Egyptian political dissident Maryam Abdel Baset faces forcible deportation from the Sultanate of Oman to Egypt after being detained at a medical facility there following the birth of her child.
The arrest comes amid concern among rights advocates that Interpol is being used as a tool to pursue her over her online opposition activity, according to a statement by the Law and Democracy Support Foundation, a Berlin-based organization set up by Egyptian human rights defenders.
The foundation said the 31-year-old mother, who has lived in Oman since 2021, was placed under what it described as “de facto detention” at the Medical City Hospital for Military and Security Services after giving birth on May 25, 2026, having been registered as a “prisoner” with no clear legal basis announced for the measure.
Her husband, Ahmed Moussa, was deported from Oman to Egypt on April 9, according to the foundation, which said the family had received no written court rulings or official documents relating to his deportation. There has been no word of him since he reached Cairo, prompting his family to file a complaint with the Prosecutor General to investigate his “enforced disappearance.”
Rights lawyer Karim Abdelrady, the foundation’s executive director, told Al Manassa that Mariam was questioned in the capital, Muscat, in mid-April after she was prevented from traveling and was verbally informed that an Interpol “Red Notice” had been issued against her.
Abdelrady said Mariam had been named as a defendant in Egypt in Supreme State Security Case No. 1871 of 2026 on charges including “leading a terrorist organization, spreading false news, and inciting civil disobedience,” accusations the foundation said were not based on any specific acts.
The charges are linked to Mariam’s activity on social media and her role in managing an opposition group on digital platforms that called for political change in Egypt through peaceful means, including demands for the removal of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, through a digital referendum that drew wide engagement on social media despite attempts to block it.
Late last year, activists in a group called GenZ002 on the Discord app launched an online referendum titled “The Popular Referendum to Remove Sisi,” which claimed to measure Egyptian citizens’ views on ousting the president and drew more than 330,000 participants, coinciding with the spread of the hashtag #RemoveSisi on social media.
The foundation said Mariam had previously been subjected to an “intimidation campaign” by a Telegram group called “Anubis,” which publishes the personal data of opposition figures and threatens them with arrest and deportation.
Abdelrady said the timing of the publication of photos of Mariam and her family on the group, coinciding with her detention, “raises suspicions of a link between those running the group and security agencies.”
On the legal front, British lawyer Ben Keith, who is representing Mariam, filed a complaint on May 5 with the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files (CCF), demanding the cancellation of any listing against her and arguing that the Omani–Egyptian measures bore the hallmarks of transnational repression for political ends. Mariam’s defense team has yet to receive a response to the complaint, according to Abdelrady.
Meanwhile, the Law and Democracy Support Foundation called on the Omani authorities to allow Mariam to obtain official documents for her newborn and to protect her from a deportation that could put her life and freedom at risk, saying it had written to 10 UN special rapporteurs urging urgent intervention in the case.
Abdelrady reiterated that Moussa’s family had filed a complaint with the Prosecutor General over his “enforced disappearance,” adding that the foundation had real fears that Mariam could be deported and put on trial in Egypt.
The foundation also called on the Omani authorities to enable Mariam to obtain documents for her infant child so she can travel if she is released, noting that no official papers have yet been issued for the baby.
