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Medical student latest victim in Egypt’s rising phenomenon of enforced disappearances

September 20, 2016 at 4:19 pm

Human rights organisation Alkarama has referred the case of Abdelrahman Gamal Mohamed Ahmed to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances in the hope they will intervene and request information from the Egyptian authorities on his location.

The 23-year-old medical student became the latest victim in Egypt’s rising phenomenon of enforced disappearances after he was abducted by Egyptian security forces on 25 August this year, without a warrant or a reason for his arrest. Ahmed’s family still don’t know where he is being held.

Alkarama Regional Legal Officer for the Nile Region, Simone Di Stefano, told MEMO that the secret nature of enforced disappearances, the repression of civil society groups and the intimidation of family members and victims make the exact number of enforced disappearances difficult to document, but they are certainly rising. Even with the majority of cases being undocumented, in July 2016 Amnesty International reported an average of three to four disappearances a day; other organisations have reported that 1,800 enforced disappearances took place in 2015 which puts the average per day at over four.