In Egypt, three TikTokers detained for “terrorism”

< /p> UPDATE DAY

A special Egyptian court has extended the detention of three TikTokeurs and a labor activist, charging them with “terrorism” apparently for online sketches, one of their lawyers said on Monday at AFP. 

Few details are available on this case because, explains Me Nabeh Elganadi, the State Security Court, whose verdicts cannot be appealed, is not required to communicate the files nor the details charges to the defence.

“It is therefore not clear why Mohammed Hossameddine, Basma Higazi and Ahmed Tareq were arrested” in January at their respective homes, he says. 

But the three actors, who together have more than a million subscribers, remain in preventive detention for 15 more days for “belonging to a terrorist organization”, “financing of terrorism”, “misuse of social networks” and “dissemination false information”, so many accusations regularly brandished against opponents or activists in Egypt.

The three Tiktokeurs had published a video in January in which they depicted a young woman visiting her fiancé in prison.< /p>

The fourth detainee, Mohammed Hachem, a labor activist, “has no relation to the other three” and had been arrested earlier in January, says Elganadi. “His release was ordered, but he was then summoned to the State Security Court” and then found himself in the same case as the three TikTokeurs, he continues.

The human rights lawyers claim that lawsuits for texts or videos posted online have multiplied in recent years in Egypt.

Last year, four Tiktokeurs were arrested for a parody song on the inflation and soaring prices in the country in the midst of an economic crisis.

Egypt, the most populous of the Arab countries with 104.5 million inhabitants, has, according to human rights defenders, more than 60,000 prisoners of conscience. 

During his visit to Cairo in January, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi to release them all, after having met several human rights figures in the country.

He had welcomed the recent releases of hundreds of political prisoners. But according to human rights organizations, more have been arrested since.