1. Personal information
a. Birth: Ms. Aisha El-Shater was born on 18 December 1980 in Talkha, Dakahlia Governorate. She was arrested at the age of 37.

b. Upbringing: She grew up in Egypt. She is the daughter of former presidential candidate Khairat El-Shater, a prominent Muslim Brotherhood leader who has been imprisoned since July 2013.

c. Occupation: Housewife.

d. Political activity/affiliation: Ms. Aisha comes from a family that holds the Brotherhood’s ideas and beliefs, but she never declared membership in the Muslim Brotherhood. She even denied belonging to it when confronted with the charge of joining the group during the interrogation and trial sessions, saying only: “I took part in the Rabaa Al-Adawiya sit-in because it was the only way I could object to what was happening.”

e. In the spotlight: She became widely known after she and her husband were arrested, because she is the daughter of Khairat El-Shater, and also because of the inhumane conditions she is subjected to, which put her life at serious risk, along with her deteriorating health and the horrific, degrading conditions of her detention. This led many activists to write and call for her release.

2. Previous arrests: Ms. Aisha El-Shater had never been detained or arrested before being added to this case.

3. Timeline from the arrest to the verdict
a. Background of the arrest:
– 31 October 2018, arrest: National Security forces stormed Ms. Aisha’s home in Cairo at around 11 pm and arrested her and her husband, lawyer Mohamed Abu Horaira, without showing any arrest or search warrant.

– 21 November 2018, appearance before the Supreme State Security Prosecution: She was held at National Security premises for 21 days until she appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution in the “Coordination case”. Her husband also appeared in the same case.

b. Background of the case:
Case No. 1552 of 2018 Supreme State Security Inquiry, known in the media as the “Coordination case”, registered as No. 1 of 2021 Emergency State Security Felonies.

The case goes back to the founding of a law firm/organization called the “Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms” in mid-2014, after the dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adawiya sit-in. Its role was to defend prisoners of conscience and the forcibly disappeared, provide them with legal support, and publish news about them and their court sessions.

Ms. Aisha El-Shater took part in several meetings of the Coordination in order to help her father, who has been in prison since 2013, and to help prisoners’ families, but for personal reasons she decided not to take part again.

In addition to Ms. Aisha and her husband Mohamed Abu Horaira, the case includes Ms. Hoda Abdel Moneim, a Court of Cassation lawyer and former member of the National Council for Human Rights, and Mr. Ezzat Ghoneim, a human rights lawyer and executive director of the Coordination.

c. Charges:
The general charge, which covers all 31 defendants in the case:
– Belonging to a group founded in violation of the law.

The specific charges, which relate to their human rights work, were brought only against the four members of the “Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms”, including Ms. Aisha El-Shater:
– Using websites on the internet to promote ideas calling for terrorist acts.
– Taking part in founding the “Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms”, an unlawful entity.
– Providing financial support to members of the Brotherhood organization in both its wings (revolutionary and armed).
– Preparing and issuing monthly statements and reports containing false and misleading news about human rights violations, as well as claims of enforced disappearance, and promoting these statements through hostile human rights organizations abroad.
– Inciting harm to the national economy.

d. Trial and sentences:
– April 2019, renewals before the Criminal Court: Ms. Aisha appeared before the Criminal Court at the Police Institute complex in Tora, starting the cycle of 45-day renewals, which lasted nearly two and a half years, exceeding the maximum period of pretrial detention set by Article 143 of the Egyptian Code of Criminal Procedure.

– 23 August 2021, referral: The case was referred to the Emergency State Security Criminal Court and registered as No. 1 of 2021 Emergency State Security Felonies, Second Nasr City, and as No. 703 of 2021 New Cairo Plenary.

– 16 August 2022, adjournment for pleadings: The Cairo Criminal Court, presided over by Judge Mohamed Saeed El-Sherbiny, adjourned the trial of Ms. Aisha and others to the 20 September 2022 session for pleadings.

– 20 September 2022, pleadings session: The Cairo Criminal Court, presided over by Judge Mohamed Saeed El-Sherbiny, adjourned the trial of Ms. Aisha and others to the 5 November 2022 session to complete the pleadings.

– 16 October 2022, terrorism list decision: The South Cairo Criminal Court decided to add Ms. Aisha and others to the lists of terrorist entities for three years.

– 18 October 2022, appeal against the terrorism listing: The Egyptian Court of Cassation rejected the appeals and upheld the South Cairo Criminal Court’s decision to add her and 45 other people to the terrorism lists, under Decision No. 18 of 2021 on listing terrorists, registered as No. 5 of 2021 on listing terrorist entities.

– 8 December 2022, case reserved for verdict: The First Terrorism Circuit, presided over by Judge Mohamed Saeed El-Sherbiny, reserved Case No. 1552 of 2018 Supreme State Security Inquiry, registered as No. 1 of 2021 Emergency State Security Felonies, for the verdict to be pronounced at the 5 March 2023 session.

– 5 March 2023, verdict: The Cairo Criminal Court, First Terrorism Circuit, presided over by Judge Mohamed Saeed El-Sherbiny, sentenced Ms. Aisha El-Shater in person to 10 years of aggravated imprisonment and 5 years of police surveillance after serving the sentence. It also placed all those convicted in the case on the lists of terrorist entities and terrorists, and ordered the website of the “Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms” shut down and fully blocked.

4. Detention conditions
a. Places of detention: Ms. Aisha El-Shater was held at the National Security headquarters in Abbasiya by order of the Supreme State Security Prosecution until she was moved to Al-Qanater Women’s Prison in January 2019.

b. Violations:
– Psychological abuse and ill-treatment, and being blindfolded almost permanently during her detention at the National Security headquarters.
– Physical torture throughout her detention at the National Security headquarters, including beating and electric shocks.
– Verbal abuse and insults.
– Threats of rape and of being stripped of her clothes.
– Pretrial detention for more than two years, in violation of the legal maximum.
– Prolonged solitary confinement for more than a year.
– Being allowed to use the toilet only once a day.
– Being denied exercise; the administration may let her out of the cell for one hour a day.
– Being banned from visits.
– Her family not being allowed to contact her since her transfer to Al-Qanater Prison in January 2019.
– Being forced to wear light clothing in winter inside an unheated cell.
– Being stripped of her simple personal belongings.

c. Living conditions in prison: Since entering prison in January 2019 she has suffered harsh living conditions, from a total ban on visits and contact, to prolonged solitary confinement lasting more than a year, to being stripped of her personal belongings and beaten.

Early in her detention she also suffered from aplastic anemia, a rare and serious blood condition. Her health deteriorated quickly and she was taken to Kasr El-Aini Hospital after severe bleeding, where she was treated with platelets. Her condition nevertheless requires specialized, intensive and continuous treatment in a properly equipped medical facility.
It did not stop there: Ms. Aisha El-Shater also suffered from a marrow problem that could lead to serious complications such as bone marrow failure.