Lawyer Ayman Essam, head of the Egyptian Tenants’ Union, has been remanded in custody for 15 days following a seven-hour interrogation by the Supreme State Security Prosecution, according to Zohdy Alshamy, a senior member of the Socialist Popular Alliance Party.
“Sadly, and based on information from lawyers Khaled Ali and Mahmoud Yassin, Ayman appeared at the State Security Prosecution in Cairo,” Alshamy wrote on Facebook Saturday. “After seven hours of questioning, he was ordered into 15-day detention.”
The charges against him have not yet been disclosed.
Essam had recently participated in parliamentary hearings on proposed amendments to Egypt’s 1981 rent law—also known as the old rent law—which regulates long-term leases. He rejected provisions that would terminate leases and liberalize rents, urging instead a gradual increase in rent while maintaining tenant protections.
Several tenants had called for information about his whereabouts. Essam disappeared Thursday evening after announcing his participation in a tenants’ conference at the Socialist Popular Alliance Party headquarters in Alexandria last Friday.
Earlier, Alshamy confirmed to Al Manassa that communication with Essam had stopped abruptly Thursday night. “We were in constant communication until he vanished,” he said. “We approached the authorities, but received no information.”
The Socialist Popular Alliance’s Alexandria branch said in a statement that it had convened Friday’s meeting at the request of party leaders and tenants affected by eviction threats and legal violations.
A Socialist Popular Alliance Party conference in Alexandria on the old rent law amendments. June 20, 2025“Essam, as the national coordinator of the Tenants Union, was invited to attend,” the statement read. “Unfortunately, since Thursday evening, we have been unable to reach him, and serious concerns have arisen over his unexplained disappearance.”
Lawyer Khaled Ali also raised concerns in a Facebook post, “Ayman Essam is a lawyer representing a number of tenants and has voiced his opinion on the rent law currently being amended.”
Ali added that in light of the volatile regional sitiation “It’s inconceivable that the solution to pressing societal issues is to arrest those who hold a different view, just to impose one narrative and demonize the other. Let people breathe a little.”
On Friday, security forces barred dozens of tenants from accessing the Alexandria conference, according to Alshamy who accused authorities of surrounding the venue and blocking latecomers.
“We held the meeting with whoever managed to arrive early,” he said.
A follow-up event is scheduled for Monday at the Karama Party headquarters in Cairo, Alshamy added. “This law will not pass quietly. We will continue to fight it even after it’s passed.”
Last Tuesday, a joint parliamentary committee approved government-proposed changes to the old rent law, which MP Diaa El-Din Dawood called a “ticking time bomb.”
The amendments would extend the transition period for liberalizing residential rents from five to seven years and allow increases of up to 20 times the current rate, with a minimum rent of 1,000 Egyptian pounds (around $20) in prime locations.
The heads of the Engineers and Doctors Syndicates previously warned of the social consequences of the government’s proposed amendments to the old rent law, which would terminate lease agreements five years after the law takes effect. They warned the move could potentially lead to a “social explosion” threatening the stability of millions of citizens.
Earlier in May, lawyer and women’s rights advocate Intisar Al-Saeed told Al Manassa that the reforms could disproportionately harm women and escalate housing insecurity. “The draft law pits landlords against tenants and risks disrupting social cohesion,” she said.
The Supreme Constitutional Court had ruled in November that fixed rents under the 1981 law were unconstitutional, urging legislative reforms to rebalance landlord-tenant relations.
In October 2023, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi called for the need to update the old rent law, citing the existence of two million vacant and unused units as a consequence of the outdated legislation.
