Yasser Abu Al-Ela, an Egyptian journalist and member of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, is serving a 25-year sentence in Badr prison for a case dating back to 2022 and is awaiting sentencing in a 2024 case.
Abu Al-Ela was arrested on March 10, 2024, and taken to an unknown location. He endured 50 days of enforced disappearance, during which he was subjected to physical and psychological torture. He first appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) on April 27, without his family or the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate being informed and so the syndicate could not arrange legal representation for him. He was later charged with joining a terrorist organization and spreading false news.
On October 28, during a renewal hearing for his detention, Abu Al-Ela declared that he would begin a hunger strike in protest of the prison authorities’ measures against him, including solitary confinement, a ban on family visits, and restrictions on leaving his cell.
On November 10, 2024, Abu Al-Ela was sentenced in absentia – due to the fact that he wasn’t presented in court during the trial – to 25 years in prison on charges of joining a terrorist organization and spreading false news in a separate case dating back to 2022.
On April 27, the journalist’s wife, Naglaa Fathi, and her sister Asma Fathi were also detained, subjected to enforced disappearance for 13 days, and later charged with joining and funding a terrorist organization after filing several complaints with Egyptian authorities about her husband’s disappearance. During her detention renewal session, Asma Fathi said that she was arrested for supporting her sister in advocating for her husband’s release. She said that both sisters were subjected to various forms of physical and psychological torture during this period.
Abu Al-Ela’s arrest comes amid a new wave of journalist detentions in Egypt.
Abu Al-Ela suffers from a herniated disc.
The Ministry of Interior, responsible for the police, prison system, and prosecutor general’s office, did not respond to CPJ’s email inquiries regarding Abu Al-Ela’s case in late 2024.