Egypt deports Syrian asylum seeker, forcibly disappears 2 Egyptians of Ahmadi faith

Egyptian authorities deported a Syrian asylum seeker on Wednesday morning after detaining him incommunicado for over a month, Amnesty International Egypt Libya-focused researcher Mahmoud Shalaby told Mada Masr. 

Ahmed al-Tanawi, 28, is a follower of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light, a new religious movement that emerged about ten years ago, derived primarily from Twelver Shia Islam and headquartered in the United Kingdom.

He was arrested in March, along with his brother, Hussein al-Tanawi, and two Egyptian nationals, Omar Mahmoud Abdel Maguid and Hazem Abdel Moatamed, all of whom belong to the same faith, according to a joint statement by Amnesty International and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), calling for Tanawi's deportation to be stopped.

The whereabouts of the three other detainees remain unknown, EIPR freedom of religion and belief officer Ishaq Ibrahim told Mada Masr.

According to the joint statement, the persecution of Ahmadis in Egypt ramped up in March after one of the movement’s followers hung a banner advertising a TV channel affiliated with the faith, The Mahdi Has Appeared, on a pedestrian bridge in Giza. Security forces arrested the person who hung the banner on March 8 and released him soon after without charges, according to the statement.

The statement, based on testimonies from relatives of the detainees and a representative of the sect, suggests authorities were able to identify the individuals and subsequently arrest them by surveilling a cellphone belonging to the person they had arrested in relation to the banner and who was a member of a Telegram group that included followers of the Ahmadi faith in Egypt.

According to the statement, plainclothes security forces arrested the Tanawi brothers, who are UNHCR-registered asylum seekers, on March 11 from their home in 6th of October City without a warrant. At the time, a police officer informally told an EIPR lawyer that Ahmed was accused of “joining a terrorist group,” according to the statement.

The statement said that the two organizations learned on March 13 that authorities had referred Ahmed to the passports, immigration and nationality authority in Abbassiya, where he was forced to sign papers that he understood to be related to his deportation, even though he was not allowed to review them. On Sunday, the police forced the Tanawi brothers to purchase a plane ticket to Syria for Ahmed, threatening to withhold medication for his heart condition, according to the family. His deportation followed on Wednesday morning, Shalaby and Ibrahim said.

While Ahmed has been detained at the October 1st Police Station without being allowed to contact his family, Hussein's fate and whereabouts remain unknown.

Along with the two brothers, security forces also arrested Omar Abdel Maguid on March 10 in a violent raid on his home in Cairo. They also pursued his brother-in-law, Hazem Abdel Moatamed, who managed to escape at the time but was arrested three days later in 10th of Ramadan City, in Sharqiya, according to the statement, which cited his relatives.

The fate and whereabouts of the two men have also been unknown since their arrest.

The two organizations said they reviewed complaints submitted by the Tantawis and the families of Abdel Maguid and Abdel Moatamed to the Public Prosecution on March 25, demanding the disclosure of their whereabouts. No response has been received so far.

In the joint statement, Shalaby said Egyptian authorities “have legal obligations to respect and protect the right to freedom of religion for everyone in the country, including those with religious beliefs not recognized by the state,” calling for the disclosure of the whereabouts of the three forcibly disappeared men and their immediate release.

Egypt has faced repeated criticism from rights groups, including Amnesty International and EIPR, for deporting asylum seekers and undocumented migrants who face dangerous situations in their home countries. Last year, Egyptian authorities oversaw the mass deportation of Sudanese asylum seekers fleeing the war in Sudan and Eritrean asylum seekers who could face treason charges for evading conscription upon their return.