ON JULY 5, 2019, AT ABOUT 12:45 AM, around a dozen heavily armed police officers stormed the home of political activist Ramy Shaath in Cairo, without identifying themselves or showing an arrest warrant. The police officers searched the apartment and seized computers, hard drives and mobile phones. They arrested Ramy Shaath and his wife, Céline Lebrun Shaath, a history teacher and community organizer, was unlawfully deported to France later that day, even though she had been legally residing in Egypt since March 2012.

The security forces took Ramy to an undisclosed location and concealed his whereabouts for around 36 hours. The officers at Qasr el-Nil police station, in the center of Cairo, told his family and lawyers that he was not in their custody. Later, a lawyer informed the family that Ramy had appeared before a prosecutor at the Supreme State Security Prosecution in New Cairo. He was not allowed to call his family or legal counsel, and during the interrogation session he was represented by a duty lawyer.

Ramy’s pre-trial detention has been renewed numerous times since his arrest. On April 16, 2020, a chamber of Cairo’s Criminal Court that deals with terrorism cases decided to, in absentia, arbitrarily add Ramy’s name to Egypt’s “terrorist list” for a period of five years.

Ramy, an Egyptian-Palestinian activist, is one of many human rights defenders being unjustly detained in Egypt for having exercised their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.

As the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, I urge you to use your authority to ensure Ramy Shaath’s immediate and unconditional release. He is a prisoner of conscience who is being detained solely for having peacefully exercised his right to freedom of expression and his right to participate in public affairs.