1. Personal information:
a. Birth: Ms. Hoda was born on 28 January 1959 in Cairo. She was arrested at the age of 59.
b. Upbringing: She grew up in a middle-class family; her father worked as a general manager at the Misr Insurance company. She graduated from the Faculty of Law at Ain Shams University in 1982. She married lawyer Khaled Badawy and has 4 daughters.
c. Occupation: Lawyer before the Court of Cassation and the Supreme Constitutional Court, and human rights activist.
d. Political activity/affiliation:
At the start of her university years she joined Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya, between 1977 and 1982, but this did not last long. She left Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya and joined the Muslim Brotherhood in 1990, remaining a member until 2013, when she declared herself independent and not affiliated with any political group or party.
e. In the spotlight:
– She rose to prominence during the January 2011 revolution. She was appointed to the National Council for Human Rights in February 2012, on the women’s committee and the civil and political rights committee, and stayed on the council until its activities were frozen after the events of 3 July 2013. Her last activity with it was in September 2013, when she took part in an international human rights conference in Ireland. She was also a member of the Egyptian House of Representatives in 2012-2013, and worked as an adviser to the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms. She was one of the most prominent activists who documented many human rights violations in Egypt, including cases of enforced disappearance.
– Since the late 1990s she worked as a legal adviser to the International Islamic Committee for Woman and Child, part of the International Islamic Council for Da’wa and Relief headed by Dr. Mohamed Sayed Tantawi. She represented Egypt at conferences related to international conventions and declarations on the rights of women and children, and also served as spokesperson for the Coalition of Revolutionary Women in Egypt, an Islamist-leaning group that opposed the removal of former President Mohamed Morsi.
– She has been on the travel ban lists since 2013 because of her connection to the Muslim Brotherhood and the government of former President Mohamed Morsi.
– In early November 2018 she was arrested at home because of her human rights work and taken to an unknown location, making her a victim of enforced disappearance for 21 days and exposing her to many violations. Her health deteriorated, which led many political activists and civil society organizations to write about her and call for her release.
f. Awards: In November 2020, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe announced that Ms. Hoda Abdel Moneim had won its annual award in recognition of her role in defending human rights cases. The award is given to lawyers who have brought honor to the legal profession by upholding the highest standards of professional conduct in the field of human rights.
2. Previous arrests: Ms. Hoda was not arrested in any other case.
3. Timeline from the arrest to the verdict
a. Background of the arrest:
– 1 November 2018, arrest: At 1:30 am on 1 November 2018, National Security forces stormed Ms. Hoda’s home in Cairo and arrested her without showing her or her family an arrest warrant or their police IDs. They also damaged many of the family’s belongings, and her family published photos showing the destruction caused by the raid and search. Her daughter Fadwa said the security forces spent about two hours searching the home and left with several bags.
– 21 November 2018, appearance before the Supreme State Security Prosecution: She was held at National Security premises for 21 days. The security apparatus refused to disclose where she was held and even denied having her, until she appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution on 21 November 2018. She was interrogated without her family’s knowledge by deputy prosecutor Ahmed Saafan, under the supervision of Counselor Khaled Diaa El-Din, head of the State Security Prosecution, and was then added to the case known in the media as the “Coordination 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.
In addition to Ms. Hoda Abdel Moneim, the case includes Ms. Aisha Khairat El-Shater, her husband lawyer Mohamed Abu Horaira, 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. Hoda Abdel Moneim:
– 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. Hoda 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. Hoda 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. Hoda 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. Hoda 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. Hoda Abdel Moneim in person to 5 years of aggravated imprisonment, acquitted her of the foreign funding charges, and placed her under police surveillance for 5 years 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. Hoda Abdel Moneim was held at the National Security headquarters in Abbasiya for 21 days until she was brought before the Supreme State Security Prosecution. She was then taken to an unknown location for three months, until she was moved to Al-Qanater Women’s Prison at the end of January 2019, and then to the new 10th of Ramadan Prison in June 2023.
b. Violations:
– Psychological abuse and ill-treatment, and being blindfolded almost permanently from the moment of her arrest until the end of her detention at the National Security headquarters.
– Verbal abuse and insults.
– Pretrial detention for more than two years, in violation of the legal maximum set by Article 143 of the Egyptian Code of Criminal Procedure.
– Being denied exercise.
– Prolonged solitary confinement.
– Being banned from contact with her family and from visits, except for a few times her daughter managed to visit her in prison.
– Being forced to wear light clothing in winter inside an unheated cell.
– Being stripped of her simple personal belongings.
– Serious medical neglect, a ban on bringing in her medication, and denial of appropriate medical care for her condition.
– Neither she nor her lawyer were allowed to review the case papers throughout the investigations and renewals.
– The continuation of her trial despite the invalidity of her appearance before the prosecution, which came after the permitted period had passed.
c. Living conditions in prison:
Ms. Hoda has suffered harsh detention and living conditions since entering Al-Qanater Women’s Prison at the end of January 2019. These range from bans on visits and contact, the longest from 21 November 2018 until 23 August 2022, to prolonged solitary confinement from the moment she entered prison (under the label of “security reasons”), to being stripped of her personal belongings and subjected to serious medical neglect, which caused a severe deterioration in her health. She was denied treatment and medication for more than a year, which led to a heart attack; she was taken to Kasr El-Aini Hospital and then returned to her cell. In November 2020 one of her kidneys stopped working and she developed reflux in the other. In October 2021, during one of the hearings, she said she needed a catheterization and heart stents, telling the judge: “I had a crisis, and I was supposed to get an ECG, and that didn’t happen until 20 days later. The doctor told me I have a blockage in the coronary artery and that I urgently need a catheterization.” The judge replied: “I won’t lie to you, that will be hard right now because no transfers are going out, and the hospitals are full of coronavirus.” And her suffering continued.
In June 2023, after Ms. Hoda was moved to the new 10th of Ramadan Prison as part of the plan to distribute Al-Qanater prisoners among other prisons, her family issued a statement saying they were still banned from visiting her and checking on her, and that letters and medicine were not allowed in, which could cause her health to deteriorate since she suffers from chronic illnesses.