• EGYPT
  • October 21, 2017
  • 17 minutes read

Human Rights Groups, Public Figures Demand Immediate Release of Political Prisoner Somaya

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