EIPR Condemns Arbitrary Arrest and Ongoing Harassment of Research Director Karim Ennarah

Press Release

27 August 2025

 The Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered the release of Karim Ennarah, Research Director at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), after nearly twelve hours in detention following his arrest in the North Coast on Tuesday, August 26th.

This marks the fifth criminal case launched by the authorities against EIPR in just four years, and the second State Security case targeting Ennarah.

According to his family, Ennarah was initially stopped Tuesday night at a checkpoint shortly after leaving his home in a North Coast resort. Officers examined his national ID card and demanded access to his mobile phone, which he refused as the request was not in accordance with the law. He was then permitted to leave. Ennarah proceeded to Alamein Hospital to visit a patient but was intercepted again by the same two officers, who forced him out of his car, blindfolded and handcuffed him, and transported him to an undisclosed location. He was held for more than twelve hours before appearing before the Supreme State Security Prosecution in New Cairo.

The prosecution interrogated Ennarah in Case No. 6592/2025 (Supreme State Security), claiming his arrest was based on a warrant. He now faces charges of “joining a terrorist organisation, spreading false news, and using an electronic platform to commit a crime.” These accusations rest solely on a National Security Agency investigation report, which neither Ennarah nor his defence team has been allowed to review.

The prosecution confronted him with a single social media post as evidence of “spreading false news”: a photograph of a tree originally published by a page titled “A daily Picture of a Tree So Egyptians Don’t Forget What Trees Look Like”, which Ennarah re-shared in July 2023. He was asked to acknowledge his reposting of the image.

Ennarah was previously arrested in November 2020 during a security crackdown targeting three EIPR directors. He was detained in Dahab, South Sinai, after security forces seized his laptop and phone. He was interrogated under Case No. 855/2020 (Supreme State Security) on fabricated charges of “joining a terrorist organisation” and “using a social media account to spread false news.” He and his colleagues were released on 3 December 2020, but since then they have endured punitive measures, including asset freezes and travel bans, without trial or legal justification.

Despite these pressures, Ennarah continued his legitimate human rights work. He was invited by the organisers of the government’s National Dialogue to present his recommendations as EIPR’s representative and as an internationally respected criminal justice expert, following President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s call for dialogue aimed at shaping Egypt’s “New Republic.”

The timing of Ennarah’s latest arrest and the recycling of identical charges is deeply alarming, particularly after UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged the Egyptian government to end the practice of “recycling” political detainees into new cases to prolong their detention indefinitely.

EIPR calls on the Public Prosecutor to drop all unfounded charges against Ennarah and close all cases in which he remains accused. The organisation also stresses the urgent need to end the punitive measures imposed since 2020, including the freezing of assets and travel bans imposed on Ennarah, Gasser Abdel-Razek (former Executive Director), and Mohamed Basheer (Administrative Manager).