Ramy
Kamel
Egyptian Coptic Christian human rights defender released in January 2022 after more than two years of pre-trial detention. Charges in Case 1475/2019 have never been formally dropped.
- Country
- Egypt
- Role
- Journalist
- Arrested
- 23 Nov 2019
- Sentence
- No verdict. Released without trial on 8 January 2022 after more than two years of pre-trial detention.
- Status
- At liberty
- Arrested
- 23 Nov 2019
- Sentence
- No verdict. Released without trial on 8 January 2022 after more than two years of pre-trial detention.
- Judicial status
- Under investigation
- Name in Arabic
- رامي كامل
- Charges
- Joining and financing a terrorist group; broadcasting false news (Anti-Terrorism Law 94/2015 arts. 12, 13; Penal Code art. 102 bis). Held under State Security Case 1475/2019.
The cases, as we document them.
Where a case was replaced by a new one, the two are linked.
- Case1475/2019
Defendant
The arrest, and what followed.
Background and work
Ramy Kamel is a documentary photographer, researcher and one of the most consistent Egyptian voices on the rights of the Coptic Christian minority. Through the Maspero Youth Union and later as an independent researcher, he chronicled sectarian attacks on Coptic villages in Upper Egypt, church burnings, mob violence, forced displacement, and brought those cases before the United Nations. In November 2019 he was invited to address the UN Forum on Minority Issues in Geneva.
Arrest and detention
On 4 November 2019 he was arrested and questioned, and UN experts later said he was allegedly tortured. Before he could travel, on the night of 23 November 2019, security forces raided his home in the Shubra district of Cairo. He was held for several days at an undisclosed location, then transferred to Tora maximum-security prison and added to State Security Case 1475/2019. He was charged with joining and financing a terrorist group and broadcasting false information, accusations he and his lawyers have always insisted were a direct reprisal for his planned UN testimony and his work documenting violence against Copts.
Release
He spent the next two years and two months in pre-trial detention, much of it in solitary confinement. He suffered repeated asthma attacks that went largely untreated. On 8 January 2022 he was released without explanation. There was no verdict, no acquittal and no formal dismissal of charges, only an executive decision to set him free under precautionary measures. His name was not removed from the case file and the prosecution's underlying allegations remained on the record.
Since his release
There has been no public information about his situation since his release in January 2022. The 2019 case was not publicly closed.