The Egyptian authorities have stepped up their onslaught against the human rights community by arresting at least 19 human rights lawyers and activists in a series of raids yesterday, said Amnesty International. So far at least eight women and 11 men were arrested in raids which began in the early hours of the morning.
The arrests prompted the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), a prominent human rights organisation that provides legal aid and carries out documentation, to suspend its activities, citing the hostile environment towards civil society in Egypt.
Among those arrested is the 60-year-old prominent human rights lawyer Hoda Abdelmoniem, a former member of the National Council for Human Rights. Security forces broke into her apartment and ransacked it before taking her to an undisclosed location.
