September 18, 2016
LONDON (Ikshef) – Arab Media Freedom Monitor “Ikshef” expresses shock at the verdict, which was issued Saturday, September 17, 2016 to confiscate money and property of a number of lawyers and Egyptian journalists, activists who have had significant roles in the defense of freedom of information and expression during the last period. They are Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR); Gamal Eid, director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI); Bahey el-Din Hassan, head of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS); Mostafa al-Hassan, director of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center (HMLC); and Abdel Hafez Tayel, director of the Egyptian Center for the Right to Education (ECRE). This as well as the confiscation of their centers’ funds in case No. 108 known case of foreign funding for civil community organizations.
Ikshef considers that this ruling comes in the context of an organized crackdown to silence human rights activists and organizations defending freedom of opinion and expression in Egypt, and paralyzing human rights work aas a part of a general state of strangling the public domain that is made by the ruling authorities after the third of July 2013 coup.
Ikshef considers that the pretext of foreign funding aims only at getting rid of these organizations and distort their image before the public opinion at the time when the governing authorities sign daily agreements for aid and international loans.
Ikshef calls on these organizations and activists who was sentenced to continue their work in every way possible from inside or outside Egypt. Also, Ikshef declares its full solidarity with these organizations and their heads. It calls on all those who believe in values of freedom and democracy to show solidarity with the human rights organizations that have made a great effort in the defense of freedoms of people over the past years.
