Authorities interrogated Hossam Bahgat after EIPR report on prison hunger strike, says lawyer

The Supreme State Security Prosecution released Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), from its headquarters on Sunday evening, setting bail at LE20,000, according to his lawyer, Huda Nasrallah.

Bahgat was interrogated on charges of aiding and abetting a terrorist organization, funding terrorism, and broadcasting false news.

Nasrallah said that the hours-long investigation focused on a statement EIPR issued last week regarding conditions at facility number six at the 10th of Ramadan prison complex.

The EIPR statement in question was based on testimonies it received from prisoners through their families, who they informed that they began a hunger strike at the facility on January 4, according to the statement.

Participants were refusing food rations, the testimonies said, to protest deteriorating conditions for inmates and the prolonged remand detention of several individuals without legal justification.

While authorities questioned him on Sunday, Bahgat declined to disclose the sources of the information referenced in the EIPR statement or confirm whether they were families of prisoners to avoid putting them at risk of retaliation, according to Nasrallah. 

She stressed that, instead of interrogating Bahgat, authorities should have verified the statement’s content on the deteriorating conditions at the prison.

In its statement earlier in January, EIPR had called on the public prosecutor to visit the facility at the 10th of Ramadan City Correction and Rehabilitation Center to assess the prisoners’ conditions and investigate their complaints.

Bahgat was later summoned by the Supreme State Security Prosecution to present himself for questioning, although the text of the summons provided no details about the case or the nature of the charges against him, EIPR said in a statement on January 15, which also noted that the defense team had been unable to obtain further information.

The summons followed a statement issued by the Interior Ministry two days earlier, denying reports circulating on social media about hunger strikes at a correction and rehabilitation center due to poor detention conditions. The ministry threatened legal action against those spreading what it referred to as “allegations that aim to incite confusion.”

The EIPR head interprets his summons and interrogation as an instance of authorities targeting human rights defenders, Nasrallah told Mada Masr.

The case, 6/2025, represents the fourth brought against the EIPR since 2020 and the fourth case Bahgat himself has faced since November 2015.

Bahgat, who previously worked as a journalist, has faced investigation for stories he published with Mada Masr, as well as for his advocacy work in civil society. 

He was able to travel outside Egypt for the first time in recent months after authorities finally lifted an eight-year travel ban imposed on him in a case that accused several non-governmental organizations of receiving illicit foreign funding.

His colleagues at EIPR, Gasser Abdel Razek and Karim Ennarah, have also been subject to arrest and travel bans for their work in researching and publishing information about rights infractions perpetrated by Egyptian authorities.

While international actors have often criticized Egypt’s rights record in the past, the European Union recently signed off on a one billion euro payout to Egypt, citing evidence of credible steps taken to improve rights practices in the country.

The United States, meanwhile, has withheld $95 million in its annual military aid budget to Egypt this year on the grounds that benchmarks regarding particular political prisoners were not met.