A wave of arrests of Egyptian activists and an international amnesty demand an end to the crackdowns

The Egyptian authorities have tightened their security grip, especially on the main fields of major cities, to face increasing calls for demonstrations calling for the departure of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

According to the Egyptian Center for Rights, the massive arrests have so far included more than 1,200 political, academic, journalists, lawyers and human rights activists, amid restrictions on social media and the banning of hundreds of news sites.

The arrest of Alaa and his lawyer
He announced on Sunday that the Egyptian authorities again arrested the well-known dissident Alaa Abdel Fattah, who was released recently and was spending 12 hours a day held in the police station, according to his family and judicial sources.

Hours later, his lawyer, Mohammed al-Baqir, a lawyer and director of the Adalah and Liberties Center, was arrested while attending an interrogation session.

The Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, a non-governmental organization, said, “The Supreme State Security Prosecution has completed an investigation with Alaa Abdel Fattah (…) and is now investigating human rights lawyer Mohamed El Baqir, who was detained while attending Alaa's interrogation with other lawyers. He was informed that he had to be caught and brought in the same case. "

Alaa Abdel Fattah was one of the symbols of the January 2011 revolution that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak, a blogger and software engineer, who was released in March after serving a five-year prison sentence for demonstrating without a license under a 2013 law. Human rights effectively prevent protests.

Alaa's sister, Saif, wrote earlier this morning that her brother had been kidnapped from the Dokki police station, where he was normally on a daily observation period.

The surveillance, which is scheduled to last five years, requires that Alaa Abdel Fattah surrender himself daily at 6 pm to the police station, where he remains held until 6 the next morning.

On Sunday morning, his mother, professor of mathematics at Cairo University, Laila Sweif, was waiting for him in front of the police station in Dokki (west of Cairo), where he was watching.When he did not appear, she tried to enter the department, but she could not get explanations from the policemen at the entrance.

The security source said he did not know when Abdel Fattah would be brought before the Public Prosecutor, or what charges against him.

Rights groups say the government's crackdown on dissent is the toughest in modern times. Supporters of the president say the authorities need to stabilize after the unrest that followed the January revolution.

Lawyers say several hundred people arrested last week are under investigation over accusations of using social media to spread false news, join a banned terrorist group and demonstrate without a license.

Denounce my rights
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, expressed concern on Friday about the human rights situation in Egypt.

"I remind the Egyptian government that under international law people have the right to demonstrate peacefully," she said, stressing that they have the right to express their views through social media.

"They should never be detained, let alone accused of serious crimes, solely for the exercise of these rights."

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry dismissed Bachelet's statement, saying it was "based on undocumented information."

Amnesty International said that the Egyptian authorities should immediately begin to end the wave of arbitrary mass arrests and release all detainees for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression and assembly.

The Egyptian authorities should focus on ending the crackdowns, which have turned Egypt into an open prison for critics, instead of criticizing human rights organizations for highlighting abuses in Egypt, Amnesty said.

The organization said the motive behind the Egyptian authorities' closure of roads and metro stations was to prevent people from exercising their right to participate in peaceful demonstrations.