Egypt’s government refuses to free political prisoners

The Egyptian presidency’s official website highlights a decision by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi under the headline: “President Issues New Criminal Procedure Code Following Parliament’s Approval and the Removal of Grounds for Objection” (https://h1.nu/1HAfh).

The presidential decision, published on 12th November 2025, has yet to take effect, more than a year after its approval and publication in the Official Gazette. The authorities say the delay is due to the need to complete the technical and logistical preparations and training required to implement the law.

The delay in implementing the controversial law, which was due to come into force on 1st October 2026, has prolonged the suffering of political opponents and prisoners of conscience held in pretrial detention.

Many have spent more than a decade behind bars, often facing politically motivated trials that lack even the basic guarantees of a fair hearing.

Reasons for the delay

The authorities say the postponement will give the relevant bodies an additional year to put the necessary infrastructure in place, complete the technological preparations and provide the training required to implement the law. The legislation restricts pretrial detention to specific cases and grounds, sets time limits for its use and subjects it to judicial oversight. It also gives defendants the right to appeal court orders for their detention.

Opponents, however, argue that delaying the implementation of the new Criminal Procedure Code (Law No. 174 of 2025) until 1st October 2027, a year later than originally planned, has further hindered efforts to secure the release of political prisoners.

A source at the General Secretariat of Egypt’s House of Representatives told the independent outlet Mada Masr that the decision to postpone the law’s implementation followed security reports and recommendations from the National Security Agency, Egypt’s domestic intelligence service. The reports warned against releasing hundreds of detainees who had already spent longer in pretrial detention than the law allows.

Since the military coup on 3rd July 2013, tens of thousands of political prisoners have been held in Egyptian prisons. They include human rights defenders, journalists, doctors, university professors, women and children, as well as supporters of the late President Mohamed Morsi.

The Egyptian authorities do not publish figures for the number of people held in pretrial detention. However, human rights groups estimate that around 60,000 political prisoners are behind bars, a figure the authorities consistently deny.

The actual figure may be even higher, as there are secret detention facilities run by the National Security Agency and others operated by the Egyptian military, none of which are subject to judicial oversight.

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A flawed law

Human Rights Watch, the New York-based international human rights organisation, describes the Criminal Procedure Code as “flawed and falling short of international standards”, noting that it allows detainees to be held in pretrial detention for up to two years, although the authorities have frequently held people for even longer.

“The new law reduces the maximum periods of pretrial detention: from six months to four months for misdemeanours, from 18 months to 12 months for felonies, and from 24 months to 18 months for crimes punishable by life imprisonment or death.”

The government’s failure to implement the law also runs counter to a legal principle established by the Court of Cassation, Egypt’s highest judicial authority. Under this principle, the new legislation is considered the “more favourable law for the defendant” from the date it was issued, 12th November 2025, rather than the date it comes into force. This interpretation is based on Article 5 of the Penal Code, which stipulates that any new law that is more favourable to the defendant must take precedence over the previous one. This means defendants should benefit from the new law “as soon as it is issued, regardless of the date set for its entry into force”.

In 2022, three judicial circuits held 141 hearings to review at least 25,034 pretrial detention renewal orders across 2,294 state security cases. A further 15 hearings were held, although the number of cases reviewed in them is unknown. The courts ordered the release of just 354 defendants, representing no more than 1.41 per cent of all detention orders reviewed. These figures come from a report by the Brussels-based Egyptian Front for Human Rights.

Provisions left on hold

Among the provisions of the new law that remain suspended are alternatives to pretrial detention, including the use of technological means to monitor defendants. However, the legislator added the condition that such measures may be used “when circumstances permit”, subject to a decision by the Minister of Justice in coordination with the ministers of interior and communications. This effectively leaves the implementation of the provision in the hands of the authorities, allowing them to activate it whenever they choose.

Alongside delaying the implementation of the new law, the Egyptian authorities use a tactic known as tadweer, or case rotation, whereby prosecutors bring new charges against detainees on the same grounds before their detention period in the original case expires, keeping them in pretrial detention indefinitely.

Human rights defender and lawyer Huda Abdel Moneim, 66, has been held in pretrial detention since November 2018. Since then, she has been added to two further cases, Nos. 730 and 800 of 2020, on the same charges as those in her original case, No. 1552 of 2018, in which a final ruling had already been issued. Her continued detention is therefore without legal basis.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), an independent Cairo-based human rights organisation, has documented the case of Abdullah Rabie Ibrahim Ramadan, who was arrested in 2015 and has spent more than 11 years in prison across multiple cases and sentences.

The initiative has also documented the case of lawyer Ibrahim Metwally, who has spent around eight years in pretrial detention across three successive cases.

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The enough campaign

On 7th, 8th and 9th October, prisons across Egypt witnessed a widespread hunger strike organised by the Enough campaign and the Prison Flood campaign under the slogan “October: The Beginning”. The action aimed to protest against indefinite pretrial detention, deliberate medical neglect and ongoing systematic violations against detainees and their families.

According to a statement by the London-based Families of Egyptian Detainees Association (FEDA), the hunger strike came amid growing despair among thousands of people held in pretrial detention, some of whom had been held beyond the legal time limits.

In recent years, the authorities have increasingly relied on video-conferencing systems for pretrial detention renewal hearings. As a result, detainees remain vulnerable to abuses and are arbitrarily denied visits and correspondence with their families and lawyers for months or even years, according to human rights reports.

The pretrial detention crisis is further compounded by the politicisation of presidential pardon lists. Issued annually, these lists include only a few dozen opposition figures from liberal political movements, while Islamist figures are excluded altogether.

Human rights activist Mohamed Abdel Aziz told Middle East Monitor that the pardon lists issued by the Egyptian authorities since 2013 had served only to ease external pressure, without creating greater political space or securing the release of political prisoners. He suggested that El-Sisi himself was blocking progress on the issue out of a desire for revenge against the Muslim Brotherhood, which is banned in Egypt.

A genuine review

Several questions need to be put to Egypt’s security and political decision-makers. Some detainees are not Islamists, so why is their release being blocked? Others are Coptic Christians whose alleged offence is membership of a banned group. What does this all mean?

Political researcher Mohamed Gomaa says the message is clear: no one is safe from the same fate as Islamists if they choose to defend them or call for political prisoners to be released.

Egypt needs to rethink its security policy, as releasing political prisoners would bring Cairo three benefits, according to Abdel Aziz. First, it would ease international pressure that pushes the Egyptian regime into unfavourable political and economic deals. Second, it would create conditions for national dialogue, helping the country overcome the political and economic crisis that has weakened its regional role. Third, it would reduce the financial and security costs of running the prisons.

Despite these potential benefits, the El-Sisi regime has shown no interest in releasing political prisoners. This is evident in the postponement of the Criminal Procedure Code and attempts to undermine its substance, leaving it, like many other laws, little more than ink on paper. The authorities remain determined to use fear to intimidate their opponents and deter other Egyptians from speaking out, lest they too end up behind bars.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.