Security delays extend photojournalist Hamdy El-Zaeem’s decade-long ordeal

Photojournalist Hamdy El-Zaeem’s trial was postponed Sunday by the Second “Terrorism” Circuit at the Cairo Criminal Court, sitting at the Badr Correction and Rehabilitation Center, on charges of “joining a terrorist group,” without setting a date for the next session.

The delay comes as 16 Egyptian and international human rights organizations demand an end to a decade of pursuit and detention against him.

Detailing Sunday’s session, which came more than three months after the previous hearing in June, human rights lawyer Nabeh Elganadi, a member of El-Zaeem’s defense team, said defense lawyers attended the hearing intended for the Public Prosecution’s pleading. 

However, the presiding judge adjourned the session before calling the case number because security agencies failed to produce some of the defendants.

Elganadi told Al Manassa that the defense has not yet been informed of the next hearing’s date, “but it has become customary in terrorism circuits recently to postpone trials for long periods ranging between three and four months.”

The human rights lawyer criticized the continuation of this pattern, particularly in El-Zaeem’s case. “The case has been referred to the criminal court for two full years without the defense being given the opportunity to begin its pleading so far,” Elganadi said, adding that the adjournment leaves his client in detention without a clear timeline.

The postponement coincides with El-Zaeem marking ten years of state pursuit and detention, according to a joint statement issued by 16 rights organizations.

The statement emphasized that no final conviction has been issued against El-Zaeem throughout these years, warning that his pretrial detention has turned into an extended punishment that has deeply affected his professional and personal life.

According to the statement, the pursuit of El-Zaeem dates back to Sept. 2016, when he was first arrested outside the Journalists Syndicate. He remained in pretrial detention until June 2018, when he was released under precautionary measures with which he fully complied.

Despite his compliance, security agencies re-arrested him on Jan. 4, 2021, immediately after he left a police station. He was forcibly disappeared for approximately 12 days before surfacing at the State Security Prosecution, on charges of “joining a terrorist group.” He has remained in pretrial detention for years, exceeding the statutory two-year legal limit, before being referred to criminal trial in Jan. 2025.

The rights groups warned of a severe deterioration in the health of the photojournalist, who suffers in detention from diabetes, high blood pressure and a herniated disc. El-Zaeem is the father of four children and the primary breadwinner for his family, which has borne the brunt of his prolonged absence.

The organizations linked El-Zaeem’s case to the broader crisis facing press freedom and expression in Egypt, noting that at least 20 journalists remain imprisoned in similar cases at a time when Egypt ranks 169th out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index and remains among the world’s 10 worst jailers of journalists according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The statement was signed by several organizations including the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Nadeem Center, and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.

The signatory organizations called on Egyptian authorities to stop using pretrial detention provisions to target journalists and silence critical voices, urging compliance with constitutional and international obligations to protect press freedom and guarantee the safety of media workers.