A prominent Egyptian human rights activist and lawyer has been arrested in connection with an ongoing investigation of the country’s top rights campaigners for illegally receiving foreign funds.
Her arrest has had a chilling effect on Egyptian rights activists who fear they will be next.
As she was being away led by police, Azza Soliman tells The Associated Press by phone that security forces arrived to her house and presented her with an arrest warrant.
Soliman, the chairman of the Centre for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance, was banned from traveling abroad last month and told her name was blacklisted; days later she learned that her assets had been frozen.
“Azza Soliman’s arrest is the latest chilling example of the Egyptian authorities’ systematic persecution of independent human rights defenders,” says Najia Bounaim at Amnesty International. “There is a real risk that her arrest could signal an accelerating crackdown with many other human rights defenders subject to the same inquiry facing the risk of imminent arrest.”
An asset freeze was also issued by a court in September against several of the country’s most prominent human rights leaders.
— AP
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