Egypt Arrests Dissidents' Families Under Allies' Noses | Opinion
Amr Magdi
, Middle East and North Africa researcher, Human Rights Watch
On 3/3/21 at 7:30 AM EST
In November 2019, Hasiba Mahsoob, a 50-year-old Egyptian businesswoman, was arrested in public by security forces in Alexandria, Egypt. They took her to an undisclosed location, probably one of the National Security Agency's illegal detention sites, where they routinely "disappear" dissidents.
Her whereabouts weren't revealed until 67 days later, on January 27, 2020, when her captors finally took her before a prosecutor. Prosecutors, as usual, did not investigate her forced disappearance and ordered her detained pending "investigation," rubber-stamping unsupported security allegations that she was a member of an unnamed "terrorist" group.