PRESS RELEASE – THE OBSERVATORYEGYPT: Human rights defenders under siegeUrgent call to stop repression and to guarantee for their protectionParis-Geneva-Copenhagen, February 3, 2011.While acts of intimidation and attacksagainst protesters are on the increase, the Observatory for the Protection of HumanRights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights(FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture, and the Euro-MediterraneanHuman Rights Network (EMHRN) deplore acts of intimidation and fears for the safetyof human rights defenders.Today, February 3, 2011, in the early afternoon, several lawyers and members of NGOs,including human rights NGOs, who had gathered at the offices of the Hicham Mubarak LawCenter were arrested by the military police and driven to an unknown location. They werealso soon surrounded by supporters of the current administration bearing weapons and wereseriously threatened. In addition, some thugs entered the Nadim Center for Rehabilitation ofVictims of Violence, which provide legal assistance to victims of torture and threatened thepersonnel of the organisation.The offices of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and the Egyptian Center for Economic andSocial Rights were searched by the military police and their equipment was confiscated.Several the mobile phones of their staff were also confiscated and switched off.According to the latest information, approximately 29 people working for Hisham MubarakLaw Center and the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, Human Rights Watchand Amnesty International would have been arrested, including Mr.Ahmed Seif,Ms.NadaSadek,Mr.Mohamed El Taher,Ms.Mona El Masry,Mr.Khaled Aliand four others.These acts of intimidation and harassment are due to the support provided by severallawyers and human rights organisations to demonstrators who have gathered on TahrirSquare, including the provision of food and medical equipment.Human rights NGOs have been very vocal denouncing human rights abuses committed bythe current administration and are particularly vulnerable and threatened in the currentclimate of repression operated by police forces and supporters of the current administrationwhich took over Cairo on February 3, 2011. According to our information, several journalistshave also been arrested.Considering the raising tension and the current acts of violence, the Observatory and theEMHRN are deeply concerned for the security of members of civil society, particularlyjournalists and members of human rights NGOs and urges the authorities to refrain from anyattack, arrest or act of intimidation against them and immediately guarantee their security.The authorities should also order an immediate, thorough, effective and impartialinvestigation into the above-mentioned facts, the result of which must be made public, inorder to identify all those responsible, bring them before a civil competent and impartialtribunal and apply to them the penal sanctions provided by the law.For further information, please contact:•FIDH: Karine Appy / Arthur Manet: + 33 1 43 55 25 18•OMCT: Seynabou Benga : + 41 22 809 49 39EMHRN:

Marc Schade-Poulsen: +45 5120 5515