THE AFRICAN MIRROR
THE United Nations Human Rights Office has condemned Egypt’s use of a detention practice known as “rotation” that allows authorities to hold government critics indefinitely through successive charges, calling for its immediate cessation.
UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said the practice involves bringing new charges against individuals as they near completion of prison sentences or reach maximum pretrial detention periods, effectively preventing their release.
“Human rights defenders, activists, lawyers, journalists, peaceful protesters and political opponents have been targeted by this ‘rotation’ practice,” Al-Kheetan told reporters at the UN’s bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva.
The latest case involves poet Galal El-Behairy, who was detained after completing a prison term on July 31, 2021, for writing songs and poetry critical of the government. Since then, he has faced similar charges in two separate cases under counter-terrorism law and the penal code. New charges were filed against him on August 19, 2025, extending his detention for at least 15 more days.
Other prominent figures subjected to the rotation practice include writer and activist Alaa Abdel Fattah; lawyer and former National Council for Human Rights member Hoda Abdel-Moneim; lawyer Ebrahim Metwally Hegazy, who coordinates the Association of the Families of the Forcibly Disappeared; and political activist Mohammad Adel Fahmy Ali, former spokesperson for the April 6 Youth Movement. All remain in detention.
Al-Kheetan said most of those targeted “should not have been detained or jailed in the first place,” as charges often relate to exercising legitimate rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. He described the practice as a tool for the Egyptian government to repress perceived critics.
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