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Egypt: Former MP Al-Najjar believed disappeared

October 20, 2018 at 10:58 am

The family of former Egyptian MP Mustafa Al-Najjar has accused Egyptian authorities of forcibly disappearing him, Al-Khaleej Online reported on Friday.

His family believes he was disappeared after publishing an article about the 25 January Revolution. Activists and the media have also accused the Egyptian authorities of disappearing Al-Najjar over his political views and opposition to the regime of current Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

Al-Najjar’s Twitter account said that he disappeared two weeks ago, noting that he was likely arrested by the Egyptian security services. Another tweet reads: “Today is the 20th day of the last phone call with Mustafa. Eight days passed after a phone call from an unknown source told his wife he was arrested”.

READ: Systematic involuntary disappearances continue in Egypt

The tweet added that Al-Najjar’s wife filed a complaint to Egypt’s public prosecutor, but “until now, there is no information about him and his whereabouts”.

Before his disappearance, Al-Najjar wrote on Twitter: “Dear reader, if you were able to read this article now, this means that the writer is behind bars. The writer of this article is not a killer, thief or drug dealer. The writer of this article is a physician you might know and an MP you have elected in the first ever true democratic elections held in Egypt after the January 25 Revolution of 2011”.

He added: “The writer is being prosecuted over the well-known case – contempt of judiciary. The evidence used against me is a speech I made inside the parliament when I spoke about prosecuting [former Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak’s regime and [the] evasion of killers from punishment”.

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Al-Najjar said that he did not choose to leave Egypt, even though he knew about the potential threat on his life, because he believed he was neither guilty nor a criminal.