The German government has condemned what it called “transnational repression” targeting Egyptian journalist Basma Mostafa, who currently resides in Germany.
Germany’s human rights commissioner, Luise Amtsberg, urged the Egyptian government to respond to UN Special Rapporteurs’ letters, which alleged Cairo’s complicity in harassment campaigns against Mostafa by individuals believed to be working for, on behalf of, or with the consent of Egyptian authorities.
“Germany vehemently opposes transnational repression, either online or offline,” Amtsberg said in a statement last week. “That home states continue to put pressure on activists and human rights defenders even when they are abroad is completely unacceptable. Repressive measures by states aimed at surveilling, intimidating and silencing individuals constitute a violation of international human rights standards and of state sovereignty.”
She cited a joint communication issued last month by UN Special Rapporteurs, which detailed threats against Mostafa, including physical assaults, intimidation, surveillance, and online harassment. The experts characterized the targeting as part of a broader pattern of state-sponsored harassment against women human rights defenders in Egypt.
The UN letter listed incidents that took place in Egypt, Lebanon, Kenya, Switzerland, and Germany. The most recent occurred in July 2024 in Berlin, where Mostafa noticed a man sitting in a café she frequented. She later recalled seeing him in 2022 trailing her after a previous assault, and she had photographed him at the time.
UN experts said they had previously sent inquiries to Egyptian authorities in 2022, 2023, and 2024 regarding transnational threats to Egyptian journalists and rights advocates. They said Cairo failed to respond to any of the communications and urged clarification over what they called a “decade-long pattern of systemic abuses” targeting women human rights defenders.
Mostafa has covered several high-profile human rights cases in Egypt, including forced medical examinations during the investigation of the 2014 Fairmont gang rape case and the death of Islam El-Australy in police custody in El-Moneeb.
She fled to Lebanon in November 2020 after a brief disappearance in Luxor, where she had traveled to report on the police killing of a local resident in the village of Al-Awamiyah. Her last phone call before disappearing revealed that a police officer had stopped her, checked her ID, and then began to follow her.
Mostafa later reappeared before Egypt’s State Security Prosecution, which ordered her detention for 15 days pending investigation. Prosecutors accused her of “joining a terrorist group,” “spreading false news,” and “using a website to publish content”—charges that carry lengthy prison sentences.
In June 2021, Mostafa received an entry visa to Germany for herself and her family. She applied for political asylum in December of that year and was granted refugee status in February 2022.
Before joining Al Manassa, she worked with several independent Egyptian outlets, including Al-Badeel, DotMasr, and Mada Masr. She also collaborated with Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), where she produced investigations including one on the sexual exploitation of domestic workers, which was nominated for an ARIJ award in 2018.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mostafa launched a community initiative to cook and deliver healthy meals to patients isolating at home. She shared this experience in a reflective piece for Al Manassa.
