An Egyptian rights activist who was a vocal critic of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s government has been arrested and allegedly tortured on his return to Cairo.
Patrick George Zaki, 27, was detained at Cairo’s international airport after returning from Italy on Friday for a holiday, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a local NGO, where he works as a researcher.
Zaki, who is doing a master’s on LGBT+ and human rights, was taken to the prosecutor’s office in his home city of Mansoura in the Nile Delta.
His lawyer Wael Ghally told Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper Zaki was blindfolded, taken to a mystery location and beaten and tortured with electric shocks. According to Ghally the interrogators threatened and questioned him about various issues related to his work and activism and were skilled in inflicting pain without leaving any visible injuries.
Zaki’s arrest was the latest in an unprecedented crackdown on dissent waged by El-Sissi in recent years. Thousands have been arrested — both secular-leaning activists and Islamist opponents — all while rolling back freedoms won after the so-called Arab Spring uprising in 2011.
Zaki had been on leave from the NGO since last August while pursuing a master’s degree in gender studies at the University of Bologna, the group said.
The interior ministry, which oversees Egypt’s police, said in a brief statement Sunday that Zaki was being held on a warrant from the prosecution, who ordered him remain in detention pending an investigation.
The EIPR said Zaki was being investigated over allegations of spreading false news and misuse of social media, as well as claims he called for unauthorised protests.
Egypt outlawed all unauthorised protests in 2013, months after el-Sissi, as defence minister, led the military’s removal of the country’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, after his one-year rule proved divisive and sparked massive nationwide protests.
The rights group said the investigation includes allegations of managing a social media account that aims to undermine the social order and public safety, as well as incitement to commit violence and terrorist crimes. Zaki has campaigned with the body for the rights of women in Egypt, the LGBT+ community and Christian minorities.
It has demanded his immediate release and a Change.org petition has been signed by almost 10,000 people since Zaki was arrested last week.
The Italian authorities are acting on the arrest, fearing a repeat of the murder of Italian doctoral student Giulio Regeni.
Regeni, a Cambridge PhD student was discovered in a ditch by a motorway on the outskirts of Cairo in 2016, four months after he arrived to complete doctoral research on labour unions. His remains showed signs of extreme torture, including burns, cuts, bruises and broken bones. Egyptian officials have repeatedly denied any involvement in Regeni’s killing, though experts and activists steadfastly maintain the murder was committed by Egypt’s secret services.