According to a report published by Amnesty International on June 21, 2019, an Egyptian court issued a death penalty to Karim Hamada who was 17 years old when he was arrested during a raid on his home in Giza in November, 2016. According to documents obtained by Amnesty International, Karim Hamada was forcibly disappeared for 42 days within which he was tortured with electric shocks in order to obtain a forced confession. Karim was accused of attacking a tourist bus in Giza Governorate in the Greater Cairo in Egypt. This case included 26 defendants among which eleven were children aged 15-18 years old who are now waiting verdicts issued by the Egyptian Supreme Court. 

This report revealed that the Egyptian lower courts have sentenced at least three individuals to death for crime which happened whilst they were under 18 years old, before the sentences were overturned by higher courts. These sentences were applied despite violating Egyptian laws which ban the application of the death penalty against juvenile wrongdoers according to Article 111 of Egypt’s Child Law. However, Article 122 of the Child Law includes a loophole that permits death sentences for children. It stipulates that if mass trials are held by Egyptian courts, including where hundreds of defendants are responsible for one alleged criminal offence, and if there is even only one adult among the defendants, any children aged over 15-years-old among those defendants will not be referred to a juvenile court due to the presence of adult accomplices.

According to the report, another Egyptian child, Aser Mohamed was aged 14-years-old when he was sentenced to incommunicado detention for 34 days, and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment if convicted. Aser was arrested by Egyptian authorities in January, 2016. Aser says that he was tortured using electric shocks by the National Security Agency. He also said he was hung up by his limbs for hours in order to confess a crime that he did not commit. Aser said also that he was threatened by the public prosecutor that he would be sent back to the National Security Agency if he did not confess to committing the alleged crime. Both Karim and Aser faced many charges alleged to have occurred between mid-2015 and February 2016 such as being members of a terrorist group, as well as the use of force, possession of firearms and assaulting police officers. Both of them were under 18 years old at the time the crimes were alleged to have been committed. The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) commenting on the incident, stated that prolonged pre-trial detention of children is a grave violation of international law. 

On November 20, 2018, Amnesty International published a report outlining children rights violations committed by the Egyptian authorities under the Sisi administration. Amnesty detailed the detention of six Egyptian children. The families of the children said that their children were beaten and tortured mercilessly to confess to committing crimes they did not do. They were detained in small cells that lacked proper lighting, ventilation or beds, forcing them to sleep on the floor, and were sometimes prohibited from using toilets when they needed them. They were also provided insufficient food. The children were not given fair trials as they were not allowed to have their lawyers present during their questioning. However, Egypt’s State Information Service issued a press release in response to Amnesty’s findings denying that any violations against children have taken place. It stated that Amnesty International’s information was “not based on well-grounded sources” and did not provide “reliable evidence” to validate its claims of torture and enforced disappearance, arguing that it had complied with Egyptian and international law. 

One of those innocent children, Abdallah Boumidan, was 12-years-old when he was arrested in December 2017 by the Egyptian military in Arish City in Northern Sinai. Afterwards, he was forcibly disappeared and severely tortured. He was held incommunicado for seven months before facing charges which included being a member of a terrorist group. He was transferred to solitary confinement, where his medical situation badly deteriorated. 

According to an earlier report by Amnesty International in 2018, twenty two children were sentenced to imprisonment ranging from five to fifteen years by the Cairo Criminal Court for participating in the sit-in protest at Cairo’s Rabaa- Al-Adawiya square. This protest was broken up by the Egyptian authorities and became one of the largest massacres in modern history with over 817 people killed.

In July 2019, Human Rights Monitor (HRM) reported that in the past six years since Sisi’s military coup against the democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi, who passed away in a courtroom on June 17, 2019, Egyptian authorities have been committing severe human rights and children’s rights violations ranging from illegal systematic torture, widespread enforced disappearances, and murder of members of the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as massacres such those committed in sit-ins both in Rabaa and Nahda squares. HRM called on the international community to take the necessary measures to hold those perpetrators accountable, bring them to justice, put an end to these practices, and to compensate the victims.

Another report published by HRM on April 2, 2019 recorded severe violations of children’s rights in Egypt including: detention without a judicial authorization, arbitrary abductions, torture inside places of residence, as well as by Egyptian police and security personnel. The report noted that the number of detained Egyptian children has reached more than 2200 while 400 of them are still under arrest. It reported that more than 950 children were subjected to cruel, psychological and physical torture and there were 78 cases of sexual violence against children in Egypt. HMR called on the United Nations and the international community for accountability for those involved in these violations against children, stressing that the continuation of violations and crimes against children requires criminal prosecution and investigation and that collusion and the cover up of these crimes increases tension in Egypt.A report published by ‘My Country for Freedoms and rights’ showed that in 2017 a total of 889 recorded cases of child violations were made against 461 children. 418 of them were males, 31 were females while the identity of the remaining 13 children was unknown. In this period, 89 children faced charges over political issues, participating in protests or demonstrations. Verdicts were issued by the court against 49 children. Fifty-two children were found to be forcibly disappeared while being exposed to physical coercion and medical negligence. The report also showed that there were 61 children who were tortured to such an extent they acquired a disability. The report also showed that 66 children were sentenced to death illegally, and that provinces of Cairo, Giza and Alexandria had the largest share of the violations committed against the children.

According to the report, violations committed against children included: extra judicial killings, enforced confinement, beating and injuring torturing to the extent of disability, medical negligence, kidnapping, illegal detention, arrest without warrant, questioning without lawyers, death penalty, sentence to imprisonment, sentence to life imprisonment, the decision to repeat confinement and so many other violations that are committed by the Egyptian authorities. The statistics gathered by the organization found that repeat confinement has been the most common violation by the authorities against the children. The report revealed that throughout the 2017, fifty-one children whose ages ranged from 15 to 18 and one only 14-years-old were forcibly disappeared by Egyptian authorities. One of those children is Omar Al-Sayed A-Haty. According to his mother’s witness, Omar was kidnapped on December 5, 2015. It was reported that he was tortured through the use of electric shocks and was forced to drink excessive amounts of water until he fainted. The authorities thinking him dead, threw him on a rural street where he later regained his consciousness. Omar was again kidnapped while he was in a bookstore and he was threatened. He was also incorrectly arrested by the police force when he was in preparatory school.

According to unofficial statistics, there are about 4.000 children that have been arrested since 2013 and 800 of them are still in detention. One of them is Anas Husameldien Badawy who was arrested when he was 13 years old. He was forcibly disappeared for about a year and a half until it was known that he was in al-Ismailiye Prison. He is still under arrest. Yusuf Khalid Hussein was 15-years-old when he was arrested by the authorities. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment. He has spent four years in prison and has a year left until his release. Another child is Yahya Ahmed Ali Serag. He was 16 years old when he was placed under arrest. While Ahmed Baumi Mansour was 15-years-old when he was detained, he was sentenced to prison for seven years and has already completed four and a half years in detention. His family say that his life is at risk as he acquired a serious illness after medical negligence from prison authorities. 

According to Rassd Website, Mohammed Al-Shimi was 10-years-old when he was shot by police when they stormed the village of Mansouriya in 2015. He was then arrested from Sheikh Zayed Hospital near Cairo just hours after undergoing serious surgery to treat his injuries. He was transferred to the Central Security Camp on the Egypt-Alexandria Desert Road.

An earlier report by the United Nations on July 22, 2015 recorded that there were more than 3.200 Egyptian children who were placed under arrest by the authorities between June, 30, 2013 until May 2015 and that these violations have occurred since the start of the military coup. The UN Arbitrary Detention Panel issued a decision in May 2015 in which it considered that the arbitrary detention of children in Egypt was “systematic and widespread” after considering the complaint filed by the Karama Foundation on the case of the detention of 16-year-old Ahmed Taha. “He was tortured by electric shocks immediately after his arrest at his detention place in Nasr City’s first section to force him to confess that he was one of the manufacturers of weapons used to attack security personnel Ahmed’s mother said, adding that she was surprised by the media reporting about him by showing photos of the children with some weapons in front of him.Another case is that of Alaa and her father Yasser Faruk were forcibly disappeared by Egyptian national security on 3 August 2019 for 24 days. Alaa was brought before the prosecution and whilst in detention, the 17-year-old Alaa told lawyers that she was forced to listen to her father being tortured by national security forces, and was threatened with torture herself if she refused to confess joining and funding the Muslim Brotherhood. A group that was labelled a terrorist group by Egyptian authorities after Sisi’s military coup.

There are now more than 45.000 political detainees in Egypt. Their children are often neglected in news stories and suffer psychologically from being separated from their parents. The case of Hams and Hamiya however have captured attention. The two girls aged six and eight stay in front one Egypt’s worst prisons, called Al Karap or the “Scorpion prison”. They wait outside for their parents who were detained by Egyptian state security. Their father, Hassan Al Kapany is a journalist who was accused of spreading ‘fake news’. He is under arrest since 2015. While their mother, Aya Alaa, also a journalist, was detained by the police who accused her of contacting news challenges opposing Sisi’s regime. The girls have no relatives to take care of them, and authorities have left them to fend for themselves in the streets. This is not the first time such a miserable scene has occurred in Egypt. 

All reports clearly illustrate that innocent Egyptian children suffer under Sisi’s plan to crush the opposition across the country. So far, 10 children have been issued the death penalty under Sisi’s regime. Children pay the price of the political struggle between the coupists and the opposition groups, especially Muslim Brotherhood members who are frequently tortured, detained, and killed by the regime. Sisi’s crackdown on human rights, which he launched right after the 2013 military coup worsens every day. If the systematic targeting of human rights defenders, protesters, and the use of death sentence following unfair trials continue in Egypt, it seems that human rights, especially children’s rights, will continue to be gravely violated.

*Written by Rahma Elfeky – ISTANBUL

The six years long oppressive regime of Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi did little to prevent the growing opposition in Egypt. The country has witnessed increasing opposition towards the regime that was established in the aftermath of the July 3, 2013, military coup. Domestically, various social and political groups as well as the general public have increasingly been dissatisfied with the policies of the Sisi regime. A similar observation can be made for the perception of the Sisi regime among the international community. Major research institutions and news outlets claim that under the Sisi regime, Egypt is going towards a major breakdown that could affect not only the region, but wider geographies, including Europe.

There are two major reasons for the increasing discontent towards the Sisi regime. First, Egyptians and the international community believe that the Sisi regime is moving country to a more authoritarian stance. This is in total contradiction with what the revolutionaries of 2011 had hoped for when they managed to topple the three-decade long dictator, Hosni Mubarak. In the aftermath of the revolution, the Muslim Brotherhood leadership made a number of attempts to strengthen the democratic nature of the Egyptian state. However, the July 3 coup led by Sisi ended this short experience of democracy. Since then, the Sisi regime has been distancing Egypt from democracy and this is something that the revolutionaries would continue to stand up against.

Egyptians and the international community believe that the Sisi regime is moving country to a more authoritarian stance.

The second reason for this increasing discontent is the mismanagement of the Sisi regime. This can be observed in various fields such as the economy, security, social policy, the rule of law and foreign policy. Mistakes and wrong choices made by the Sisi regime in these fields have already caused a huge burden on Egyptians and will continue to bring additional problems in the short-term. It is widely believed in Egypt that if such policies continue to be implemented by the Sisi regime, the country will suffer both domestically and externally. This has created a political environment in which although there has been heavy pressure on the opposition, it has still achieved to stay alive.

Opposition towards the Sisi regime is not only limited with the Muslim Brotherhood organization, which suffered the most brutal crackdown in the country’s modern history. Other social forces that have different ideologies to the Muslim Brotherhood have also been dissatisfied with the policies of the Sisi regime. Egyptians are seriously disturbed by the loss of the gains made during the 2011 revolution and by the fact that the regime is increasingly becoming a repressive government. For this reason, the anti-Sisi opposition, which was largely led by the Muslim Brotherhood since 2013, has now spread to a wider audience that includes various ideological groups, including liberals, secular people and socialists.

This process is actually a result of a chain of events and policy choices that took place since 2013. In the aftermath of the military coup, the Sisi regime aimed to crash all the opposition that raised voice against the military takeover. Thousands of arrests and violent dispersals of protesters were initial signs of further repression. The Rabaa Massacre, where the Egyptian security forces killed more than a thousand protesters was the most obvious sign proving that the military regime would have no mercy for protesters who oppose the coup. In order to prevent a possible uprising, the Sisi regime gradually increased its pressure on the opposition regardless of their ideologies.

To prevent a possible uprising, the Sisi regime gradually increased its pressure on the opposition regardless of their ideologies.

Even the 6 April Movement and the Revolutionary Socialists, which supported the July 3, 2013, military coup, had their share of repressive policies of the regime. While leaders and scores of members of the 6 April Movement were arrested, a member of the Revolutionary Socialists was killed by the police during demonstrations in Cairo on the anniversary of the January 25 Revolution. The 6 April Movement was also barred from establishing a political party and was taken to court for being a terrorist organization. Following the heavy pressure, both the 6 April Movement and the Revolutionary Socialists had to step back to avoid further mistreatment from the Sisi regime.

As a result of the continuation of oppressive policies at home as well as the mismanagement of the country, Sisi has never been considered a reliable statesmen – not only in the eyes of the Egyptian people, but across the Middle East. Human rights violations, unjust court proceedings, arbitrary arrests and wide-spread torture have all caused a deep hatred towards the Sisi regime by millions of Egyptians. Despite developing good relations with regional actors, opening new initiatives in Africa and receiving the support of Western powers, Sisi has become a figure whose leadership skills and motivations are questioned by the masses and whose existence is seen as a problem for the stability of the country.

Human rights violations, unjust court proceedings, arbitrary arrests and wide-spread torture have all caused a deep hatred towards the Sisi regime by millions of Egyptians.

Finally, it can be observed that Sisi has lost the confidence of the Egyptian people. The Egyptian people no longer consider the Sisi regime as a government that can make democratic reforms, advance economic conditions, reduce poverty, bring political stability and achieve social integrity. It is also believed that the continuation of human rights violations, economic hardships and political instability will force the Sisi regime to re-consider its existence.

While relying heavily on the support of global powers, particularly from the U.S. and Israel, the Sisi regime does not take into account the fact that there is a deepening anger towards the administration domestically. The continuation of this trend may cause problems for Cairo that will have serious consequences with a devastating impact. The future of the Sisi regime is dependent on whether it will begin to address these issues and how Cairo will respond to domestic problems.

Following the military coup in 2013, the new regime in Egypt has taken serious steps to limit the activities of civil society. The regime led by Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi took the initial attack on the Muslim Brotherhood movement, the largest non-governmental organization in the country. During 2013 and 2014, the Sisi regime targeted NGOs, health institutions, religious and educational centers, which were claimed to be associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. The number of organizations that were closed in the post-coup period reached to over 10 thousand at the best estimate.

Non-governmental organizations and activists with secular and liberal ideology such as the 6 April Movement, Revolutionary Socialists, the Kefaya movement, and even the Tamarod movement became the targets of the Sisi regime.

On the other hand, non-governmental organizations and activists with secular and liberal ideology were also the targets of the Sisi regime. The 6 April Movement, Revolutionary Socialists, and the Kefaya movement as well as members of these organizations were subject to pressure from the regime and some were arrested for long prison terms. Even the Tamarod movement, which supported Sisi during the coup, failed to receive support from the post-coup regime that has been in place since July 2013.

In 2017, the Sisi regime took a step to institutionalize pressure on civil society with a new law that re-arranged the activities of civil society organizations. However, rather than liberalizing the functioning of civil society, the law further restricted their activities. The law made it difficult for 47,000 NGOs in the country to carry out their activities. In addition, the law stipulated that foreign NGOs need to pay $16,500 in order to start their operations in Egypt – a requirement that attracted concerns in regards to the motivation of the law. It is also requested that both domestic and foreign NGOs be approved by the committee established by this law and that they carry out their activities following this approval.

Following the NGO law of 2017, many civil society organizations were shut down and some foreign NGOs had to stop their activities in Egypt. Egyptian police stormed some of their offices.

Despite pressure from the government, NGOs have tried to remain active. However, following the NGO law of 2017, many were shut down and some foreign NGOs had to stop their activities in Egypt. In this context, on February 9, 2017, Egyptian police stormed the office of the country’s leading human rights organization, the Al-Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence.

In addition to Nadeem Centre, Nazra for Feminist Studies and the Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance (CEWLA) also suspended their activities due to pressure from the government. The Cairo Institute of Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) relocated to its new headquarters in Tunis. Organizations such as the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) and the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) have limited their activities and tried to avoid government pressure due to their critical coverage. However, they continued to remain visible in the public sphere.

The Sisi regime’s repressive policies towards civil society continue in different ways. Recently, the arrest of 31 people, including workers of the human rights organization called Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms, attracted the reaction of many civil society movements both inside and outside of the country. It is reported that one of the detainees is Aisha Al-Shater, the daughter of Hairat Al-Shater, who was one of the leading businessmen and influential figures in the Muslim Brotherhood organization before he was arrested in the post-coup crackdown on the movement.

Civil society in Egypt is far worse than it was during the Mubarak era. Government pressure has been increasingly limiting the activities of local and international civil society organizations in the country.

Meanwhile, many human rights organizations in the country have issued a joint statement against the operation, demanding the release of the detainees. The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, Al-Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, the Adala Center for Rights and Freedoms, the Cairo Center for Human Rights Studies, the Egyptian Front for Human Rights, and the Community for Justice have jointly stated that the Egyptian government’s policies towards civil society is unacceptable. Amnesty International also condemned the raid and called for the release of human rights activists.

Civil society in Egypt is far worse than it was during the Mubarak era. Government pressure has been increasingly limiting the activities of local and international civil society organizations in the country. Many experts also agree that the situation of human rights, rule of law, and freedom of expression in Egypt is worse than that of the Mubarak era. From this point of view, it’s clear that the current regime in Egypt – far from any form of democratization – dragged the country into a more totalitarian rule.

Egypt has been experiencing continuing instability since the military coup that took place on July 3, 2013. The coup was a turning point for the political life in Egypt and in the Middle East. A number of regional and international actors closely followed the developments taking place in Egypt since the coup. These actors supported the military coup and the regime that came to power in the following period. This international support for the post-coup regime in Egypt can be analysed on two levels: regional and global.

On the regional level there are three major actors that supported the military coup in Egypt: Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The main motivation behind this support for the coup was to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood from becoming a regional power base. Therefore, a strategy to eliminate the Muslim Brotherhood from the regional political arena was developed. As the movement rose to power in Egypt, the anti-Ikhwan alliance suspected that the movement would increase its influence in regional politics. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in particular have undertaken this strategy. While Abu Dhabi and Riyadh did not provide any political and financial support for the Morsi regime, they funded anti-Morsi protests that took place on June 30, 2013.

Israel, on the other hand, also preferred the end of the Muslim Brotherhood’s rule in Egypt. The possibility of Morsi’s more aggressive policy towards Israel and his aspirations of establishing a strong regional alliance with Turkey were the main reasons for Israel’s support for the regime change in Egypt. Tel-Aviv also believed that the increasing power of the Muslim Brotherhood in the region would seriously affect Israel’s policies in the Middle East.

On the international level, almost all Western countries, especially the U.S., Britain, France, Germany and Italy, supported the military coup in Egypt. There are four main reasons for this support: (1) Removing the Muslim Brotherhood from power, (2) Establishing a pro-Western secular-militarist regime, (3) Instating a government that would serve the interests of the West; and (4) Preventing new regional alliances.

In the aftermath of the coup, the Sisi regime in Egypt paid back its debt to Western countries with large purchases of defense products. Despite economic hardships, Egypt bought around 10 billion USD worth of warplanes and ships from France and the regime became one of top weapons importer from Germany. Similarly, Egypt’s imports of arms from Britain and Italy have also increased.

The support given by the U.S. to the military coup in Egypt was particularly important. In response to this support, the Sisi regime gave full support to Washington’s policies towards the region. The most recent case of this support was the low-level reaction of the Sisi regime in regards to the U.S.’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Cairo also followed a similar policy line with Washington when it comes to U.S. policy toward the Gulf region.

A similar situation can be observed in relations between the Gulf and Egypt. The most enthusiastic supporters of the military coup were the UAE and Saudi Arabia. In return to their support, these countries expected the Sisi regime to meet their demands in regional politics. As a result, the Sisi administration transferred the strategic Tiran and Sanafir islands to Saudi Arabia and supported the political blockade initiated by the UAE against Qatar. Cairo also followed Saudi and Emirati instructions in its policies toward regional issues such as Libya and Yemen.

It is obvious that the current Egyptian regime cannot follow an independent foreign policy. It is simply because the Sisi regime is directly or indirectly controlled by the actors that supported the military coup in 2013. It can also also argued that as the regime in Cairo has no political legitimacy or popular support, it would be far from achieving a peaceful political environment in the country.

Egypt has been making headlines recently with its two legendary football players: Liverpool’s award-winning striker Mohammed Salah and former Egyptian international and Al-Ahly player Mohamed Aboutrika. While the former came to fore with his success story, the latter surprises many because of the judicial proceedings against him in his own country.

Even though he does not publicly reveal his political views, it is certain that Mohammed Salah is cautious about antagonizing the Sisi regime. That’s why it can be argued that the main reason for Salah’s political silence is his fear of possible alienation by the regime in Cairo. By not stating his political views, Salah aims to prevent the regime’s pressure against him. Witnessing the experience of Aboutrika, Salah is aware that in order to keep his popularity high in the country, he needs to maintain a compromising relationship with the regime. That’s what he does perfectly. He made a donation to the Tahta Masr Fund, which was created by Sisi in the post-coup process. He also keeps a low politic profile.

Mohamed Aboutrika, on the other hand, is the latest civilian victim of the political pressure of the Sisi regime. While he is considered a national hero in his country, Abou Treika is a more popular figure than the president Abdal Fattah Al-Sisi. However, because of his support for the democratically elected president Mohammad Morsi, Aboutrika is being targeted by the regime.

The process with Aboutrika began in the period following the military coup in 2013. He was accused of being a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organization and subjected to inquiry. While the investigation continues, his assets were frozen and properties were taken under state control in 2015. He was then moved abroad and started to live in self-exile in Qatar. He continuously refused his alleged ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. Despite this, the judicial processes against him continued. Many believed that the famous player was being punished for his support to the presidency of Muhammad Morsi.

In January of 2017, an Egyptian court decided to place Aboutrika on a terror list, which included a number of leading figures of the Muslim Brotherhood as well. The Egyptians heavily criticized this decision and there were thousands of support messages for Aboutrika, especially on social media.

Another Egyptian national team player and Tottenham Hotspur striker Ahmed Hossam “Mido” showed solidarity with Aboutrika. On his twitter account Mido stated, “I do testify before God that Aboutrika is one of the best personalities I have dealt with in my life and a kind, forgiving man to everybody.” He further called on the Sisi regime to clarify whether they had clear evidence that Aboutrika was linked to terrorism.

Following the decisions on Aboutrika, lawyer and activist Khaled Ali made a statement in support of the national footballer: “When Aboutrika becomes a terrorist, Egyptians defending Egyptian islands become traitors and the presence of cultural and human rights centers becomes a threat to national security. We know that we need to place different definitions on those words.”

In April 2018, the Egyptian prosecutor office suggested that Aboutrika should be excluded from the terror list. Despite this suggestion, in May, Cairo Criminal Court added Aboutrika on the terror list for a second time. After the decision, the Egyptian national player published a statement on social media and asked Egyptian authorities to end this unlawful process against him. He also stated that he could not wait to return to his country.

Despite the negative attitude of the regime, Aboutrika continues to be accepted as one of the country’s greatest heroes. In a poll by FIFA at the beginning of 2018, Aboutrika was named as the best Egyptian player ever. He was chosen Africa Best Player of the Year award four times and played a big role in 2013 when Cairo’s Al-Ahly won the African Champions League cup.

Sisi regime and the future of oppression

Human rights abuses have remained the biggest problem in Egypt in the period since the military coup in 2013. Thousands of civilians are subjected to judicial proceedings on the basis of their membership to the Muslim Brotherhood, a civil network that has peacefully existed in the country since 1928. A large number of these civilians were taken to military courts, while they remain in jail for long periods during the court proceedings.

One of the unlawful practices of the regime is placing individuals on a terror list. Once placed, suspects are issued travel bans and their properties are confiscated. This practice is increasingly instrumental for the Sisi regime and applied particularly to Muslim Brotherhood members.

This attitude of the Sisi regime can be understood from a much wider perspective. The Muslim Brotherhood was a civil organization that has been operating in the country for years as a civil society movement and has never resorted to any kind of violence during the Hosni Mubarak period or following the 2011 revolution. However, the post-2011 revolution period considered this organization as a direct threat to the existing structure of politics in the Middle East. Therefore, a number of counter-revolutionary initiatives were established. The most prominent of these initiatives was the one in Egypt. Considering the Muslim Brotherhood organization as a possible power base in the region, these counter-revolutionary forces aimed to remove such groups from the political arena. Aboutrika’s story shows that this policy is so rigid that even national heroes, such as himself, can be victim to such political pressure.