Doaa Abdel Latif-Cairo
On the night of September 9, Egyptian police arrested Dr. Alaa Zobaea, 56, and took him to an undisclosed location. .
Brotherhood leader and broadcaster Hamza Zoubaa, who is outside the country, did not know the news of his brother's arrest and his forcible disappearance for more than forty days. The family hid the news of the arrest and enforced disappearance in the hope of returning nearby especially that they were told "two days and return."
Recently, Hamza Zoubaa knew of his brother's arrest and announced the news through his program on the opposition McMalin channel, explaining that Alaa did not participate in his political or trade union work throughout his life, and that the Egyptian regime was avenging him by arresting his family members where the police had already arrested his sons.
Zouba's case is not unique. Egyptian security under the authority of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi recently adopted a policy of arresting the families of dissidents abroad, as a form of pressure on them, whether to return to the country or to silence them from criticizing the regime.
Article 95 of the Egyptian Constitution stipulates that "punishment shall be personal, and there shall be no crime and no penalty except by law, and no penalty shall be imposed except by a judicial ruling, and only punishment for acts subsequent to the effective date of the law."
Similar cases
About two months ago, activist Wael Ghoneim, a resident of the United States, returned to interact via social media platforms by broadcasting videos critical of the Egyptian regime. He criticized Mahmoud al-Sisi, the son of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
On September 19, a security force raided Ghoneim's Cairo home to arrest his younger brother Hazem.He is being held in custody in case No. 1338 of 2019, and his parents' passports and national identity cards were withdrawn.
In successive videos, Wael Ghoneim asserted that his brother Hazem had nothing to do with politics and was focusing on his work as a dentist. He also declared that he was willing to stop criticizing the authority in exchange for his brother's release.
In the same way, the psychiatrist consultant Amr Abu Khalil, brother of the director of the victims' center for human rights and the broadcaster of the opposition channel Al-Sharq, was arrested Haytham Abu Khalil, a resident of Turkey.
Haitham announced the arrest of his brother in early October from his clinic in front of workers and patients in a humiliating manner, as well as police stormed his mother's house, And my brother, "he said.
Like Alaa Zoubaa and Hazem Ghoneim, Amr Abu Khalil did not practice political work. He is the head of the psychiatry department at Maamoura hospital and director of the Center for Psychosocial Studies in Alexandria. No. 1118 of 2019.
In the wake of the campaign “Atmn you are not alone” launched by the media Moataz Matar, police raided his mother's house and arrested 13 relatives in March, in addition to the arrest of his brother Moaz Matar a year ago, which exposed the broadcaster Mohammed Nasser, where police arrested two One of them was released while the other was inside the prison without being brought to court.
Two years ago, Ola al-Qaradawi, the daughter of former president of the World Federation of Muslim Scholars, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, and her husband Hossam Khalaf, was arrested. .
Compression tool
The use of the families of the accused or prosecutors as a pressure tool is not a new methodology for Egyptian security.
"The father or mother of the wanted man or his children are often arrested to pressure him to surrender to the police, and detainees are often threatened with their families to confess to fabricated charges," Koumi said.
Al-Koumi said in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net that the regime which he described as a coup d'état began a new methodology, namely arresting immigrant families or those who managed to escape the fire of power out of the country.
Whether the regime's practices succeed in exerting pressure on dissidents abroad, the former parliamentarian said he saw no retreat from those arrested, such as Matar and Zoba, but on the contrary increased their opposition to exposing the regime.
As for the impact on Egypt's international reputation for human rights violations, he pointed out that the Egyptian regime has become known for its repressive practices, as reflected in the recommendations made by 130 countries during the international review of the human rights file in Geneva on Wednesday.
He said that "the Egyptian regime in protecting the United States and Western countries, it protects its interests in the region in return for its continued survival in power."
Hostage taking
Ahmed Rami al-Houfi, a leader of the Freedom and Justice Party, said that what Egyptian security is doing to the families of dissidents abroad is "acts that can only be carried out by gangs."
Al-Hofi told Al-Jazeera Net that police practiced enforced disappearance, extrajudicial killings and theft against dissidents, considering the detention of families of dissidents abroad as a "hostage-taking."
He said that what the Egyptian security services are doing is making a temporary impact on the opponents, pointing out that the greater the degree of repression, the more the dread goes with the opposition.