Muhammad Hazem Salah Abou Ismail, Lawyer, Scholar and 2012 Egyptian Presidential Candidate, Faces Imminent Threat to Life in Egypt’s Badr Prison

Press Release

Muhammad Hazem Salah Abou Ismail was born on 16 June 1961 and has been registered with the Egyptian Bar Association under registration number 54053 since 1990. He is a practising human rights lawyer known for representing individuals and groups subjected to repression and persecution, including opposition figures and activists. He has pursued public interest cases and engaged in legal action against alleged human rights violations. He also stood as an independent presidential candidate in the 2012 presidential elections held in Egypt.

Mr. Abou Ismail was arrested on 5 July 2013, two days after the military coup of 3 July 2013. He was arrested following a raid on his home by heavily armed security forces. Since then, he has been subjected to severe ill-treatment, torture and prolonged solitary confinement. His family has not been permitted to visit him. Since 2016, his family has been unable to obtain verifiable information about his health. Reports that he has lost approximately half of his body weight have further heightened concerns about his physical condition.

Video footage reportedly recorded in a courtroom approximately five months after his arrest appears to show Mr. Abou Ismail telling the judge that, shortly before the hearing, police officers had raided his cell and confiscated his law books, legal reference materials, case notes, pens and papers. These were materials he had accumulated in order to prepare his own defence. The account available indicates that this prevented him from preparing his defence and also deprived him of effective legal assistance.

Mr Abou Ismail was subsequently subjected to multiple trials and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, all of which, according to the information obtained by us, had ended by July 2026. It has been reported that the fair trial safeguards were not observed in these proceedings. One of the sentences was imposed following a charge of contempt of court arising from his objection to the manner in which the proceedings were conducted.

In 2020, Egyptian police forces again visited the home of Abou Ismail’s family and arrested Baraa Abou Ismail, his eldest son, who was in his final year at university. To date, Baraa Abou Ismail has also been arbitrarily detained. This pressure on the family has likewise been regarded as an action directed against Mohamed Hazem Salah Abou Ismail, with the sole aim of completely breaking his will.

Despite the expiry of his sentences, he has not been released. We have received no information indicating that any new detention, prosecution or other judicial proceedings exist that could explain the continuation of his deprivation of liberty. It is therefore imperative that the legal basis for his continued detention after July 2026 be urgently clarified.

In recent months, the family has been unable to obtain any reliable information about Mr Abou Ismail and, more generally, has been unable to access information that would enable them to verify his condition for years. The family fears that his life may be in danger. He was previously held in Scorpion Prison and is reportedly currently being held in Badr Prisons.

These correctional facilities have been the subject of human rights concerns in reports issued by official institutions and civil society organisations. The absence of independent information about his current condition, considered alongside the reported torture and ill-treatment to which he was previously subjected, prolonged isolation, severe weight loss and inability to communicate with his family, makes this case one requiring urgent intervention.