Egypt charges Coptic novelist with 'joining terrorist organisation' after Sisi criticism

Egyptian human rights lawyer Khaled Ali announced on Thursday that Coptic Christian researcher and novelist Hani Sobhi had appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution in eastern Cairo, two days after he was forcibly disappeared following a raid on his home.

Sobhi, who was arrested without a judicial warrant after publishing a Facebook post mocking President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, was charged with "joining a terrorist organisation" and spreading false news, according to Ali.

The State Security Prosecution ordered him detained for 15 days pending investigation.

Ali said Sobhi had been taken from his residence in the working-class district of Al-Marg and held incommunicado in an unknown location for two days before being brought before prosecutors in the Fifth Settlement district.

Sobhi is a researcher and fiction writer. His short story collection Spirit of the Soul, published in late 2024, explored themes of memory, identity, and resistance, with several stories referencing Israel’s war on Gaza.

His earlier novel At a Café in Shubra (2020) portrayed daily life and social diversity in one of Cairo’s oldest and most culturally mixed neighbourhoods.

The Egyptian authorities’ handling of Sobhi’s case has drawn attention from rights groups and writers, who say it reflects a continuing pattern of arrests targeting academics, bloggers, and creative figures for their views or published work.

Sobhi’s detention follows a series of similar incidents in recent years in which Egyptian authors, researchers, and online commentators have been accused of spreading false information or belonging to banned organisations under the country’s broad anti-terrorism laws.

The laws have been used to stifle even mild criticisms of the regime, leading to a substantial number of arrests and disappearances. 

The United Nations Human Rights Office has previously urged Egypt to end the practices of enforced disappearance, torture, and mistreatment, and to allow independent oversight of detention facilities. It criticised what it described as the continued use of terrorism charges to punish human rights defenders, journalists, and lawyers.

According to the UN statement, the limited release of a number of activists in recent months “does not change the reality of widespread arbitrary detention of thousands of dissidents, or the severe restrictions imposed on civil society and freedom of expression in the country.”

Sobhi’s case adds to mounting concern among Egyptian and international observers over the use of the State Security Prosecution system to silence critics and restrict artistic freedom.

Human rights advocates have called for his immediate release and the dropping of all charges related to his online expression.