Nineteen Egyptian and international human rights organizations have condemned what they describe as a systematic campaign of “proxy punishment”, in which the Egyptian state targets relatives of political dissidents living abroad through home raids, arbitrary arrests, and enforced disappearances.
In a joint statement issued Tuesday, the groups including EuroMed, Digital Democracy Now and PEN America warned that this form of collective punishment—explicitly prohibited under international law—has intensified in recent months as a deliberate method of repression.
The practice violates core principles of individual accountability, family privacy, and personal safety, and in many cases has involved enforced disappearance and degrading treatment.
Among the most recent incidents is the arrest of 63-year-old Sobhy Eid, father of activist and podcast host Saif Alislam Eid, producer of the prison-focused show “Listen to Prisoners.” On Oct. 22, security forces stormed the homes of multiple members of Saif's family in Alexandria and Kafr El-Dawwar, before detaining his father.
Sobhy Eid was forcibly disappeared for three days, then brought before the Supreme State Security Prosecution, where he was charged in case no. 6468/2025 with “joining and financing a banned group.” He was ordered into pretrial detention, without access to legal counsel or family contact during his disappearance, the statement read.
According to the statement, Saif Alislam Eid, believes the arrest was a direct reprisal for a recent podcast episode in which a former political detainee described being tortured in Azouli Prison, one of Egypt’s most secretive military detention centers.
Sobhy Eid had previously been detained for 18 days in April 2025, in connection with his son’s activism, before being released without charges.
The statement also referenced other recent cases of family-based retaliation, including the August 2023 detention of journalist Ahmed Gamal Ziada’s father, the 2020 arrests of relatives of rights defender Mohamed Soltan. As well as, the 2024 security harassment of researcher Abdelrahman Ayyash’s family, and the 2020 arrests of five relatives of Istanbul-based broadcaster Hesham Abdallah—three of whom still face terrorism-related charges.
According to documentation by the Egyptian Human Rights Platform, at least 12 such cases were recorded between 2024 and 2025. Tactics include arbitrary detention, travel bans, repeated security summons, and dismissals from public sector jobs.
The signatories said that the Egyptian authorities are treating family ties as extensions of state control, turning social relationships into instruments of political punishment that aim to silence critics abroad by punishing those they care about at home.
The rights groups called for the immediate release of Sobhy Eid, Sayed Khamis brother of ex-detainee Shaaban Khamis, and all those subjected to family-based targeting.
They also demanded a halt to retaliatory arrests, the disclosure of the whereabouts of the disappeared, and independent investigations into abuses committed by the National Security Agency.
The statement concluded that the escalation of such practices marks a dangerous evolution in Egypt’s authoritarian playbook by shifting repression from individuals to their families. This is what the signatories described as “transnational repression,” a strategy to intimidate exiled voices by inflicting pain on their loved ones.
In February 2025, the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) issued its report on Egypt’s human rights record, compiling 343 recommendations from 137 countries. Key demands included ending enforced disappearances, halting the practice of “case rotation,” releasing political detainees, and protecting media freedom.
Responding to the report, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty claimed that Egypt had implemented 301 recommendations from the last review cycle and made measurable progress at all levels.
The statement against “punishment by proxy” was also signed by several Egyptian NGOs including the Egyptian Human Rights Forum, Refugee Platform in Egypt and El Nadeem Center.
