The Karama (Dignity) Party said late Saturday it had begun an open-ended symbolic sit-in at its Cairo headquarters to press for the release of prisoners of conscience before Eid Al-Fitr, saying the action was meant to support detainees held in publishing and political cases as well as those kept beyond the legal limits of pretrial detention.
The party said the sit-in, under the slogan “Their Eid is their freedom,” comes at a sensitive regional moment and could help ease domestic tensions while giving prisoners of conscience a chance to spend the holiday with their families.
In a statement it published on its Facebook page, the party said releasing prisoners of conscience would help strengthen the home front in the face of external challenges and close a file that has weighed on relations between society and the state.
It added that “the strength of states is not measured only by their military capabilities, but also by the unity of their society and their citizens’ trust in their institutions.”
Mahmoud Fahmy, a member of the party’s high committee, told Al Manassa the sit-in also expresses solidarity with people arrested over their support for Palestine.
Since the start of the Israeli assault in October 2023, arrest campaigns have targeted many citizens who expressed solidarity with the Palestinian cause. According to June 2025 figures from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, security forces arrested 186 people in 16 different cases before the Supreme State Security Prosecution over peaceful activities that included protesting, raising banners, or contributing to relief efforts.
Fahmy said Al Karama had invited national political forces and other parties to join the initiative, adding that their participation was natural because “many of them have members or sympathizers in detention.”
In a recorded speech, Karama Party head Sayed El-Toukhy said the sit-in was intended to reject the continued detention of prisoners of conscience and send a message of solidarity to their families.
He added that the party feels “bitterness every time it sees a prisoner of conscience,” saying the continuation of these detentions means “the country is not reconciled with its people,” in his words, and calling for changes to the pretrial detention law.
Last October, representatives of political and trade union forces who met at Karama Party headquarters announced the formation of a body bringing together parties, public figures, and unions to defend prisoners of conscience and work to guarantee fair trials for them.
Nada Mogheeth, the wife of detained Al Manassa cartoonist Ashraf Omar, was among those who attended the meeting. She expressed her “disappointment” that her husband has remained in pretrial detention since July 22, 2024, despite efforts to secure his release.
Ashraf Omar faces charges of “publishing and broadcasting false news, misusing social media, and joining a group founded in violation of the law.”
In February 2025, the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review working group issued a report reviewing Egypt’s human rights record, including 343 recommendations from 137 states, including calls to combat enforced disappearances, end the recycling of detainees into new cases, release political prisoners, and guarantee media freedom.
Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty responded that Egypt had intensified efforts over the past five years to implement 301 recommendations it accepted in the previous review, saying it had made “tangible progress at all levels.”
In October 2025, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights sent an official memo to the Egyptian government urging “clear and tangible” steps to address “ongoing violations” in several key rights files, calling for the release of all those “arbitrarily detained for peacefully exercising their rights,” and for ensuring human rights defenders and civil society groups can work safely without fear of prosecution.
