Egypt: PEN International urges Egyptian authorities to release arbitrarily imprisoned writers
Image Credit: PEN International
“The Egyptian government should use the occasion of Eid al-Adha to end the ongoing ordeal faced by many Egyptian families whose loved ones remain arbitrarily detained for expressing their views. Silencing critical voices and crushing freedom of expression will only deepen the country’s human rights crisis. Leaders should value criticism not imprison critics,” said Burhan Sonmez, President of PEN International.
5 June 2025: PEN International calls on the Egyptian government to release all arbitrarily detained writers and end its longstanding crackdown on freedom of expression. The organisation is particularly concerned about the continued arbitrary detention of British-Egyptian writer Alaa Abd El-Fattah, poet Galal El-Behairy, and cartoonist and translator Ashraf Omar. It reiterates its calls for their immediate and unconditional release and an end to the use of arbitrary detention to silence critical voices.
In 2025, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi issued two presidential pardons, the first coinciding with Sinai Liberation Day and Eid al-Fitr in March and the second in May ahead of Eid Al-Adha. Both pardons have notably excluded prisoners of conscience, signalling a disturbing reluctance by the Egyptian authorities to ease their onslaught on freedom of expression. The human rights crisis in Egypt has significantly worsened since President Al-Sisi seized power in 2014, as authorities systematically punished any public or perceived dissent and severely repressed the rights to peaceful assembly, association, and freedom of expression.
Scores of journalists, human rights defenders, activists, and writers have been arbitrarily detained for prolonged periods without trial and face trumped-up charges solely in relation to their work or critical views. They have been systematically targeted by the authorities through repressive tactics such as judicial harassment, smear campaigns, threats, physical assaults, unfair trials, and travel bans. PEN International has documented several cases of writers imprisoned for their expression, including British-Egyptian writer Alaa Abd El-Fattah, cartoonist and translator Ashraf Omar, and Egyptian poet Galal El-Behiry.
Award-winning writer and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah remains arbitrarily imprisoned in Egypt despite having fully served an unjust five-year prison sentence in relation to his expression. He continues to be in poor health due to arbitrary imprisonment and a prolonged hunger strike undertaken in 2022. On 29 September 2024, Abd El-Fattah completed his unjust five-year sentence; however, Egyptian authorities have continued to arbitrarily detain him. Egyptian authorities also deny Abd El-Fattah’s access to a lawyer and British consular visits. His mother, academic and human rights activist Laila Soueif, started an open-ended hunger strike on 29 September 2024 to protest Abd El-Fattah’s arbitrary imprisonment. She is critically ill after nearly 250 days on hunger strike.
Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s family reported that his health sharply deteriorated in April, and he was treated in Wadi El-Natrun prison in Egypt, after he started a hunger strike on 1 March 2025 following news of his mother, Laila Souief’s hospitalisation in London. In May 2025, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that Abd El-Fattah’s detention is arbitrary and called for his immediate release and to accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations in line with international law.
Arrested in March 2018, award-winning poet Galal El-Behairy has continued to be held without trial despite fully serving an unjust three-year sentence followed by two years in arbitrary pre-trial detention. El-Behairy was sentenced to three years in prison by a military court following an unfair trial in relation to his poetry collection, خير نسوان الأرض (The Finest Women on Earth), which the court found insulting to the Egyptian military. In July 2021, after his sentence expired, he was subjected to enforced disappearance for three weeks before being newly charged with ‘disseminating false news’ and ‘joining a terrorist group’ by the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP). He exceeded the maximum legal limit of pre-trial detention without a trial on 5 September 2023; however, Egyptian authorities continue to detain him arbitrarily.
El-Behairy’s health has significantly deteriorated due to his imprisonment, poor prison conditions, lack of adequate medical care, and prolonged hunger strikes. PEN International previously raised concerns about his mental health following his attempt to commit suicide in September 2023 while in prison.
Egyptian authorities have continued to arbitrarily detain cartoonist and translator Ashraf Omar without a trial on bogus national security charges since July 2024. He was arrested from his home and taken to an unknown location before appearing before the SSSP, where he was questioned about his work, and then placed in pre-trial detention on trumped-up charges, including ‘dissemination of false news’, ‘misusing the internet’, and ‘membership of a terrorist group’.
In January 2025, national security officers arrested Omar’s wife, academic and translator, Nada Mougheeth, at her home for speaking out on behalf of her imprisoned husband. Although she was released following a brief detention, she still faces bogus charges similar to those against her husband.
Note to editors:
For more information, please contact Mina Thabet, Head of the MENA Region, email: [email protected]
For media queries and to arrange interviews, please contact Sabrina Tucci, PEN International Communications and Campaigns Manager, email: [email protected]