The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) condemns the security crackdown that targeted at least 20 Shia Muslims in Cairo, which began on 22 June 2026, coinciding with the commemoration of Ashura. 

Over 14 and15 July, EIPR lawyers attended interrogation sessions before the Supreme State Security Prosecution as defense counsel for some of those arrested in Case No. 5635 of 2026 (Supreme State Security). Following intrrogations that focused exclusively on the detainees’ religious beliefs, the prosecution remanded 19 individuals in custody for 15 days pending investigation, while ordering the release of one detainee.

Prior to appearing before the prosecution, the 20 detainees were held pursuant to a preventive detention order issued under the  Anti-Terrorism Law No. 94 of 2015, which allows investigating authorities to detain individuals for up to 14 days —renewable only once— without presenting them before a judicial authority. During this period, the authorities denied the detainees their rights guaranteed even under this flawed law, specifically preventing them from communicating with their families and lawyers.

Among those arrested is EIPR’s client Haider Kandil, a journalist with Al Dostour newspaper and a member of the Journalists’ Syndicate. According to his statement to prosecutors, security forces arrested him on the evening of 22 June while he was leaving his workplace in the Dokki district.

Hours before his disappearance, Kandil had learned of the arrest of a group of Shia Muslims –mostly Egyptians alongside citizens of other Arab countries– according to a phone statement he made to EIPR researchers on the morning of 22 June. He confirmed that security forces had arrested four Shia Muslims from their homes, including his brother-in-law, a New Zealand national, who appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution for interrogation in the same case on July 15.

The prosecution charged Kandil with leading and financing a terrorist group. His interrogation lasted nearly 20 hours, during which his lawyer was permitted to attend for only 30 minutes. The prosecution charged the remaining detainees with joining a terrorist group.

In addition to the 20 known detainees, the whereabouts of four additional individuals from the same family remain unknown. EIPR documented the arrests of two of them, while contact with the other two family members was simultaneously lost during the arrest campaign. A relative submitted a complaint through the Cabinet’s Unified Government Complaints System to report the arrests and enforced disappearances.

EIPR strongly condemns the conduct of the investigating authorities, whose line of questioning directly violated the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of belief. Prosecutors interrogated Kandil and other defendants about their religious convictions and practices, the differences among various Shia sects, their views regarding the Prophet’s family and companions, and the differences between Sunni and Shia calls to prayer (Adhan). In one instance, a prosecutor asked a defendant to recite the Adhan as performed by Shia Muslims.

Since 2011, the commemoration of Ashura has been consistently met with  security restrictions on Shia Muslims, targeting their ability to perform religious rituals associated with the holiday or access the AlHussein Mosque. More broadly, Shia Muslims in Egypt continue to face restrictions on their freedom to express their beliefs and establish public places of worship. These restrictions run despite the absence of any legal provision criminalizing adherence to Shia Islam or the practice of its rituals. These restrictions also contradict  the renowned fatwa issued in the 1950s by former Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Mahmoud Shaltut, which recognized the permissibility of following the Jaafari Shia school of jurisprudence, as well as the current Grand Imam, Ahmed Al-Tayeb’s public position that Shia Muslims are included in his call for full citizenship rights for all members of Arab societies.

EIPR emphasizes that state interference in individuals’ religious lives –by  arresting and interrogating them over their beliefs and convictions– is not only a violation of freedom of belief, but also an infringement upon a broader range of constitutional rights, including the rights to freedom of opinion and expression and to privacy. Such practices directly contradict  the President’s public assurances of respect for freedom of belief, even for non-believers, as well as Egypt’s international human rights obligations.

EIPR further warns against the continuation of the Egyptian government’s policy of penalizing individuals for their religious beliefs; a policy that has escalated over the past year, targeting a broad spectrum of citizens, including atheists, irreligionists, and those holding non-conforming religious views or expressing intellectual or religious questions online. EIPR has documented the arrest of at least 79 individuals since the beginning of last year as part of this unlawful campaign. Although some have since been released, security agencies and the Public Prosecution continue to pursue and detain more individuals on similar grounds.

EIPR calls for the immediate release of all those detained in Case No. 5635 of 2026 (Supreme State Security), as well as all individuals imprisoned for exercising their constitutionally guaranteed absolute right to freedom of belief, and for all charges against them to be dropped.

For more information on violations of the rights of Shia Muslims in Egypt, see: 

• State’s Islam and Forbidden Diversity: Shia and the Crisis of Religious Freedoms in Egypt 

• Freedom of Belief and the Arrests of Shi’a Muslims in Egypt