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Police officers patrolling the streets of Cairo during a demonstration marking the third anniversary of the Egyptian revolution (photo illustration). MOHAMED EL-SHAHED / AFP

Mohamed Ramadan, a lawyer and worker advocate, has been held in solitary confinement in the Borg el-Arab prison in Egypt for more than a month. His wrong? Have posted a photo of him on Facebook wearing a yellow vest in reference to the French movement. He is now accused of "joining a terrorist group and promoting his ideas ".

With our correspondent in Alexandria, François Hume-Ferkatadji

The Frontline defenders NGO published a damning report on Thursday, 17 January, the fruit of several months of work, on the repeated attacks against strikers, trade unionists and lawyers defending labor rights in Egypt. Enforced disappearances, beatings, acts of torture or immediate dismissals, the actors of the social movements are the targets of the regime.

Mohamed Ramadan is a well-known lawyer, who regularly opposes human rights violations in Egypt. On December 10, he puts on a yellow vest and takes a picture of himself. He posted it on Facebook before disappearing a few hours later.

" After his day at the court, he did not go home. He was not at his desk and we could not reach him, says his lawyer and friend Mohamed Awad. We, as lawyers, started looking for him in hospitals, police stations, but could not find him. It was only the next morning that we learned of his arrest. He was in the prosecutor's office. "

Isolation

Mohamed Ramadan is charged with "inciting the regime to fall," "participating in a terrorist group," among other charges. He is held in solitary confinement under very difficult conditions.

The Egyptian authorities are obsessed with social movements and the possibility of a new revolution, says a relative of the imprisoned lawyer: " This is their biggest nightmare. It happened once and they absolutely do not want it to happen again. So they do everything they can to prevent it from happening again, by all means. "

The sale of yellow vests has also been partially banned in the country.
Several NGOs have called for the immediate release of Mohamed Ramadan. In Egypt, it is estimated that over 60,000 men and women are imprisoned because of their political views.