Rights activists’ assets frozen

A PROMINENT rights group in Egypt yesterday said a court has ordered a temporary freeze of the personal assets and property of three of its members.

The ruling was issued by a court in charge of terrorism cases against the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights’ (EIPR) directors Mohamed Basheer, Karim Ennarah and Jasser Abdel-Razeq.

The EIPR said on Twitter the court issued the ruling “without hearing any oral arguments or allowing defence lawyers to even read the freeze order”.

The trio had been detained last month, reportedly after Western diplomats had visited the EIPR’s premises in Cairo for a briefing on human rights in Egypt. The group said on Thursday that they had been freed from the Tora prison outside Cairo. The three faced charges of spreading false news and belonging to a terrorist group.

Thousands of Islamists and secular activists have been rounded up in what rights groups say is a draconian clampdown on dissent.