Eman Alnagar, the sister of former parliamentarian and Justice Party founder Mostafa Alnagar, who has been missing since 2018, urged Egypt’s Public Prosecution to open an urgent investigation into comments by TV host Mohamed El-Baz claiming her brother was killed on the Egyptian-Sudanese border.
El-Baz said he had “reliable information” that Mostafa Alnagar was killed on the border while trying to flee Egypt to avoid prosecution on charges of “insulting the judiciary.”
In a televised interview, El-Baz said smuggling gangs killed him, citing what he described as a trusted source, and arguing that the long disappearance supported his account.
Mostafa Alnagar, a prominent figure of the January revolution, has been out of contact since September 2018. Authorities have not acknowledged holding him or clarified his fate, despite repeated appeals and complaints by his family and local and international rights groups.
Eman Alnagar rejected El-Baz's claim in a Facebook post, saying it was presented as fact without evidence and contradicts prior official accounts. She questioned El-Baz’s source, noting that pro-government channels previously reported that Mostafa Alnagar had been arrested in Aswan.
She called on the state and the public prosecutor to investigate El-Baz’s remarks and issue a clear official statement. “We are not looking for empty reassurances. We are looking for the truth we have been seeking for eight years through official complaints that have not been answered,” she wrote.
She added that until there is an official investigation and evidence-based announcement, the family considers Mostafa Alnagar alive and forcibly disappeared, holding the state responsible for his safety.
El-Baz also claimed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces provided financial support to the Justice Party, which Mostafa Alnagar founded, to create balance between civil and religious political forces after the Jan. 25 revolution, which brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power.
Eman Alnagar denied the allegation, saying her brother was “a dentist struggling financially like any Egyptian young person.” She added that he was the first member of parliament to submit a financial disclosure statement before taking his seat, and called on the Justice Party to issue a statement clarifying the truth on this point.
The Justice Party, in a separate statement, described the case as “first and foremost a humanitarian one” and said the family has the right to know the full truth. It urged anyone circulating information about Mostafa Alnagar’s fate to disclose sources or provide them to relevant authorities for official verification, warning that publishing such claims without clear attribution fuels rumors and violates journalistic standards.
Eman Alnagar described the psychological pain such circulating accounts cause the family. “Stop spreading this story and have mercy on us. You’re forcing us to believe a narrative with no convincing proof: There is no investigation, no body, no report and no official documentation,” she said.
She asked, “What’s the danger to the state in coming out and telling the truth? If a citizen tried to flee and was killed at the border, what interest is there in hiding that?” She stressed that “until there is an official investigation and a clear, evidence-backed announcement, Mostafa Alnagar is alive, forcibly disappeared at the hands of the state, which bears full responsibility for his safety.”
In January 2020, an administrative court ruling ordered the Interior Ministry to indicate Alnagar's whereabouts, without necessarily implying he was being held, saying such disclosure is among the ministry’s constitutional duties.
