Egypt Rearrests Rights Defender Ahmed Amasha

Seven Egyptian human rights organizations have signed a letter denouncing the arrest and disappearance by Egyptian authorities of trade unionist and human rights defender Ahmed Amasha, after his family announced that they had lost contact with him on June 17, 2020. A veterinarian by profession, Amasha previously served as the president of the Egyptian Veterinarians Syndicate. He has also contributed to the launching of a number of advocacy campaigns in collaboration with Egyptian rights groups to campaign against forced disappearance and to support the families of its victims. Amasha’s family has reported that Egyptian police forces stormed his home in Helwan, south of Cairo, and took him to an unknown location. Amasha remains missing despite formal complaints filed by his lawyer and family with the public prosecutor and the interior minister to report on his arrest and disappearance and to demand that they take the necessary measures to disclose his whereabouts and to release him. The organizations expressed their deep concern about Amasha’s fate and fears for his life in the midst of the outbreak of COVID-19 in Egyptian prisons and detention facilities. The organizations called on Egyptian authorities to immediately disclose his whereabouts, to safeguard his full rights, to release him, and halt the systematic campaign against him and his family.