A day before his detention renewal hearing Monday, 18 Egyptian and international human rights organizations condemned the continued detention of director and screenwriter Omar Salah Marei. The groups demanded his immediate and unconditional release and the closure of the case in which he is accused of “deliberately publishing false news inside the country” over several social media posts.
The organizations said in a joint statement Saturday that the Supreme State Security Prosecution is scheduled Monday to consider the renewal of Marei’s pretrial detention for another 15 days, pending investigations that began after he appeared before it.
Before that appearance, the groups said, Marei had been held in an undisclosed location, denied contact with the outside world and not allowed to communicate with his family or lawyer, a serious violation of basic fair trial guarantees.
The organizations warned that Marei’s health was deteriorating because he has been denied treatment since his arrest on May 11.
Marei’s family sent official telegrams to the warden of 10th of Ramadan Prison, the Supreme State Security Prosecution and the minister of interior demanding he be allowed access to medicine, the statement said. Marei has a severe thyroid disorder that requires daily treatment, and denying him it could lead to life-threatening complications.
Prior to his arrest, Marei was also “recovering from recent wrist surgery that required ongoing medical care and physiotherapy. He has been denied that treatment, reportedly resulting in complications and swelling in his left arm,” the statement said.
“The continued denial of medical care constitutes a violation of the right to health,” and a form of “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment prohibited under international law,” it added.
The organizations that signed the statement, including El Nadeem Center, the Egyptian Front for Human Rights, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, said Marei’s case was not isolated but “reflects a broader pattern of a harsh and ongoing crackdown on freedom of expression in Egypt,” including “the systematic targeting of artists and cultural figures.”
The statement pointed to similar prosecutions that have recently targeted artists and journalists, including Al Manassa cartoonist Ashraf Omar, poet Ahmed Douma, poet Galal El-Behairy and director Abdel Rahman Al-Ansari, as well as 19 journalists behind bars and the prosecution of content creators on TikTok.
The organizations concluded their statement by demanding that Egyptian authorities meet their international obligations, hold those responsible for Marei’s “enforced disappearance” accountable, stop the systematic targeting of freedom of expression and artistic freedom, and release all creators and prisoners of conscience held in Egyptian prisons.
A security force in civilian clothes arrested Marei at his home in Sarayat El Maadi last Monday evening and took him to an unknown location, his wife, Nora Elsayed, told Al Manassa at the time.
She said the incident began around 7 pm, when the force, accompanied by a Central Security Forces vehicle, went to the broker who had rented them the apartment and asked him about an apartment where a director named Omar Salah Marei lived, before taking him to the building.
The force went up to the apartment, where Omar was alone, then took him, along with the broker and the building doorman, to Maadi Police Department, which later denied he was there, Elsayed described.
His wife said the broker and building doorman remained inside the police department for about six hours before they were released, while the family received no information about Omar.
