- EGYPT
- October 21, 2017
- 17 minutes read
Human Rights Groups, Public Figures Demand Immediate Release of Political Prisoner Somaya
The undersigned human rights organizations and public figures hereby condemn the arbitrary arrest and enforced disappearance of Al-Azhar Chemistry graduate Somaya Maher Hazema. She disappeared since October 17, 2017 and until now. Security forces have refused to disclose the location of her detention in a blatant violation of both the Constitution and the Law as well as all charters of rights and freedoms.
Somaya Maher Hazema: Resident of Damanhur, Beheira Governorate; 25 years old; holds a BS degree in Science from Al-Azhar University; works as a chemical laboratory analysis professional; daughter of Maher Hazema, former Member of Egypt’s Shura Council for Beheira Governorate.
Somaya, her mother and her cousin Omar Essam were arrested at her father’s house in Damanhur in Beheira at 3:00am on Tuesday October 17, 2017. Security forces searched the house completely and seized all mobile phones and computers. The three were driven away to an unknown destination.
Her family searched for them at all detention centers around Damanhur, to no avail. They then received a phone call Tuesday from Somaya’s mother. She told them she was in Cairo, just released from the Supreme State Security Prosecution. She said she was going to see a lawyer to attend an interrogation of her daughter Somaya and her nephew, adding that no charges have been laid against them thus far.
Somaya and her cousin were subjected to enforced disappearance. Even their lawyer was not given any information about their fate or whereabouts, nor was he told whether they had already been brought before the prosecution or not, or even what charges are to be brought against them.
We the undersigned hereby strongly condemn the escalating security violations against women in Egypt. Currently, 46 women and girls are now held on political charges, of whom 14 are forcibly disappeared and 9 have been sentenced, in civil or military courts. This is a serious violation of human rights and of women’s fundamental freedoms and a setback after decades of strife for respect, dignity and freedom for Egyptian women.
Therefore, it is imperative to call for an urgent halt to the violations of women’s rights, the release of all political detainees, immediate disclosure of the whereabouts of the disappeared, and the setting up of a fact-finding commission for recent violations. All those responsible must be brought to trial immediately, in compliance with international and domestic legal norms that protect women’s rights.
The signatories here stress that authorities must make known the fate of Somaya Maher Hazema, immediately release her, and stop all violations against women.
Signatories:
First: Human rights organizations
1) Committee for the Defense of the Oppressed – Damir Misr (Conscience of Egypt)
2) Arab Media Freedom Monitor
3) Egyptian Coordinating Committee of Rights and Freedoms
4) Shehab Center for Human Rights
5) Swiss Organization for the Protection of Human Rights – SPH
6) Arab African Center for Rights and Freedoms
7) Human Rights and Freedoms Organization
8) Human Rights Monitor
9) Elnadwa of Rights and Freedoms
10) International Association of Rights and Freedoms
11) SWACO for rights and freedoms
12) Human Rights Organization, Egypt
Second: Public figures
Alaa Abdel-Monsef – Lawyer and Researcher
Ezzat Ghoneim – Lawyer and human rights researcher
Huda Abdel-Moneim – Lawyer
Osama Nassif – Lawyer
Mustafa Al-Damiri – Lawyer
Ahmed Mohamed Abou-Sayed – Lawyer
Mohamed Shaaban Abdel-Hafez – Lawyer
Amr Ali El-Din – Lawyer
Asmaa Goma – Lawyer
Magdy Salem – Lawyer
Abdullah Hamdi El-Sayed – Lawyer
Huda Abdullah – Lawyer
Sameh Al-Nimr – Lawyer
Shorouk Salam – Lawyer
Osama Bayoumi – Lawyer
Emad Mubarak – Lawyer
Buthayna Al-Qammash – Lawyer
Marwa Abu-Hashima – Lawyer
Walid Saleem – Lawyer
Mohamed Farahat – Lawyer
Asmaa Moheb – Lawyer
Khalaf Bayoumi – Lawyer
Nagy El-Hamdawy – Lawyer
Amr Ahmed Abdel Azim – Lawyer
Abdel Raouf Issa – Lawyer
Ahmed Zakaria Taha – Lawyer
Iman Mustafa – Lawyer
Mohamed El-Fares – Lawyer
Mohamed Anwar Al-Ghannam – Lawyer
Mohamed Mahmoud Galal – Lawyer
Mohamed Shaaban – Lawyer
Atef Mohamed Arafa – Lawyer
Sameh Mohamed Rashed – Lawyer
Mohamed El-Shazly – Lawyer
Mustafa Hamdi – Lawyer
Ayman Gouda – Lawyer
Mohamed Naggar – Lawyer
Abdel-Aziz Ahmed – Lawyer
Ahmed Mandour – Lawyer
Mohamed Fayyad – Lawyer
Ahmed Al-Attar – Human Rights Researcher United Kingdom
Heba Hassan – Human rights activist
Asmaa Shokr – Rights worker, Media professional
Ashraf Tawfik – Researcher
