Sanaa
Seif

Update, 13 May 2026: Seif completed her 18-month sentence and was released on 23 December 2021. She continues advocacy for political prisoners in Egypt, including her brother Alaa Abdel Fattah, who was finally released in September 2025.

Background and Work

Sanaa Seif is a human rights activist and member of a family that has been targeted for decades by Egyptian security authorities. Her brother, Alaa Abdel Fattah, is a blogger and founding member of the "No to Military Trials for Civilians" movement. He has been imprisoned repeatedly since 2011. Sanaa herself has campaigned publicly for the release of political prisoners and against impunity for state violence.

In early 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread, Egyptian prison authorities suspended family visits indefinitely. By June, Alaa's family had received no communication from him for months. Prison staff refused to accept letters or to provide any information about his health or whereabouts. On 22 June 2020, Sanaa, her mother Laila Souef, and her sister Mona Seif staged a small protest outside Tora Prison in Maadi, Cairo, holding signs and asking to be allowed contact with Alaa.

Earlier Imprisonments

Sanaa Seif had been imprisoned twice before 2020. In June 2014 she was arrested at a march near the Ittihadiya presidential palace in Cairo against the protest law. In October 2014 she and 22 others were sentenced to three years in prison under that law, reduced to two years on appeal in December 2014. She was freed on 23 September 2015 under a presidential pardon. In May 2016 she was sentenced to six months in prison for insulting a public official, a member of the prosecution; she refused to defend herself and handed herself in. She was released on 15 November 2016 after serving the sentence.

The Assault and Abduction

During the protest on 22 June 2020, a group of women in plain clothes attacked the three family members in full view of prison security forces. The guards did not intervene. The women beat Sanaa, her mother, and her sister, causing visible injuries. The following day, 23 June, the three women went to the headquarters of the Public Prosecutor in El Rehab, New Cairo, to lodge a formal complaint about the assault.

As Sanaa left the prosecutor's office, unknown men abducted her in broad daylight, forcing her into a minibus. She was transported directly to the Supreme State Security Prosecution, which ordered her pre-trial detention. The official arrest report later submitted to the court falsified the location of her arrest, making no mention of the abduction outside the prosecutor's headquarters.

Detention and Legal Proceedings

The Supreme State Security Prosecution accused Sanaa Seif of "publishing and broadcasting false news", misusing a social media account and "insulting a civil servant." The charges related to her protest outside Tora Prison and her public statements about her brother's detention. After two months in pre-trial detention, the case was referred to the Criminal Court. Trial proceedings began on 12 September 2020.

Throughout the proceedings, Sanaa and her lawyers were denied access to the investigation file, the arrest warrants, and the full case record. Under the pretext of COVID-19 precautionary measures, she was prevented from attending hearings on 5 July, 19 July, 28 July, and 17 August 2020. During those sessions, the court renewed her pre-trial detention without debate and without her presence. Her lawyers documented multiple violations of fair-trial guarantees, including the falsified arrest report and the prosecution's refusal to investigate her complaint about the assault.

On 17 March 2021, the 10th South Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Sanaa Seif to 18 months in prison. The verdict was delivered by the chief judge in her absence. She remained detained in El Qanatir women's prison.

Conditions and Health

Sanaa Seif was held in El Qanatir women's prison throughout her pre-trial detention and after sentencing. The facility is located north of Cairo and has been the subject of repeated complaints by families and lawyers regarding denial of visits, poor medical care, and overcrowding. During the period of her detention, pandemic restrictions were selectively enforced, used to bar her from attending her own trial hearings, but not to improve conditions inside the prison or to permit safe family communication.

International and Family Response

Her sister Mona Seif publicly disclosed the circumstances of the verdict on 17 March 2021, noting that the judge had ruled without Sanaa present. International human rights organizations called for her immediate release and for an investigation into her abduction and the assault on her family. No such investigation has been opened. The complaint she filed on 23 June 2020 about the attack outside Tora Prison was never meaningfully examined by the prosecution.