Egypt must halt lengthy arbitrary detention of govt critics: UN rights chief

GENEVA - Egypt must end a practice allowing the prolonged arbitrary detention of government critics, the United Nations human rights chief said Tuesday.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk slammed a common practice in Egypt in which authorities bring new charges against individuals when they are about to complete their prison sentences or as they reach the maximum legal period of pretrial detention, preventing their release.

"The Egyptian government must immediately stop this practice of 'rotation' and release all those who have been subjected to it," Turk said in a statement.

"It appears to be used to circumvent the rights of individuals to liberty, due process and equality before the law."

Turk said the fresh alleged offences, often under counter-terrorism laws, are typically baseless and similar to charges the detainees had already been convicted of.

"Most of those targeted by 'rotation' should not have been detained or jailed in the first place -- the charges brought against them are often related to the exercise of their legitimate rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,"he said.

"This practice has become a tool by which the Egyptian Government represses those perceived to be critical of, or in opposition to, its policies."

Turk pointed to the case of poet Galal El-Behairy, who was detained after completing a prison term in July 2021 for writing songs and poetry critical of the government.

Since then, the poet has faced similar charges in two different cases under the counter-terrorism law and the penal code.

The practice has also been used in a number of other high-profile cases, including that of dual Egyptian-British writer and activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, the UN rights office said.

It said a lack of transparency made it difficult to assess the full scale of the problem.

"All those arbitrarily detained for exercising their fundamental freedoms or defending human rights must be released immediately,"Turk said.