DROI Chair reacts to the disappearance of Giulio Regeni’s lawyer, Ibrahim Metawly
In reaction to the disappearance of Giulio Regeni’s lawyer, Ibrahim Metawly, the Chair of the EP Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), Pier Antonio Panzeri (S&D, IT), stated:
"I am disturbed by alleged reports that lawyer Ibrahim Metawly was arrested yesterday while he was about to fly to Geneva to address the UN Working Group on forced disappearances.
It is unacceptable that a prominent lawyer should vanish at an airport. I urge the Egyptian authorities to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Mr Metwally, a lawyer who is dedicating his life to denouncing this growing practice by Egyptian security forces of forced disappearances.
The continued practice of detaining the families of people subjected to enforced disappearance reflects the persistent trend of harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders, lawyers and ordinary citizens by the Egyptian authorities through the misuse of the criminal justice system".
Background information
Lawyer Ibrahim Metwaly is the coordinator and co-funder of the “Awqefoo el Ikhtifaa el Qasry” (Stop Enforced Disappearances) which aims to determine the fate and whereabouts of "disappeared" family members. His own son Amr Ibrahim Metwally disappeared in 2013 and there has been no news of him since. Over the last few years the families of those who have disappeared established the “Association of the Families of the Disappeared” in response to the proliferation of this practice by the Egyptian security forces. By mid-2015 the group began to campaign publicly by directly addressing the government and calling on it to divulge the fate and whereabouts of people who were forcibly "disappeared".