The Egyptian Front for Human Rights (EFHR) expresses its deep concern over the growing violations against lawyers appearing before the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP). The EFHR considers these developments part of a systematic pattern aimed at weakening the legal profession and silencing its independent voices, viewing them as a serious indicator of the erosion of justice guarantees in Egypt.
Over the past few weeks, EFHR has documented an escalating series of unusual restrictions imposed on lawyers before the SSSP, following the appointment of Counselor Ahmed Badawy as the new Prosecutor General for the Supreme State Security Prosecutions at the beginning of the new judicial year in October 2025, succeeding Counselor Khaled Diaa, who held the position for nine years. This shift represents yet another setback to what remains of the right to defense and judicial independence.
Through testimonies collected from several lawyers who are present daily at the prosecution’s premises while attending interrogations in politically motivated cases, EFHR documented a number of arbitrary practices that have led some lawyers to consider refraining from appearing before the prosecution due to the psychological and physical exhaustion caused by these conditions.
Among the most notable restrictions are:
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Withholding release orders from lawyers and delaying their announcement without clear justification.
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Delaying interrogations until late hours of the day, causing extreme fatigue for lawyers who have been present since the morning.
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Closing the lawyers’ rest area and providing only a limited number of seats in the first-floor corridors for waiting.
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Failing to respond to lawyers’ requests for information regarding the timing of renewal sessions or prosecution decisions.
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Threatening lawyers who share any information related to investigations or prosecution work on social media.
These practices occur within an increasingly restrictive environment for lawyers working before the SSSP, which is already a closed and exhausting work setting by nature. Lawyers are deprived of all means of communication with the outside world while inside the prosecution building, their phones are confiscated, and they are forced to wait for long hours without access to even the minimum conditions of comfort or proper working facilities. They are also subjected to continuous surveillance and psychological intimidation by security personnel.
These recent restrictions add to a long list of systematic violations in which the Supreme State Security Prosecution has been implicated over the years, including complicity in arbitrary arrests and prolonged pretrial detention; ensuring impunity for those involved in enforced disappearances; the use of torture and coerced confessions; the “rotation” of cases to prolong detention, denial of communication between defendants and their lawyers; retaliation against victims who report abuses; and the use of remote pretrial detention renewal sessions that undermine the right to defense, in addition to the growing intimidation and restrictions targeting lawyers who appear before the SSSP.
EFHR views these measures, along with the prosecution and detention of lawyers working on politically motivated cases, as a systematic attempt to limit the presence of lawyers before the SSSP and to silence their role in exposing human rights violations committed by security agencies, a clear violation of the right to defense and the guarantees of a fair trial.
The EFHR calls for an immediate end to these practices, and for ensuring that lawyers are able to carry out their work freely, with full respect for their dignity and independence, while guaranteeing the right of defendants to effective and independent legal defense.