The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) on Friday condemned the detention of Mohamed Zahran, founder of the Teachers’ Independence Movement, and called for his immediate release.
The Supreme State Security Prosecution on Thursday ordered him detained for 15 days, pending investigation in State Security Case No. 5773 of 2026, according to human rights lawyer Khaled Ali.
Zahran, a former independent candidate for parliament in Cairo’s Matariya district, was questioned for more than five hours over Facebook posts calling for a teachers’ meeting to discuss enforcing court rulings ordering elections for the Teachers Syndicate and ending more than a decade of judicial guardianship over it. According to Ali, prosecutors accused him of spreading false news and using an account to promote a terrorist crime.
Prosecutors also questioned Zahran, who is helping establish the Democratic Front Party, about another Facebook post criticizing what he described as the public’s greater interest in football than in the injustice he faced and the economic and social impact of the cases against him, according to Ali.
Ali said Zahran told prosecutors he had not announced the meeting’s time or location because he was waiting for security approval.
“He intended to announce the remaining details after obtaining approval because he wanted the meeting to take place peacefully and feared that opponents of union elections and those benefiting from the current situation would try to disrupt it or target those attending,” Ali said.
Security forces arrested Zahran at his home on Wednesday evening. In an earlier Facebook post, Ali said Hilal Abdel Hamid, head of the Democratic Front Party, told him that Zahran’s son had informed him of the arrest.
Abdel Hamid told Al Manassa that he had contacted Zahran’s family on Wednesday after repeatedly trying to reach him and finding all his phones switched off. Zahran’s son told him, “A little while ago, some people came and arrested him, and we don’t know where they took him.”
Zahran’s arrest comes months after he was released in another case before the Supreme State Security Prosecution. On March 25, prosecutors ordered his release on bail of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (about $200) in State Security Case No. 1813 of 2026 after accusing him of “spreading false news, statements, and rumors inside and outside Egypt” in a way that “harms the public interest and undermines the prestige of the state,” according to EIPR.
Before that release order, Zahran had been summoned for questioning after a complaint was filed against him, without being told its nature or the charges before appearing in connection with State Security Case No. 1813 of 2026.
In September 2023, security forces arrested Zahran after he announced he would participate in an event the Conservative Party had planned to host for Egyptian Teachers’ Day. The Supreme State Security Prosecution then ordered him held for 15 days pending investigation on the charge of “joining a ‘subversive’ group” and for spreading false news in State Security Case No. 2123, related to his advocacy for teachers’ rights, his calls for an independent Teachers Syndicate, and his demands for union elections. Authorities released him 10 days after his arrest.
EIPR said in March that Case No. 1813 of 2026 was not the first State Security case in which Zahran had been investigated. He had previously been questioned in Case No. 880 of 2020. The organization said the repeated prosecutions stem from his commitment to union work and freedom of expression.
