El-Massry is one of Egypt’s most high-profile activists, and has been arrested on multiple occasions [Getty/file photo]
Egyptian authorities charged prominent human rights lawyer and activist Mahienour El-Massry with spreading false news in social media posts about Gaza and prison conditions in Egypt, one of her lawyers said Monday.
El-Massry, 39, was summoned on Monday to the offices of state security prosecutors where she was questioned for hours before being released on bail of 50,000 Egyptian pounds (about $1,000).
Khaled Ali, a lawyer in her defence team, said the case was linked to posts she allegedly published on social media.
The content of those posts addressed the situation in Gaza, Egypt’s response to the Israel war on the territory and conditions inside Egyptian prisons, he added.
Last week, El-Massry took part in a protest at Egypt’s Press Syndicate where demonstrators condemned Arab leaders for their inaction on Gaza, calling for the opening of Egypt’s Rafah crossing and an urgent ceasefire in the battered Palestinian territory.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a rights group, said it was the fourth state security case opened against El-Massry since 2019 – a pattern it described as “systematic targeting of human rights defenders”.
It added the summons, delivered to her family in the coastal city of Alexandria at 3:00 am on Sunday, provided no details on the nature of the accusations.
El-Massry is one of Egypt’s prominent human rights lawyers, widely recognised for her advocacy on behalf of political prisoners, labour movements and displaced communities, including Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Egypt.
She has been repeatedly detained over the past decade, including in 2019 when she was arrested outside the supreme state security prosecution’s offices and charged in multiple terrorism-related cases.
She spent nearly two years in pre-trial detention before being released in mid-2021.
Since taking office in 2014, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has overseen a sweeping crackdown on political dissent and civil liberties.
In 2022, Sisi reactivated a presidential pardoning committee, freeing hundreds of political prisoners in what was billed as a new start for Egypt’s much-criticised human rights record.
But rights groups say a widening crackdown since then has detained more people than those released and further curtailed the space for dissent.
