Urgent Appeal | Bargaining for Freedom: Detaining the Activist’s Relative to Pressure Him to Surrender

🔴 Urgent Appeal | Bargaining for Freedom: Detaining the Activist’s Relative to Pressure Him to Surrender

Al-Shehab Human Rights Center received an urgent appeal from the citizen and political activist “Mohamed Ibrahim Hasb Allah” (residing in the Netherlands). In it, he reported the arbitrary arrest of one of his relatives in Egypt and the offer to bargain with his detention in order to pressure him to return and surrender himself to the Egyptian authorities.

📌 Details of the Appeal and the Violation:

Bargaining and detention of a blood relative: the arrest of the activist’s relative, with the condition that the activist surrender himself in order to secure the relative’s release—entrenching a policy of “collective punishment” and taking family members as “hostages.”

Documented political activity: since arriving in the Netherlands in January 2024, Mohamed Ibrahim Hasb Allah has carried out peaceful opposition activity, including participation in and protests in front of the Egyptian Embassy in The Hague and the International Court of Justice.

Ongoing threat to safety: the activist faces real and documented fears of being detained and prosecuted if he returns to Egypt on the basis of his opposition activity.

A coercive and dangerous choice: placing the activist before a critical dilemma between his personal safety or the continued arbitrary detention of his relative in Egypt.

⚖️ Demands and Calls by Al-Shehab Center:

Appeal to the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND): carefully reviewing Mohamed Ibrahim Hasb Allah’s file and the documented evidence of his political activity, and providing the necessary legal protection to prevent his forced return to Egypt.

Action by European organizations: calling on human rights organizations in the Netherlands and Europe to provide legal support to the activist, document the incident of the arrest of his relative, and verify the circumstances surrounding his detention.

Urgent investigation in Egypt: opening an independent investigation into the arrest of the activist’s relative and his immediate release without conditions, and stopping the exploitation of family ties as a tool for political pressure.

Guaranteeing the right to expression: ensuring that no citizen faces danger or prosecution due to their peaceful exercise of their rights or due to their kinship with opponents abroad.

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