Türk calls on Egypt to end “rotation” practice that facilitates prolonged arbitrary detentions

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Tuesday called on Egyptian authorities to put an end to a practice that allows Government critics to be held arbitrarily and for prolonged periods, even after serving their sentences or completing maximum pretrial detention.

Human rights defenders, activists, lawyers, journalists, peaceful protesters and political opponents have been targeted by this strategy, which has come to be known as “rotation”. The practice entails the authorities bringing new charges against individuals when they are about to complete their prison sentences or as they reach the maximum legal period of pretrial detention, thus preventing their release. These fresh charges, often under counter-terrorism laws, are usually similar to those for which they had already been charged or convicted, and often lack substantive foundation.

The latest case concerns poet Galal El-Behairy, who was arbitrarily detained after completing a prison term on 31 July 2021 for writing songs and poetry critical of the Government. Since then, he has faced similar charges in two different cases under the counter-terrorism law and the penal code. The latest charges were brought against him on 19 August 2025, when El-Behairy was questioned by the Supreme State Security Prosecution, extending his detention for at least 15 more days.

“The Egyptian Government must immediately stop this practice of ‘rotation’ and release all those who have been subjected to it,” Türk said. “It appears to be used to circumvent the rights of individuals to liberty, due process and equality before the law.

“Most of those targeted by ‘rotation’ should not have been detained or jailed in the first place – the charges brought against them are often related to the exercise of their legitimate rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” the High Commissioner added. “This practice has become a tool by which the Egyptian Government represses those perceived to be critical of, or in opposition to, its policies.”

The UN Human Rights Office is closely following a number of cases of “rotation”. Indications are that the practice is widely used in cases of politically motivated charges. The lack of transparency in such cases, however, makes it difficult to assess the full scale of the problem.

In addition to El-Behairy’s case, this practice has been used in the case of writer and activist Alaa Abdel Fattah; lawyer and former member of the National Council for Human Rights, Hoda Abdel-Monei; lawyer and coordinator of the Association of the Families of the Forcibly Disappeared, Ebrahim Metwally Hegazy; and political activist and former spokesperson for the 6th of April Youth Movement, Mohammad Adel Fahmy Ali. All of them remain in arbitrary detention.

“All those arbitrarily detained for exercising their fundamental freedoms or defending human rights must be released immediately,” Türk said. “It is crucial that Egyptian authorities ensure that legal processes and, in particular, the application of counter-terrorism or other criminal laws, are never used to punish people for exercising their basic human rights.”

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).