In an investigation of a British site .. Opponents of Sisi: Interpol memos destroyed our lives

An investigation by the Middle East Eye website revealed how the Egyptian authorities are using the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) to pursue the opponents of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi after his coup against the late President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, and cited three dissidents who received arrest warrants abroad as saying that they destroyed their lives.

The website pointed out that three of the dissidents were arrested in India, Albania and Ukraine on the background of red notices issued by Interpol police, before the cancellation of those notifications because of the failure of the Egyptian authorities to provide evidence confirming their allegations.

Hossam Abdel Fattah had left Egypt after a court sentenced him to death in absentia, along with 528 others accused of participating in the attack on a police station and killing one of its members.

The trial, which took place in March 2014, lasted only a few hours without any opportunity to appear for defense lawyers in the case, and was convicted for lack of due process in accordance with the United Nations.

However, INTERPOL police have accepted the Egyptian arrest warrant for Abdel Fattah, who was discovered only when he was arrested in Mumbai during a medical conference in 2016.

Abdel Fattah was imprisoned for two months and had to stay in India for two years until the case of his extradition to the Egyptian authorities was decided.

"I had to stay in India without a passport or visa. I couldn't work. My family didn't have any salary and had to return to Egypt. I was alone," Abdel Fattah told Middle East Eye.

He expressed strong dissatisfaction with INTERPOL. "How can they put names on their lists knowing that the Egyptian government is a liar?"

Interpol's Red Notice against Abdel Fattah was dropped in August 2017 while in India, but it has not yet been confirmed that his name has been removed from the local data of any member of the IPTF.

Arrest in Ukraine and Albania
Mr. El-Ezaby, who was a senior engineer before the 2013 coup, tells Middle East Eye that once Sisi came to power, he faced trumped-up terrorism-related charges, meaning his arrest and return to Egypt would lead him to 25 years in prison.

Because of the Interpol warrant, El-Ezaby was arrested for six months in Albania and later for about a year in Ukraine, but the two countries refused to hand him over to the Egyptian authorities because of the political nature of the Egyptian allegations and fears that his life would be at risk of execution.

Ezaby was able to remove the red notice in 2017, but he currently resides in Turkey because the Egyptian authorities refused to issue him a passport.

"Interpol should not have supported Egypt's terrorist regime. They have to distinguish between the politician and the criminal," El-Ezaby says. "Now I have no travel documents and I cannot seek asylum. There is no light at the end of the tunnel.

It destroyed my life
The third man, who asked Middle East Eye to remain anonymous, says, "I'm still afraid of the Egyptian regime."

The man, who was a doctor, was sentenced to death in the same case as Abdel Fattah. The arrest warrant was known only when he was detained in Qatar, before the warrant was removed from the international police and released.

"The INTERPOL memo destroyed my life and that of my family," he said.

Among the Egyptian opposition figures who faced the fate of the arrest, Mohamed Mahsoub, who was a minister in the government of the late Mohamed Morsi, was arrested in Italy on the back of the Interpol warrant in 2016, before he was released and the Italian authorities refused to extradite him to her Egyptian counterpart.

Criticism of Interpol
Experts are increasingly concerned about the dangers posed by international arrest warrants for dissidents and dissidents, especially those of a political nature.

Egyptian-born Youssef al-Qaradawi was named on the international police's wanted list by an Egyptian request, before being canceled after realizing it was "of a political nature."

Al-Qaradawi's lawyer, Rodney Dixon, warned that individuals handed over to the Egyptian authorities risk "not being subjected to a fair trial and arrest," stressing that there have been many cases of torture to extract confessions used in court.

Critics argue that the basic requirements of the warrants are insufficient to ensure they are not of a political nature, and the current INTERPOL regime does not provide an opportunity to challenge the arrest warrant.

US lawyer Yuri Nemetz says Interpol does not disclose the content or even the existence of an arrest warrant without the permission of the government concerned, and that the target is not known until after his arrest.

The INTERPOL expert adds that the IPT recognizes that it does not conduct a thorough examination of the arrest warrants based on information that governments should include.

Those facing red notices are also subjected to prolonged detention and travel bans during their extradition arrangements.