Egypt: Leading rights group closes with government harassment Human Rights News

The Arab Human Rights Information Network, one of Egypt’s last independent pro-rights groups, has been shut down.

One of Egypt’s last independent human rights organizations has been shut down, according to a group note, citing government persecution.

The Egyptian government has been widely expanded repression of dissent over the years, this has drowned many civil society groups in the country and imprisoned thousands.

The Arab Network for Human Rights, an Egyptian organization, was founded in 2004 by a group of lawyers and activists. He documented violations against citizens, journalists and political prisoners in Egypt and the region. It also followed the growing fear of the government and the target of human rights workers and others.

But laws that outlawed many ANHRI operations have forced the organization to close, Executive Director Gamal Eid said in a statement on Monday.

A group employee said he was arrested, intimidated and physically assaulted by security forces.

“We remain conscientious advocates and will work as individual and independent human rights defenders with the few remaining independent human rights organizations, independent human rights defenders and the whole movement for democracy,” he wrote.

A government media official did not respond to a request from The Associated Press for a comment on the organization’s statement.

Among those imprisoned in recent years were secular activists who took part in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that ousted the country’s longtime leader Hosni Mubarak.

As a lawyer, Eid replaced some of the most important secular detainees. A court ordered his goods frozen and has banned him from traveling since 2016.

Since coming to power in 2013, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has overseen post-uprising repression and outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood as a “terrorist organization.”

The country is among the worst prisons for journalists, along with Turkey and China, according to the Nonprofit Commission for the Protection of Journalists.