019, after he spent more than 20 months in pretrial detention. The court continued to postpone the trial several times, the last of which was on 29 November.
George was prevented from getting a new passport issued from the interior ministry’s department of passports in May 2022. He then went to the Public Prosecutor’s office to inquire and was surprised that his name was added to a new case, No. 2017 of 2021 (State Security), which he knew nothing about and was not even summoned for investigation in connection with it. He was also surprised that his name was on the travel ban list.
- Difficulty of finding jobs in private institutions
The difficulty of returning to work is not limited to the public sector only, but it also extends to the private sector. After Cairo University refused to return Harb to his job, he sought a job at the French Hospital or other private hospitals, but they rejected his application although they knew him personally.
Mohieddin also faced rejection from private universities and engineering companies after he was dismissed from Beni Suef University, despite his academic and practical experience.
However, Ahmed Hamdoun, an assistant professor at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University, returned to his job smoothly after he was released from prison. He was arrested in October 2019 in connection with Case No. 1338 of 2019. He was detained until December 2019.
Before his detention, Hamdoun used to publish articles via research centers such as the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. However, these centers stopped contacting him or inviting him to write articles.
- Lack of official channels to adjudicate disputes
After being banned from travelling for the second time, Waleed Salem submitted two grievances to the Public Prosecutor, one in June 2021 and another in February 2022, but both were rejected without reasons. He submitted another grievance in December 2022 but it was also rejected in January 2023, prompting him to file an appeal before the Court of Appeal, which has not so far set a date to examine his appeal.
Salem tried all friendly and official channels that might help solve his problem, but in vain. He suffers from the lack of effective official channels that one can resort to.
Likewise, Mohieddin submitted requests to his university, the presidential amnesty committee, and the National Council for Human Rights, and he received promises to return to work, but none of these promises has been fulfilled.
- Difficulty of obtaining official documents
Mohieddin had difficulty obtaining a national ID card, which took three months to be issued after his release. The university refused to stamp the form for issuing the ID card, but it stamped it eventually. Mohieddin also faces difficulty in returning to his work due to the prosecution’s refusal to give him a document stating the period of his detention. Patrick George was also prevented from obtaining a passport in May 2022.
- Psychological and financial problems
According to the testimonies AFTE obtained, academics and researchers have been subjected to violations, such as dismissal or suspension from work, travel bans, difficulty of finding jobs in the private sector, lack of effective official channels to resolve disputes, in addition to financial problems resulting from the lack of a source of income. This led some academics to leave Egypt to seek better professional and educational opportunities, as Harb did, or to seek freelance jobs, as Salem and George did.
They also suffer from psychological problems related to feelings of insecurity, instability, and lack of options.
Second axis: The legal framework regulating the rights of academics
After being released from prison, academics and researchers face several violations related to their basic, social, civil and economic rights. These include the right to work, the right to movement, and the right to obtain official papers, which are all guaranteed by local and regional laws and international covenants. However, the Egyptian authorities constantly insist on violating these rights with a view to restricting another pivotal right, which is participation in the public sphere, especially for former political prisoners who have previously criticized the state policies.
These practices are illegal, as there are no legal restrictions preventing academics from returning to their work after their release from prison. The Egyptian Civil Service Law prohibits the termination of an employee’s service unless he is sentenced to a criminal penalty or a custodial penalty for a crime against honour and honesty that causes him to lose trust and esteem. However, the law stipulates that an employee’s service may be terminated if he has been absent for 15 consecutive days or 30 separate days without permission or an acceptable excuse. These cases do not apply to academics imprisoned in political cases, as there are no restrictions on their work in the private sector. There are also no travel restrictions for researchers. The Public Prosecution’s refusal to issue a certificate indicating the period a person spent in detention is an illegal act. The prosecution usually refuses to issue such certificates, and in some cases the defendants exceed the legal limit for pretrial detention, which is two years.[11]
Third axis: Other violations faced by academics
Many reports have shed light on the violations that academics and researchers face after their return to Egypt. They face imprisonment and administrative violations, such as dismissal from the university or suspension from work. In this context, a report[12] by AFTE highlighted the violations that Egyptian researchers abroad are subjected to after their return to Egypt. These reports focused, in some parts, on the violation of the right to freedom of movement by banning researchers from travelling after their release. AFTE also issued a report on how the authorities use pretrial detention as punishment for dissident academics.[13]
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information issued a report on the demise of academic freedom and the abuse and prosecution of academics in Egypt.[14]
The various reports focused on the detention and administrative violations that academics and researchers are exposed to, while this report focused on the problems and violations they face after their release from prison.
Conclusion and recommendations
This report dealt with the sufferings of previously imprisoned academics and the violations that make their experience of imprisonment continue even after their release. It relied on the testimonies of a number of academics and researchers. Based on these testimonies, the report shed light on several patterns of violations that hindered their lives and caused them serious psychological problems after their release. These violations included dismissal or suspension from work, travel bans, release under precautionary measures, difficulty of finding jobs in the private sector, lack of official channels to resolve disputes, difficulty of obtaining official papers, in addition to financial and psychological problems. Therefore, AFTE demands the following:
- The Public Prosecution should facilitate the issuance of certificates indicating the period a person has spent in prison
- The Public Prosecutor should drop all cases in which academics and researchers are released
- Universities should facilitate the return of academics to their work after their release from prison
- The security authorities must stop the arbitrary and illegal restrictions on the travel of academics
- The National Council for Human Rights should activate the complaints mechanism and work on sorting them out with the concerned executive bodies
- All universities and government agencies should not be obstinate in issuing official papers
[1] Salma Khattab, “Presidential Pardon: What are the difficulties facing those released in Egypt to return to their work?” BBC News, 30 September 2022, last visited on 23 October 2022, https://www.bbc.com/arabic/middleeast-63089958 [2] Ibrahim Abdel-Maguid, “Those released under presidential pardon in Egypt as if to say: Prison is better for us,” The Independent Arabia, 26 September 2022, last visited on 23 October 2022, https://bit.ly/3TOaIZI [3] Staff, “Discipline and Rehabilitation… 8 Successful Global Experiences of Rehabilitating Prisoners,” Sasa Post, 18 November 2019, last visited on 23 October 2022, https://www.sasapost.com/successful-experiences-of-rehabilitation/ [4] Mohamed Mesbah, Souad Ahmadoun, “Morocco Fails to Reintegrate Former Jihadists,” February 2019, last visited on 24 October 2022, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/78314, Mohamed Al-Raji, “Al-Tamek criticizes the poor participation of associations in the rehabilitation of prisoners in Morocco,” Hespress, 21 September 2022, last visited on 23 October 2022, https://bit.ly/3f6ScNp [5] Saud Al-Shurafat, “Program for the Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Terrorists in Jordan’s Prisons,” Believers Without Borders, 23 July 2018, last visited on 23 October 2022, https://bit.ly/3SzPWMy [6] Ibid [7] “Aarhus is a model for dealing with returnees from Syria,” Al-Marjie, 25 August 2018, last visited on 23 October 2022, https://www.almarjie-paris.com/3580 [8] Saud Al-Shurafat, “Program for the Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Terrorists in Jordan’s Prisons,” Op. cit. [9] The Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998 to create a new government to share power and facilitate disarmament and the abolition of border checks between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Most importantly, the agreement ended decades of civil war between pro-UK Protestants and pro-secession Catholics. This war lasted from the late sixties until the late seventies of the last century. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSUkloz5xmY [10] Grainne Mckeever, 'Citizenship and social inclusion: the reintegration of political ex-prisoners in Northern Ireland', Brit J. Criminol, 2007, pp 423-424 [11] Salma Khattab, “Presidential Pardon: What are the difficulties facing those released in Egypt to return to their work?” Op. cit. [12] “Won’t stop”.. targeting Egyptian researchers abroad,” AFTE, December 2021, last visited on 11 December 2022, https://afteegypt.org/en/research-en/monitoring-reports-en/2022/01/02/27902-afteegypt.html [13] “Pretrial detention as punishment for opposition university professors,” AFTE, March 2020, last visited on 11 December 2022, https://afteegypt.org/research/monitoring-reports/2020/03/19/18526-afteegypt.html [14] “Academic Freedoms are dying… “About arbitrariness, abuse, and prosecution of academics in Egypt,” The Arab Network for Human Rights Information, December 2021, last visited on 11 December 2022, https://www.anhri.info/?p=28049&lang=en
