COP27: Dozens of Egyptians detained ahead of Friday planned protests

Dozens of Egyptian activists have been detained with daily crackdown raids taking place ahead of planned anti-government protests on Friday, at a  time when the Egyptian regime is receiving a boost of international legitimacy hosting the 2022 UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh through 18 November.

While the actual number of detainees cannot be confirmed by The New Arab, a senior security source has estimated the figure to be over 160 detainees.

“A total of 165 activists have so far been interrogated by prosecutors, till the time of publishing, and ordered to be detained for 15 days, pending further investigations, mainly for posting calls for protesting on social media,” the source told The New Arab, on condition of anonymity.

The detainees are facing accusations of disseminating false news, misusing social media tools, disrupting social peace and being involved in a terrorist group, the usual set of charges used against all regime critics.

An activist, who declined to be named for fear of his safety, told The New Arab, that activists all over the country are being taken every day from their homes to unknown locations.

“Only some of them have appeared so far before prosecutors, just for posting invitations to Egyptians to join the 11 November protests, while others have not been accounted for yet,” he said.

Plain-clothed policemen have been checking IDs and searching mobile phones of suspected activists, mainly their social media accounts, on the streets leading to Cairo’s Tahrir square and other major areas across the country. The square was a major hub for protests, witnessing the eruption of the 25 January Revolution.

The upcoming protests target the deteriorating economic and human rights conditions under president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's rule.

It remains unclear whether Egyptians will go down the streets after the Muslim Friday prayers at noon as planned given the heavy legal restrictions imposed over the past decade, namely the anti-protest and anti-terrorism laws, that curbed protests. 

In 2013, interim President Adly Mansour ratified the anti-protest law, which banned gatherings and protests without prior written consent from the authorities. Since then, hundreds of activists have been detained or sentenced to prison under this notorious law. 

Since taking power in 2014, Sisi has governed the country with an iron fist and has frequently been accused of overseeing "the worst crackdown on human rights, freedom of expression, and media in Egypt's modern history" by local and international rights groups. 

On Tuesday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said renewed  a call for Egypt to immediately release hunger-striking activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah saying his life is in danger.

Abd el-Fattah, a prominent activist and blogger, was sentenced in December 2021 to five years on charges of spreading false news and has been on a hunger strike for 220 days against his detention and prison conditions.

He informed his family that he would stop drinking water on Sunday in an escalation of his protest. His mother says she did not receive the usual letter from him when she visited on Monday.

He "is in great danger. His dry hunger strike puts his life at acute risk," Turk said in a statement.

Without water, Abd el-Fattah's health could rapidly deteriorate.

The escalation of his protest coincides with the COP27 climate summit, the United Nation's annual gathering of world leaders to discuss global warming being held this year in Egypt.