A Documented Report

Foreword

Ibrahim Metwally (61), a lawyer and the coordinator of the Association of the Families of the Forcibly Disappeared, has been held in pre-trial detention for eight years without conviction. During this time, he has been investigated in connection with three cases on similar charges. In June 2025, Metwally's trial began on two of these cases, while a hearing date for the third has yet to be set.

Metwally was arrested on September 10, 2017, at Cairo International Airport as he was completing the departure process to travel to Geneva. He was due to attend the 113th session of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, which was scheduled to take place from September 11 to 15. He had received an official invitation via email from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to present his complaint regarding his son's disappearance, an opportunity he saw as a chance to communicate with the Egyptian government to clarify his son's fate.

During questioning in various cases, Metwally explained that as a lawyer and a father, he had pursued all legitimate avenues to determine the fate of his son, Amr Ibrahim Metwally, who was forcibly disappeared on July 8, 2013. Metwally told the prosecution that he had turned to the National Council for Human Rights, whose officials encouraged him to contact the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and its Working Group on Enforced Disappearances. He did so, as did many others.

Arrest Report Falsified

On October 12, 2019, more than two years after his arrest, the First Advocate General for the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) wrote to the Assistant Minister of Interior for the Prison Authority to implement the prosecution's decision to release five defendants, including lawyer Ibrahim Metwally, without bail in connection with Case No. 900/2017. However, the Ministry of Interior did not carry out the order, and Metwally remained a victim of enforced disappearance for 20 days. During this time, his family filed several complaints about the failure to implement the release order, the breakdown of communication with him, and his enforced disappearance (Appendix 1). On November 5, 2019, Metwally appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution in New Cairo, which interrogated him for the first and last time in Case No. 1470/2019.

Official documents claim that Metwally was arrested in connection with this new case from his home in Kafr El Sheikh Governorate on November 5, 2019, by a security force led by a National Security officer (Captain Ahmed Mohamed), and that no incriminating evidence was found. Despite this, the arresting officer was not questioned as a key witness in the case. Consequently, the case file for No. 1470/2019 contains no physical evidence or seized items linked to or attributed to Metwally, nor does it include the testimony of any witnesses to prove the crimes he is accused of. Furthermore, Metwally's name did not appear in the confessions of any of the other defendants. Therefore, Metwally is currently on trial in Case No. 1470/2019 based solely on a single preliminary investigative report issued by the National Security Sector (Appendix 2).

Investigation

The Supreme State Security Prosecution referred Metwally, along with 17 other defendants, for trial in Case No. 1470/2019, on the basis of charges of committing terrorism-related crimes between 1992 and May 2020. According to the National Security Sector's investigation, which was used to open the case, Metwally is accused of joining and funding a terrorist group and participating in a criminal conspiracy aimed at inciting a terrorist crime.

Ibrahim Metwally's name appeared only once in the investigative report issued on October 30, 2019 (during his period of enforced disappearance), stating that Metwally "received instructions and held meetings with other defendants" to carry out the aforementioned crimes while he was in prison in connection with Case No. 900/2017. The investigative report relied on "confidential sources" that the investigator refused to disclose. The report also provided no explanation of how Metwally could have carried out any of the actions attributed to him during his pre-trial detention, during which he was denied visits and held in solitary confinement at Tora Maximum Security Prison 2.

During the prosecution’s questioning, Metwally explained that he had been arrested on September 10, 2017, from Cairo International Airport in connection with Case No. 900/2017 and asked the prosecution to refer to his statements recorded in the first case file. He confirmed that when he was arrested, he was on his way to Geneva to meet with the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances to attend a conference to which he had been invited to present his problem regarding the enforced disappearance of his son, Amr, since July 8, 2013 in the context of what was referred to as the Republican Guard events (where security forces opened fire on demonstrators, resulting in the deaths of 61 people and injuring more than 300).

Metwally explained to the prosecution that he had taken all possible legal measures to find his son, to no avail. This led him to turn to the National Council for Human Rights in Egypt. He specifically contacted Mohamed Fayeq, the council's chairman at the time, who referred the matter to council employees and asked them to complete a form for the enforced disappearance of Amr Ibrahim Metwally and send a copy to the Ministry of Interior to search for him, and another copy to the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances so that the group could contact the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the matter. Metwally explained that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially replied that Amr Ibrahim Metwally's name was not in the database of Egyptian prisons and that he was not wanted in connection with any investigation. Metwally said he received an official invitation in August 2017 from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to attend a meeting of the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances on this matter, to be held from September 11 to 15, 2017. Metwally then notified the National Council for Human Rights of his intention to attend the conference, but he was arrested at the airport while on his way to Geneva (Appendix 3).

Disappearance and Torture

Metwally appeared before the SSSP, which interrogated him in connection with Case No. 1470/2019, on November 5, 2019. He was then ordered to be held in pre-trial detention. During his first hearing to review his detention renewal on November 17, 2019, Metwally said that during the interrogation session (on November 5), he had suffered from severe exhaustion due to his detention at the National Security headquarters in Kafr El Sheikh Governorate. He stated that he was blindfolded and tied to a wall throughout the period of detention leading up to his appearance before the prosecutor. At the time, he asked the prosecutor responsible for reviewing his detention to order his transfer to a hospital. He filed a complaint and requested an investigation into the officer Yasser El Hag Ali, head of the National Security branch in Kafr El Sheikh, regarding his enforced disappearance and his subjection to degrading treatment between October 22 and November 5, 2019 (Appendix 4).

Pre-trial Detention and Conditions of Confinement

After his arrest in September 2017, Metwally's pre-trial detention was renewed for two years and one month in connection with Case No. 900/2017, until the SSSP decided to release him in October 2019 without bail or conditions. However, the Ministry of Interior did not carry out the order, and Metwally remained a victim of enforced disappearance for 20 days at the State Security (National Security) headquarters in Kafr El Sheikh. There, he was subjected to physical torture until he reappeared before the SSSP on November 5, 2019. He was then interrogated once again in connection with Case No. 1470/2019 and remained in detention for nine months until the Criminal Court decided to replace his detention with another precautionary measure. However, he was surprised, while completing his release procedures in August 2020, to find that he was now a defendant in a third case, No. 786/2020.

Metwally spent five years in pre-trial detention at Tora Maximum Security Prison 2, where he suffered from an enlarged and severely inflamed prostate. He was also denied exercise or leisure time outside of his cell and was prevented from obtaining his medication, books, or newspapers. In 2022, he was transferred to Badr Prison 3, where the administration allowed his family to visit him for the first time in June 2023, though they communicated by phone in a glass cubicle.

Notes

On May 25, 2020, Commissioner Remi Ngoy Lumbu, then-Vice-Chairman of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, sent a letter to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (a copy of which is attached to the case file) asking the Egyptian government to investigate the incidents of Metwally's torture and his accusation of terrorism in more than one case after his arrest at the Cairo airport while on his way to Geneva in response to an invitation from the UN Working Group. In his letter, he also requested that Metwally be allowed to communicate with his family and his lawyer and that an end be put to his pre-trial detention. Lumbu noted in his letter the importance of a response within 30 days, as it was planned for the letter and its implications, including any response, to be included in the reports submitted by the African Commission at its next regular session. According to the case file, the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs sent the text of the letter to the Attorney General's office requesting the necessary information for a response, but the text of the response was not attached to the official case file (Appendix 5).

Appendixes

Appendix 1 - Petitions and complaints regarding of Metwally's unlawful detention in October 2019

Appendix 2 - A police report that falsely claims Metwally was arrested from his home

Appendix 3 - Excerpt from the National Security preliminary investigative report

Appendix 4 - Ibrahim Metwally's statements about his communication with the Working Group on Enforced Disappearance during his questioning in Case No. 1470/2019 - November 5, 2019

Appendix 5 - Ibrahim Metwally's statements about his period of enforced disappearance at the National Security branch in Kafr El Sheikh (November 17, 2019 session)

Appendix 6 - Letter from the Vice-Chairman of the African Commission to the President of the Republic