A/HRC/48/28 undermine national security” (Case No. 900 of 2017). He is currently held in Maximum Security Prison II within the Tora Prison complex. 42. The case of Dr. Ahmed Shawky Abdelsattar Mohamed Amasha, human rights defender and co-founder of the League for the Families of the Disappeared who supported families of those forcibly disappeared and arbitrarily detained, including by submitting cases to the WGEID, was included in the 2019, 2018 and 2017 reports of the Secretary-General149 on allegations of abduction, detention, and torture. In November 2017, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found Dr. Amasha’s detention arbitrary, requested his immediate release and called on the Government to provide him compensation and other reparations 150. On 4 October 2019, he was released on bail and required to report to the police station twice a week. 43. According to information received by OHCHR, on 17 June 2020, Dr. Amasha was arrested by police officers and his fate and whereabouts remained unknown until 12 July 2020 when he appeared at the office of the Supreme State Security Prosecutor for investigation on the charge of “joining a terrorist group” (Case No. 1360 of 2019). His whereabouts were again unknown until 7 December 2020, when Dr. Amasha was seen in a glass cell along with other detainees in Tora Maximum Security Prison II. He is reportedly summoned to appear before the Prosecutor every 15 days, who reportedly extends Dr. Amasha’s detention in absentia. During its September 2020 session, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances transmitted the case of Dr. Amasha under its urgent procedure (A/HRC/WGEID/122/1, para.79). 44. The case of Mr. Bahey El Din Hassan, of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), was included in the 2020 and 2019 reports of the Secretary-General151 following criminal charges, travel ban and asset freeze allegedly related to his cooperation with the UN (EGY 16/2017). On 19 September 2019, Mr. Hassan was sentenced in absentia to three years in prison and a fine by the Cairo Felony Court (Case No. 5530/2019) for a Twitter commentary he posted related to the Public Prosecution. 45. On 2 October 2020, special procedures mandate holders addressed Mr. Hassan’s conviction in absentia on 25 August 2020 by the Fifth Terrorism Circuit Court in Cairo to 15 years imprisonment under article 34 of the 2018 cybercrimes law in apparent reprisals for his cooperation with the UN (EGY 13/2020). Allegedly, the file against Mr. Bahey El Din Hassan included his Twitter activity and a photograph of him speaking at a NGO side event in the margins of the June 2018 session of Human Rights Council. Together with the 2019 verdict, Mr. Bahey El Din Hassan would face 18 years in prison. On 8 October 2020, mandate holders said that the verdict was “an act of reprisal, seemingly punishing for his cooperation with the United Nations”152 (see also EGY 13/2020). They stated that the “exercise of free speech and human rights work are being treated as terrorism” and “Egypt is using exceptional ‘Terrorism Circuit Courts’ to target human rights defenders, silence dissent, and to lock up activists during the COVID-19 pandemic.”153 46. The case of Mr. Mohamed El-Baqer, a human rights lawyer affiliated with the Adalah Center for Rights and Freedoms, was included in the 2020 report of the SecretaryGeneral 154 related to his arrest, ill-treatment and terrorism and national security charges following Adalah’s engagement in Egypt’s 2019 UPR related to the human rights situation of the Nubians (EGY 11/2019). On 29 July 2020, special procedures mandate holders addressed Mr. El-Baqer’s pre-trial detention and fair trial guarantees under case 1356/2019 related to publishing false news, belonging to a terrorist group, and receiving funds to carry out the goals of this group (EGY 10/2020). On 18 February 2020, the Tora Assize Court ordered the release of Mr. El-Baqer, but the decision was overturned after an appeal by the 149 150 151 152 153 154 58 A/HRC/42/30, Annex II, paras. 45–46; A/HRC/39/41, Annex II, paras. 17–18, 21; A/HRC/36/31, Annex I, para. 34. A/HRC/WGAD/2017/78, paras. 89–91. A/HRC/45/36, Annex II, para. 49; A/HRC/42/30, Annex II, para. 50. https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26364&LangID=E. Ibid. A/HRC/45/36, para. 67 and Annex I, paras. 45–46.