The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) announced today the issuance of a judicial order lifting the asset freeze imposed on its Executive Director Hossam Bahgat for eight years "pending investigation" into the activities of independent human rights organizations. 

EIPR learned that Appellate Court President Judge Ahmed Abdel Aziz Qatlan, the investigating judge assigned to the case, has formally notified relevant authorities of the decision this week, including the Central Bank of Egypt and the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The asset freeze was imposed on Bahgat in 2016 as a "precautionary measure" in the notorious Case no. 173 of 2011. The case, which included many leaders of other Egyptian human rights groups, was finally closed in March 2024.  The investigating judge ruled that there were no grounds to initiate criminal proceedings, citing “insufficient evidence”. The ruling came at the end of 13 years of investigations and eight years of subjecting Bahgat and other human rights defenders to abusive travel bans and asset freezes. During this period Bahgag was only questioned once in 2021, ten years after the case was opened.  

“For over a decade arbitrary and abusive measures such as travel bans and asset freezes were employed by security agencies and judicial bodies as a weapon to punish and intimidate independent human rights defenders in Egypt and deter them from continuing their work”, said Bahgat. “Despite the personal toll, these efforts have failed.” 

Bahgat emphasised that this case demonstrates the numerous  abuses that would be codified in the proposed Criminal Procedures Code amendment currently being debated in the House of Representatives. The bill maintains the authority to impose open-ended travel bans and asset freezes as "precautionary measures" with no time limit. Government representatives and the bill’s drafting committee have rejected a proposal even to apply to these measures the same rules applicable to pretrial detention which – theoretically – are subject to a time limit.

Case 173, now formally closed, was not the only case pending against EIPR staff. Former Executive Director Gasser Abdel-Razek, Criminal Justice Director Karim Ennarah, and Administrative Manager Mohamed Basheer remain subject to travel bans and asset freezes in Case No. 855 of 2020 (Supreme State Security), due to their work for EIPR, despite their release shortly after their arrest in 2020. For four years, The Terrorism Chamber of the Cairo Criminal Court has refused to schedule a single hearing on their petition against these abusive measures, or even to provide them a copy of the court ruling granting the Supreme State Security Prosecution’s request to freeze their assets.