ECESR Calls for Immediate Disclosure of Whereabouts and Cause of Alexandrian Citizen Detention, Arrested Last August

Alexandrian arrested last August, his whereabouts still unknown

ECESR calls for immediate disclosure of the whereabouts and cause of detaining Ahmed Lutfi

ECESR expresses deep concern over the involuntary disappearance of an Alexandrian citizen. According to the information available to The ECESR lawyers, a police force had raided the house of Ahmad Lutfi Ibrahim, Miami, Alexandria, on August 25, 2014 at three o’clock in the morning. He was arrested without justification, explanation or arrest warrant and held in an undisclosed location until now. His family members headed to all prosecutors and police stations of Alexandria, and hospitals to ask about his whereabouts and the reason behind arresting him, but to no avail. It is worth mentioning that they have arrested him in spite of his health condition—the disappeared suffers from deafness since his childhood. In addition, he was not allowed to take the charger of his medical earphone, making him lose the ability to hear.

It is noteworthy that Ahmed Lotfy had already been accused in the Two-Saints Church bombing in Alexandria on January 1, 2011, despite of being in Saudi Arabia at the time to conduct ear surgery. He was released in April 2011 and dismissed from the case after being tortured during his detention. The same thing had happened with the engineer Abdullah Osama El-Shafei, who was previously accused in the Two-Saints Church bombing and was subsequently released without conviction. El-Shafei was arrested at his workplace in Alexandria on April 27, 2014 in another case. He was taken with a colleague to Alexandria Security Directorate, and was released on the same day. It is noteworthy that during his father’s search about him, he had been detained and taken to an unknown location for several hours and accused of forming and joining illegal groups that threaten social peace and promote extremist ideas.

ECESR lawyers submitted an official report on the incident of disappearance to the First Attorney-General of Alexandria (No 2979/2014 dated September 8, 2014), and a second one to the Office of Alexandria Security Director (No 1049/2014 dated September 10, 2014).

ECESR expresses its deep concern of the increase of enforced disappearances and detention of citizens without legal grounds, in addition to encroaching on the citizens’ rights guaranteed by the Constitution and law.

ECESR calls for the immediate disclosure of the whereabouts of Ahmad Lutfi and a statement of reasons to be issued for his detention, as well as enabling his lawyers to communicate with him.