Former Vice-President of the Republic and former Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei condemned the detention of activists in Egyptian prisons through his Twitter account on Wednesday evening.
"Reminder: Enforced Disappearances in accordance with the Convention of the International Criminal Court is a crime against humanity that has no statute of limitations," he wrote.
The HRW called on Egyptian authorities in a July statement to disclose the whereabouts of dozens of forcibly-disappeared citizens and activists and to either release them or charge them with a recognizable crime.
“Egyptian security forces have apparently snatched up dozens of people without a word about where they are or what has happened to them. The failure of the public prosecution to seriously investigate these cases reinforces the nearly absolute impunity that security forces have enjoyed under President al-Sisi,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director.
Three university students, Esraa al-Taweel and her two friends Omar Ali and Souhaib Saad, disappeared on June 1 as they walked along the Nile Corniche in Maadi. Their families accused security authorities of abducting them before their relatives found them later in police custody at different detention facitilties. The statement referred to other cases documented by Egyptian rights organizations in 2013 and 2015.
The Freedom for the Brave, an independent group offering support to detainees, reported on June 7 164 cases of forced disappearances since April and said that the whereabouts of at least 66 remain unknown, according to HRW.
The National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) said on May 31 it had verified nine cases of forced disappearance.
The NCHR said an alleged 55 other cases of forced disappearance have been filed to the council by the families of the victims.
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, an independent group, reported the forced disappearance of 14 people in the two months following the military’s removal of former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. The 14 have never resurfaced, according to HRW.
In related news, Assistant Interior Minister for Public Relations Major General Abu Bakr Abdel Kerim said in a statement Wednesday the Interior Ministry was investigating the disappearance of activist Mostafa al-Massouny. The Interior Ministry earlier denied arresting Massouny.
