The undersigned organizations call for the immediate release of lawyer at the Court of Cassation and former member of Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights, Hoda Abdelmonem (66 years old), who has been subjected to relentless reprisals and judicial harassment for more than seven years as a result of her work documenting and exposing human rights violations.
Her third trial on terrorism-related charges in Case No. 800/2019 (Supreme State Security Prosecution) is scheduled to begin on 16 December before the Second Terrorism Circuit at the Badr Security Complex. The undersigned organizations stress that her continued detention is unjustifiable, particularly given her critical and life-threatening health condition, as she suffers from chronic illnesses that require urgent and sustained medical care.
This marks the third time that Abdelmonem is being prosecuted for “joining” or “financing” a terrorist organization. She was first arrested on 1 November 2018 at her home and interrogated in Case 1552/2018, known in the media as the “Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms case”. She remained in unlawful pretrial detention for over three years before a State Security Emergency Court handed down an unappealable five-year sentence for “membership in a terrorist group”, while acquitting her of terrorism-financing charges.
On 31 October 2023, Abdelmonem was due to be released after completing her full sentence—before the verdict had even been ratified by the President, which would have rendered it final. Instead of initiating her release procedures, the authorities rotated her into a new case and brought her before the Supreme State Security Prosecution in Case 730/2020 on the very same charges. Her pretrial detention was repeatedly renewed for more than a year before she was rotated again: on 18 November 2024, prosecutors interrogated her in Case 800/2019, a case opened while she was already in custody. Less than a month later, she was referred to trial on chages of “joining and financing a terrorist group” and “criminal agreement to commit a terrorist offence”, without being confronted with any evidence or witnesses.
Over the past seven years, Abdelmonem’s health has severely deteriorated amid the authorities’ failure to provide the medical care her condition requires. In August, she suffered two consecutive heart attacks within a single week. She also suffers from chronic deep vein and pulmonary thrombosis, dangerously high blood pressure, severe joint pain, and kidney failure that has left her left kidney non-functional.
Abdelmonem has received several international awards in recognition of her distinguished human rights work, including the 2020CCBE Human Rights Award and, most recently, the IBA Award for Outstanding Contribution by a Legal Practitioner to Human Rights.
The undersigned organizations call on President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to consider the request submitted by her daughter, Gehad Khaled Badawy, on 12 October 2025, seeking a full presidential pardon for her mother in light of her deteriorating health and the fact that Abdelmonem has already served the sentence for the same charges for which she is now being prosecuted again in violation of Egyptian law.
Signatory Organizations
- Egyptian Human Rights Forum
- Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)
- Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms
- Egyptian Front for Human Rights
- Law and Democracy Support Foundation
- Access Center for Human Rights (ACHR)
- International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
- Alnadeem Center
- Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
- EgyptWide for Human Rights
- International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
- The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the observatory the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
- REDWORD for Human Rights & Freedom of Expression
- Refugees Platform in Egypt (RPE)
- Lebanese Center for Human Rights – Centre Libanais des Droits Humains (CLDH)
- Lawyers for Lawyers
- The Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in South West Asia and North Africa (WHRDMENA).
See the pdf version of the statement here.
