Human rights lawyer Khaled Ali has raised serious concerns over the criminal referral of Al-Manassa cartoonist Ashraf Omar, saying the indictment includes charges that were never part of the official investigation carried out by the Supreme State Security Prosecution.
Omar had spent 16 months in pretrial detention under the 2024 case no. 1568, where he faced accusations of “spreading false news,” “misusing social media,” and “joining a group established in violation of the law.”
But in a Facebook post on Monday, Ali said the referral order issued on Nov. 15, 2025, now registered as case no. 11846 of 2025—contained entirely new charges.
According to Ali, the charges listed in the referral include: “participating in a terrorist group to advance its goals,” “committing a financing-related offense,” and “funding terrorism using money, data, and information.” None of these accusations had been previously presented or examined during Omar’s interrogation.
Ali, who is part of Omar’s legal defense team, said the referral includes 12 defendants, including one woman. Omar is listed as defendant number 11. He added that 11 of the defendants work in media or journalism.
As of publication, no trial date has been set.
This latest revelation follows a statement from Omar’s wife, Nada Mougheeth, who told Al-Manassa last Saturday that her husband had been transported alone from 10th of Ramadan Prison to the criminal prosecution office without any prior notice to his legal counsel. He was made to sign the referral documents without seeing the charges or reviewing the order.
Omar was arrested on July 22, 2024, when plainclothes officers stormed his home and forcibly disappeared him, blindfolded and handcuffed, to an undisclosed location. He reappeared two days later, on 24 July, at the Supreme State Security Prosecution.
During a six-hour interrogation, prosecutors questioned Omar about published cartoons on Al Manassa and unpublished sketches found in his possession. He was accused of “spreading false news,” “misusing social media,” and “joining an illegal group.”
Several of Omar’s cartoons had tackled Egypt’s worsening power outages and mounting debt crisis.
His arrest and prolonged detention, without timely judicial review, sparked outcry from local and international press freedom and human rights organizations, which have repeatedly demanded his release along with other detainees imprisoned for their professional work or peaceful expression.
