Thirteen independent Egyptian and regional human rights organizations on Saturday called on Egypt’s Public Prosecution to open an urgent, transparent investigation into remarks by journalist Mohamed El-Baz claiming that former lawmaker Mostafa Alnagar was killed on the Egyptian-Sudanese border.
El-Baz said Alnagar had attempted to flee through Sudan to avoid prosecution in a case involving accusations of “insulting the judiciary,” and claimed he had “reliable information” that Alnagar was killed by smuggling gangs. He argued that the length of Alnagar’s disappearance and his absence from public view supported his account.
In a joint statement, the organizations said the comments, made last month, require immediate scrutiny because they amount to an allegation of an extrajudicial killing involving a figure who has been missing since 2018.
They urged prosecutors to summon El-Baz and question him about the sources of his information, how it was obtained, and the basis for his claim.
According to the statement, the complaint was filed with the Aswan Prosecution on behalf of Alnagar’s family and registered as No. 490 of 2026 in the Aswan Primary Prosecution petitions. It calls for a full criminal investigation, describing El-Baz’s remarks as “either a disclosure of a serious crime that requires accountability, or deliberate misinformation in an ongoing case of the enforced disappearance of a former MP.”
The statement said Alnagar’s family has pursued all legal avenues and obtained a ruling from the State Council in January 2020 obliging the Interior Ministry to disclose his whereabouts, without implying he was being held. That ruling has not been implemented to date. It also cited complaints submitted to the public prosecutor that have not been meaningfully addressed, which, it said, increases the risks of irresponsible media handling of the case.
Last week, Eman Alnagar, the former MP’s sister, urged the Public Prosecution to open an urgent investigation into El-Baz’s remarks, saying “these allegations lack any material evidence and contradict previous official and security accounts.”
The organizations’ statement stressed the need to end the prolonged ambiguity surrounding Alnagar’s fate in a way that guarantees his family’s right to truth and justice.
The statement was signed by the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, the Stop Enforced Disappearances Campaign, the Egyptian Front for Human Rights, El Nadeem Center, the Law and Democracy Support Foundation, the Refugees Platform in Egypt, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, the Committee for Justice, Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, EgyptWide for Human Rights, the Egyptian Human Rights Forum, the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.
Alnagar, a founder of the Justice Party and a former member of parliament, was a prominent figure during Egypt’s 2011 uprising. Contact with him was cut off in September 2018. Since then, authorities have not acknowledged holding him or clarified his fate, despite repeated appeals by his family and by local and international human rights organizations.
