Egypt releases EIPR staff after international outcry

Egypt released three senior staff of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) group on Wednesday amidst an international outcry over their arrest, the BBC reported.

Human rights activists Karim Ennarah, Gasser Abdel-Razek and Mohamed Basheer were being kept in pre-trial detention on charges of terrorism and ‘spreading false news’. Abdel-Razek was being kept in solitary confinement.

The arrests, described by the UN’s human rights agency as ‘chilling’, drew wide condemnation from Europe and the US with appeals from Hollywood celebrities for their release.”

After the submission of the necessary legal paperwork of registering the group as a non-profit organisation, the public prosecution has ordered the release of Gasser Abdel-Razek and members of the Initiative,” the Egyptian judiciary said in a statement.

EIPR documents the systematic violations carried out by the Egyptian regime. In November it published a report about the alarming rise in executions in the country.

READ: Head of Egyptian rights group held in solitary confinement