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News > Egypt

Egyptian Progressive Activist Alaa Abdel Fattah Re-Arrested in Latest Crackdown on Dissent

  • Alaa Abdel Fattah was rearrested from prison where he is bound to spend 12 hours every hour.

    Alaa Abdel Fattah was rearrested from prison where he is bound to spend 12 hours every hour. | Photo: Reuters

Published 29 September 2019
Opinion

Activist Alaa Abdel Fattah was a leading voice in the 2011 Arab Spring that toppled Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship. 

Alaa Abdel Fattah, an Egyptian progressive activist is suspected of being re-arrested from the police station where he was forced to spend every night, his family said Sunday. 

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As part of his probation, he is supposed to spend 12 hours every night at the police station in Cairo. However, the 37-year-old activist failed to show up Sunday morning. 

His family was informed by authorities that Fattah had been taken to the state security prosecution.

Fattah was a leading voice in the 2011 Arab Spring that toppled Hosni Mubarak’s regime. A blogger and software engineer, Fattah was released in March after serving a five-year sentence for protesting without permission in breach of a 2013 law that rights groups say effectively bans protests.

His current arrest comes amid new protests against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi

Protesters have blamed Sisi for the crackdown on dissent since he came to power in a military coup in 2013 ousting Egypt’s first democratically elected late President Mohamed Morsi. 

The protests that followed the coup were brutally suppressed. At least 1,000 demonstrators were killed. 

Protests erupted this September after a prominent Egyptian actor and businessman accused Sisi of corruption. Around 2,200 activists, journalists, and lawyers were arrested since Sept. 20. 

Fattah’s family said they took extra precautions with him. His mother Leila Souief would go to the police station every day to pick him up. On Sunday, she was stopped at the gates and told Fattah was taken by the state security officials. 

“Until the lawyers see him at the state prosecution, [we consider] Alaa kidnapped by state security, with the assistance of the Dokki police station,” wrote his sister, Mona Seif. ​​​​​​​

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