Egyptian authorities are abusing counter-terrorism laws to arbitrarily detain a leading businessman and his son in conditions that amount to torture in reprisal for their refusal to hand over company assets, Amnesty International said today.

Egypt has recently increased charity work across the country as part of efforts to support the government’s social protection programs.

Days before announcing the imminent inauguration of the largest prison complex in Egypt, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi launched the country’s first national human rights strategy. The prison announcement, made “casually” during a telephone interview with a national talk show, starkly contrasted with the three-hour human rights extravaganza.

Human Rights Watch have slammed a press release issued by Egypt’s United Nations Development Programme office which heaps praise on the Egyptian president.

All Middle Eastern and North African countries featured in a new online freedoms report have been ranked as “partly free” or “not free”, with many experiencing a decline in digital freedoms over the past year.

The United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) Egypt office issued a press release last week lavishing praise on President al-Sisi’s government’s supposed “good governance and accountability.” This is a very different Egypt from the one Human Rights Watch and other rights organizations have been monitoring.

The Cairo court of appeal yesterday dropped the charges against four human rights and civil society organisations and lifted travel bans imposed on them.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi yesterday denied the existence of any human rights violations in Egypt, following a recent report by the Human Right Watch condemning the government’s “continuing violations”.

Amnesty International on Thursday accused Egyptian security agencies of “persistent intimidation and harassment” of human rights defenders as a political tactic to silence them.

Ten Egyptian human rights organisations on Tuesday denounced the State Security Prosecution’s decision to refer Patrick George Zaki, a researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, to trial before the Emergency Court on charges of “spreading false news at home and abroad”.