{"id":22935,"date":"2025-11-11T17:00:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T15:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpegy.org\/?post_type=editions&p=22935"},"modified":"2026-01-24T02:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T00:46:07","slug":"punishment-by-proxy-in-egypt-families-of-exiled-journalists-activists-and-human-rights-defenders-held-hostage-by-the-authorities","status":"publish","type":"editions","link":"https:\/\/rpegy.org\/en\/editions\/punishment-by-proxy-in-egypt-families-of-exiled-journalists-activists-and-human-rights-defenders-held-hostage-by-the-authorities\/","title":{"rendered":"Punishment by Proxy in Egypt: Families of Exiled Journalists, Activists and Human Rights Defenders Held Hostage by the Authorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

The undersigned organizations express their deep concern over the escalating pattern of <\/span>\u201cpunishment by proxy\u201d<\/span><\/i> employed by the Egyptian authorities, which has only intensified in recent months. This years-long practice involves targeting relatives inside Egypt of activists, writers, and dissidents living abroad through raids, arrests, and enforced disappearances, in an attempt to pressure or punish them for their peaceful opinions and activities.<\/span><\/p>\n

These practices constitute a <\/span>flagrant violation of fundamental human rights<\/b>, notably the right to liberty and security of person, respect for private and family life, and protection from all forms of collective punishment and retaliation.<\/span><\/p>\n

On <\/span>22 October 2025<\/b><\/a>, National Security Agency officers arrested <\/span>Sobhy Eid (63)<\/b>, the father of podcast host <\/span>Seif al-Islam Eid<\/b>, from his home in the Al-Mandara district of Alexandria. He was taken to an undisclosed location after security forces raided, on the same day, the family\u2019s house in Kafr al-Dawwar and the home of his 82-year-old father-in-law. During the raids, relatives were questioned about Seif\u2019s activities abroad. Eid was <\/span>forcibly disappeared for three days<\/b> before appearing on <\/span>25 October<\/b> before the <\/span>Supreme State Security Prosecution<\/b>, which ordered his <\/span>pretrial detention<\/b> pending case no. <\/span>6468\/2025<\/b> on charges of <\/span>joining and financing a banned group<\/span><\/i>, without allowing him access to his lawyer or family during the period of disappearance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seif al-Islam Eid hosts <\/span>Anbar Kollo Yesma<\/span><\/a> (\u201cEveryone in the Cell Must Hear\u201d), the first Egyptian podcast to document life inside the country\u2019s prisons after 2013 through testimonies from former detainees. He also <\/span>contributes<\/span><\/a> to <\/span>several<\/span><\/a> independent media<\/span><\/a> outlets<\/span><\/a>. He believes that his father\u2019s arrest was retaliation for a <\/span>recent podcast episode<\/span><\/a> featuring a former political prisoner detailing his experience of torture inside Egypt\u2019s most <\/span>secretive detention facility<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Al-Azouly Prison<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eid had previously been arrested on <\/span>30 April 2025<\/b> and held for <\/span>18 days<\/b>, during which he was questioned about his son\u2019s activities abroad, before being released without charge. This repeated targeting reflects the continuing use of retaliatory family-based repression, whereby relatives of activists are detained and interrogated about the work of their family members living abroad, in blatant violation of their fundamental freedoms.<\/span><\/p>\n

This case is not an isolated incident. In <\/span>May 2025<\/span><\/a>, Sayed Khamis appeared before the Public Prosecution after three weeks of enforced disappearance, following his arrest without legal basis due to the human-rights work of his brother living overseas. His other brother, Shaaban Khamis, was also briefly detained before being released on health grounds.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In an earlier incident, security forces arrested the father of journalist <\/span>Ahmed Gamal Ziada<\/span><\/a> in <\/span>August 2023<\/span><\/a> and held him for several days before his release, in what rights groups described as a clear act of reprisal against his son\u2019s journalistic work and outspoken criticism from abroad.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a similar case, the Egyptian authorities targeted the relatives of human rights defender Mohamed Soltan, raiding family homes and arresting several members in 2020, in an apparent attempt to pressure him after he filed a lawsuit in U.S. courts against former Egyptian officials. In 2025, violations against his father, <\/span>Dr Salah Soltan<\/span><\/a>, who remains in detention in one of Egypt\u2019s prisons, escalated as he was subjected to harsh treatment and deliberate medical neglect, believed to be in retaliation for his son\u2019s human rights work abroad.<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, journalist and researcher Abdelrahman Ayyash was referred to trial in absentia before terrorism circuits in September 2024, due to his journalistic and human rights work from exile. Several members of his family inside Egypt were also subjected to harassment and unlawful summonses linked to his activities, as part of a systematic policy of punishing activists through their relatives.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2020, security forces arrested four relatives of Egyptian TV presenter Hisham Abdallah, who has been living in exile in Turkey. Three of them are currently facing politically motivated charges before terrorism courts. Hassiba Mahsoub \u2014 the sister of a former Minister of Parliamentary Affairs under former President Mohamed Morsi \u2014 has remained in arbitrary detention since January 2020. Authorities recently referred her to trial on \u201cterrorism\u201d charges, after she had already exceeded the two-year legal limit for pretrial detention. Her trial began in October 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

These families continue to face repeated raids, confiscation of property, and arbitrary dismissals from public employment, as part of a broader pattern of systematic retaliation against the relatives of activists, journalists, and political opponents. Several women have also been banned from travel and had their passports confiscated as they attempted to leave the country to perform Umrah or Hajj, or to visit relatives abroad. Some were later summoned unlawfully to National Security premises and interrogated about their relatives living in exile.<\/span><\/p>\n

During 2024 and 2025, the Egyptian Human Rights Forum (EHRF) documented at least 12 cases of <\/span>punishment by proxy<\/span><\/i> against the relatives of Egyptian activists, journalists, and human rights defenders living abroad. The data shows that Egyptian authorities have come to treat family ties as extensions of political control, using detention and harassment as tools to silence critical voices abroad by inflicting harm on their relatives at home, reflecting a dangerous form of transnational retaliation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The undersigned organizations call on the Egyptian authorities to:<\/span><\/p>\n