Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a former general who took power in 2014, may be borrowing from the playbook of the Argentine generals who took power in the mid-seventies: like Argentines then, Egyptians now are disappearing.
The issue was brought to the fore by the frightening predicament of Esraa el Taweel, a young photographer who is disabled and who vanished for two weeks before eventually appearing in a courthouse. Still, even facing possible charges, she was among the lucky ones. She was released from jail last month.
Not so the political activist Ashraf Shehata, who vanished two years ago and has not been heard of since. Some of the disappeared turn up dead.
Human rights groups are calling the disappearance of hundreds of Egyptians ‘enforced disappearance,’ which the New York Times refers to as “a harsh tactic that has become increasingly prevalent in Egypt as the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi widens its crackdown on opponents, real or imagined.”
There is no trace of them in the open legal system, where Egypt’s judiciary once was respected for its independence and where tens of thousands have recently been detained.
The others, impossible to count, go missing into vast networks of murky detention centers operated by the Egyptian security forces, held in isolation, denied contact with the outside world and with lawyers for unknown periods of time, according to rights groups.
The lack of legal protection and the isolation allow for harsh interrogation techniques, and many say that torture is prevalent.