CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s chief prosecutor has ordered the release of three human rights workers detained last month, the wife of one of the arrested workers said Thursday, amid an unrelenting crackdown on dissent and rights groups in the Arab country.
The three senior staff members of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, or EIPR, were arrested by authorities in November after they met with representatives of foreign embassies to discuss the human rights situation in Egypt.
Mariam Korachy, wife of Gasser Abdel-Razek, the group’s executive director, said the country’s public prosecutor has issued the decision to release her husband along with his two co-workers, Karrim Ennarah, director of criminal justice at the group, and Mohamed Basheer, its administrative director.
However, she said it was unclear when exactly they would walk free. There was no immediate public comment from judicial authorities. Last month, the State Security Prosecutors leveled terror-related charges against them and ordered their pre-trail detention for 15 days.
In a tweet, the rights group said that it had received news from a former lawmaker that the three could be released on Thursday night, though it was still confirming how and when.
The arrests last month came after ambassadors and senior diplomats from 13 Western countries met with EIPR earlier this month for talks that the group said “discussed ways to improve human rights conditions in Egypt.”
Their detention sparked international condemnation, including from the United Nations and several foreign governments. President-elect Joe Biden’s foreign policy adviser Antony Blinken said at the time that “meeting with foreign diplomats is not a crime. Nor is peacefully advocating for human rights.”
The government of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a U.S. ally with deep economic ties to European countries, has been waging the heaviest crackdown on dissent in the Mideast nation’s modern history, targeting not only Islamist political opponents but also security pro-democracy activists, journalists and online critics.
Independent local rights groups have largely stopped operating. The 18-year-old EIPR is the most prominent group of the few who are still active, continuing to work on documenting civil rights violations, prison conditions, sectarian violence and discrimination against women and religious minorities.