This week marks five years since travel bans and asset freezes were imposed on three directors of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR): Administrative Director Mohamed Basheer, Research Director Karim Ennarah, and Executive Director at the time Gasser Abdel Razek.

The arbitrary measures were imposed amidst an unprecedented security crackdown on EIPR between 15 and 19 November of 2020. Security forces arrested the three directors and presented them before the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP), which questioned them on a host of charges without evidence or legal basis. The charges included joining a terrorist group, disseminating false news and statements that could disturb public order and harm public interest, and using an online account to spread false news. Their interrogation focused solely on their human rights work at EIPR.

Despite the prosecution's subsequent decision to release the three human rights defenders on December 3, 2020, “pending investigations” in Case No. 855/2020, the case remains open five years later without any investigations, and the punitive measures imposed on the EIPR members remain in effect.

On this day last year, EIPR submitted a complaint to the Supreme Judicial Council against the continued suspension of the bank accounts of its three directors, the freezing of their assets, and the travel ban imposed on them without investigation or trial. In addition to the grievance, which was registered as No. 364, EIPR also filed a report with the Public Prosecutor's Office demanding that the charges be dropped and the imposed measures lifted. Neither the Council nor the Public Prosecutor's Office has informed us of any action taken regarding these ongoing violations over the course of a full year.

The UN Secretary-General included these blatant violations in his annual report on reprisals against human rights defenders, issued last September. The Secretary-General’s report noted that EIPR had been targeted with five criminal cases in the preceding four years due to its human rights work. The report stated: 

“Since 2015, mandate holders have raised concerns, including publicly, over the arrest, filing of criminal charges for terrorism and national security related crimes, travel bans and assets freeze of EIPR staff in connection to their human rights work. Those targeted have included Mr. Hossam Bahgat17, three former directors of EIPR, Mr. Gasser Abdel Rakez, Mr. Karim Ennarah and Mr. Mohamed Basheer,18 and another EIPR staff, Mr. Patrick Zaki, who was sentenced to three years in prison for an article he wrote on religious discrimination in Egypt. Mr Zaki was pardoned after spending nearly two years in prison”

The report also cited criticisms from the UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteurs regarding the new Code of Criminal Procedure, noting that they “expressed concern that Article 147 permits one-year travel bans with unlimited renewals”.

However, the Egyptian government's response to the United Nations on July 14—as included in the Secretary-General's report—merely reiterated claims that “it respects the rule of law and the separation of powers and ensures compatibility of national legislation with its obligations under international law. It further stated that the Egyptian Public Prosecution is an independent judicial authority and that charges are made and law enforcement and judicial measures are undertaken based only on incontrovertible evidence.”

Similarly, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism addressed these arbitrary measures in his annual report to the UN General Assembly, which focused on "restrictive orders, terrorist listings, security detention and compulsory interventions". The report emphasized: "Travel restrictions must take into account adverse effects on the rights to family life, work, health and education, and the best interest of dependent children.” It further noted that the “protracted or indefinite maintenance of restrictive measures, including asset freezes and travel bans, may become disproportionate and quasi-punitive over time.”

Over the past years, EIPR lawyers submitted several petitions to the head of the Cairo Court of Appeals regarding the travel ban and the asset and bank freezes, but the court has failed to schedule a single hearing to consider the matter over the four years. The court's justification for not scheduling a hearing was that it was waiting for the SSSP to provide the court with the required information regarding the precautionary measures, which the SSSP has repeatedly failed to provide, thus denying the complainants a hearing in clear violation of Article 208 bis b of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which guarantees the right of those affected by asset freeze decisions to challenge it in court every three months. These provisions were retained in the new Code of Criminal Procedure, despite widespread objections from human rights organizations, the Bar Association, and international entities.

For five years, neither the targeted members of EIPR nor their legal representatives have been allowed access to any of the case files. They were even denied a copy of the ruling issued by the Cairo Criminal Court's Terrorism Circuit on 6 December, 2020, which froze their assets and properties at the request of the Public Prosecutor. They were not even permitted to review the ruling.

The continued targeting of the EIPR's three directors with these arbitrary measures, ongoing since November 2020, comes against a backdrop of years of security harassment and prosecutions against independent human rights organizations in general, and against EIPR in particular. This year alone, two new cases were added to the list of criminal prosecutions against EIPR staff. Last August, the SSSP released research director Karim Ennarah after approximately twelve hours of detention, pending investigation on charges of "joining a terrorist group, spreading false news, and using an online account to commit a crime." In January 2025, the SSSP ordered the release of executive director Hossam Bahgat, on bail of 20,000 Egyptian pounds, after charging him with aiding and financing a terrorist group and disseminating false news. This followed a statement published by EIPR calling on the Public Prosecutor to investigate testimonies from several families of detainees in the 10th of Ramadan Prison regarding deteriorating conditions of their relatives' detention.