(Washington D.C., February 12, 2025) — Egyptian authorities should immediately release Mohamed Ahmed Hasan Thabet, a 73-year old Egyptian businessman, whom it has unjustly detained for over five years and subjected to inhumane treatment, said DAWN in a report released today covering his imprisonment since 2019.
Egyptian prosecutors only last year brought baseless, terrorism charges on refuted and apparently fabricated evidence against him, as part of the government's widespread and systematic persecution of perceived regime opponents, although Thabet is not involved in any political activity.
"Thabet's continued imprisonment by Egyptian authorities is a straight-forward case of political persecution against an independent businessman with no political ties whatsoever, reflecting nothing more than the cruel and reckless abuse of power that is now the hallmark of Egypt's government," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of DAWN. "The Egyptian government has not only disrespected Thabet's basic human rights, but Egyptian laws prohibiting prolonged pre-trial detention and arbitrary arrest meant to protect citizens from this sort of abuse."
DAWN's report presents the first comprehensive and detailed investigation of how Egyptian prosecutors and judges have imprisoned and abused Thabet for over five years on baseless charges. Over the course of its investigation, DAWN interviewed two sources close to Thabet and informed about the legal proceedings against him on multiple occasions to research this case. DAWN also relied on publicly available information about Thabet's case and Egyptian authorities' limited documentation of the trial and legal proceedings.
Thabet is a successful businessman who served as the General Manager of Ebad Al-Rahman Import and Export Company. His ordeal began on September 25, 2019, when President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's national security forces raided his home, confiscated his personal belongings and arrested the married father of four in front of his family, without presenting any warrant or documentation to justify their forceful actions. The official investigation records subsequently identified a fabricated detention date of September 26, 2019 and claimed to have presented Thabet a warrant in an effort to hide officials' unlawful actions.
For one month following his transfer from a local prison to the notorious Tora Prison, Egyptian authorities disappeared Thabet, refusing to disclose to his family where and whether they were detaining him.
Egyptian authorities held Thabet in pretrial detention for almost five years, well over the maximum two year period permitted by Egyptian law. During this period, Egyptian prison authorities kept Thabet jailed in conditions that include being blindfolded, denied food, medicine, climate-appropriate clothes, and access to proper restroom facilities. Egyptian authorities have held Thabet in facilities marred with a history of abuse, including Tora Prison, where at one point Thabet was held in a crammed cell with at least 40 other detainees without regular access to restroom facilities. A source close to Thabet stated that Thabet has lost over 30 kilograms as a result of a lack of adequate food while in detention.
On July 30, 2024, after nearly five years of pretrial detention, Prosecutor Mohamed Abdel Naser of the Supreme State Security Prosecution finally charged Thabet, joining him to two mass terrorism cases that have been pending since 2024, which prosecutors have used as a cudgel to imprison hundreds of Egyptians, most of whom have no political profile whatsoever. The charges under the country's notorious Anti-Terror Law include joining a terrorist group; financing terrorism by providing, collecting, possessing, and transferring funds and information to the terrorist group; and possessing printed materials and recordings that promote the aims of the terrorist group. Thabet denies all of these charges. Moreover, it is important to underscore that criminalizing membership in an organization such as the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist crime fails to meet basic international legal standards for protection of free speech and association, and is itself an abuse of rights.
The only "evidence" prosecutors have presented to support their charges is unlawfully confiscated books about the history of the Muslim Brotherhood, images of demonstrations in the country, as well as unsubstantiated testimony from an inmate who was freed shortly after giving testimony alleging that Thabet was a member of the group. Thabet states that he never met this inmate and has never been a member of any organization, including the Muslim Brotherhood. The practice of forced confessions fabricating information, often extracted by duress and a victim's wish to end the torture and incarceration, is well documented in El-Sisi's Egypt.
The evidence in DAWN's report demonstrates that Thabet's persecution is entirely politically motivated as part of a broader pattern of government crackdowns against independent members of civil society. This includes targeting independent business owners, subjecting them to arbitrary prosecution under the guise of combating terrorism, but in fact to control, harass, intimidate, and rob its citizens. Thabet's case is one of many instances of Egyptian authorities unjustly imprisoning successful businessmen under fabricated charges, freezing and eventually seizing their assets.
DAWN urged Egypt to release Thabet and drop the baseless charges against him. It also urged accountability for the Egyptian officials responsible for abuses against Egyptians, including those responsible for unjustly detaining Thabet. This includes prosecutor Mohamed Abdel Naser and Judges Mohamed El-Saeed Mohamed Abdel Aziz El-Sherbini, Raafat Zaki Mahmoud Hussein, Moztaz Mostafa Ahmed Khafagy, and others as outlined in the report.
"The U.S.-supported ruling class in Egypt acts with impunity as it violates its own laws—not to mention international legal norms—to persecute any individual that does not fully submit to its authoritarian will," said Rameen Javadian, Advocacy and Research Associate at DAWN. "Sisi's agents are targeting Egyptians in the business sector, like Thabet, to maintain power under the guise of 'combatting terrorism.'"
While international bodies such as the The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention have condemned the detention of Thabet's brother, Safwan, and nephew, Seif, deeming it unlawful under Opinion No. 12/2023 and they were eventually released after about two years of imprisonment, Thabet remains detained with little coverage.
The U.S., which currently only provides foreign military support to Israel and Egypt—the latter of which totals in the amount of 1.3 billion dollars annually in Foreign Military Financing—should cease its support in consideration of gross violations of human rights and ongoing unjust prosecutions. This is especially relevant in light of the detention conditions Egyptian authorities subject Thabet and dozens of other prisoners to, on baseless charges of joining, financing, and promoting a terrorism group–a reference to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood was once the leading opposition group in Egypt, in defiance of General El-Sisi's military coup in the country in 2013 which ousted Egypt's democratically elected government.
DAWN continues to advocate for a halt to U.S. security assistance for other abusive regimes in the region that receive U.S. military and political support, especially Israel.
Find the full 18-page report here. Read about DAWN's research on other Unjust Prosecutions in Egypt and the Culprits who facilitate and enable these crimes.
