Mohamed
Adel

Background and Work

Mohamed Adel served as a leading member and former spokesperson of the April 6 Youth Movement, a pro-democracy group that emerged during Egypt's 2008 labor mobilizations and played a prominent role in the 2011 uprising. For more than a decade, he has been systematically targeted by Egyptian authorities for his participation in peaceful political activism and public dissent.

First Arrest and Probation

On 19 December 2013, Mohamed Adel was arrested alongside other activists for participating in protests. He was charged under Law No. 107 of 2013, a restrictive statute widely criticized for criminalizing peaceful assembly. A court sentenced him to three years in prison, followed by three years of daily police probation, and fined him 50,000 Egyptian pounds.

After his release in January 2017, he was subjected to harsh probation conditions requiring him to report to a police station every day from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., effectively spending every night in custody. These restrictions severely curtailed his ability to work, study, or live a normal life.

Re-arrest and Prolonged Pretrial Detention

On 19 June 2018, while complying with these probation measures at Aga Police Station in Dakahlia governorate, Mohamed Adel was arrested again. He was charged with joining an unlawful group and spreading false news, accusations frequently deployed to criminalize peaceful expression.

In 2020, he was questioned by the Supreme State Security Prosecution in a new case based on similar allegations. Although a court ordered his release on bail on 27 January 2021, security forces did not implement the decision. Instead, authorities employed the abusive practice of "rotation," whereby detainees are added to new cases on nearly identical charges to circumvent the two-year legal limit on pretrial detention.

Mohamed Adel spent years in prolonged pretrial detention before being referred to trial in 2023. In September 2023, the Aga Appeals Court of Misdemeanors upheld a four-year prison sentence. Although he had already spent two years and seven months in pretrial detention on the same case, authorities calculated his sentence from the date of the verdict without deducting the time already served. This failure to credit time served violates Egyptian law and due process guarantees. He is currently expected to complete his sentence in September 2027.

Detention Conditions and Medical Neglect

Mohamed Adel is currently held at the 10th of Ramadan Correctional and Rehabilitation Center (Prison 4) in Sharqia Governorate. Since 2018, he has been transferred between several facilities in Dakahlia governorate, including Mansoura Prison and Gamasa Maximum Security Prison.

His health has deteriorated significantly during his detention. He suffers from a torn shoulder muscle with atrophy, a severe knee ligament rupture requiring joint replacement surgery, fluid accumulation, ongoing chest pain, and unexplained nail discoloration and breakage. Despite these serious conditions, he has been denied adequate medical care. Since 2018, he has been examined outside prison only once, in August 2024 at Mansoura General Hospital. Doctors confirmed that he urgently needed knee replacement surgery. The procedure was refused.

Family visits are restricted to once per month. Authorities have threatened to deny him visits and exercise time, describing exercise as a "privilege."

Retaliation, Assault, and Failure to Protect

In December 2024, prison authorities barred Mohamed Adel from sitting his university examinations for the 2024 to 2025 academic year. On 31 December 2024 they transferred him from Gamasa Prison to the 10th of Ramadan Correctional and Rehabilitation Center, and his wife was then barred from visiting him. The timing and nature of these measures indicate retaliation. On 7 December 2025 he began a hunger strike in protest at his detention, which he ended on 1 February 2026.

Following his transfer, he was forcibly placed in the reception ward, a section designated for newly admitted detainees and not equipped to accommodate him. While he was held there, on 10 January 2026, other detainees beat him and tried to strangle him; his wife said the assault lasted three hours. He reported that security personnel observed the assault without intervening. Bruises and strangulation marks remained visible on his body afterward.

The Interior Ministry denied that the assault took place. The failure to protect him places his life and physical integrity at serious risk.

His health deteriorated further during the hunger strike, and he reportedly lost substantial weight. In July 2026 he told his family he intended to start a new open-ended hunger strike.

Legal Violations

Mohamed Adel's case reflects multiple serious violations of Egyptian law and international human rights standards. These include arbitrary detention through the misuse of vague charges to criminalize peaceful expression; prolonged pretrial detention via abusive case rotation; failure to implement a judicial release order; failure to credit time served in pretrial detention toward his sentence; retaliation for exercising his rights to education and peaceful protest; exposure to assault and death threats coupled with the failure of prison authorities to protect him; denial of adequate medical care in violation of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules); and violations of fair trial and due process guarantees.