The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) reiterates its call for the implementation of the current Criminal Procedures Law, which sets the maximum limit for pretrial detention at two years. It also calls for the immediate release of translator Marwa Arafa, who has been detained for more than four years in connection with Case No. 570 of 2020. During a hearing held at the Badr prison complex on 8 September, a court renewed Arafa’s detention for 45 days in violation of the law.

On 20 April 2020, a security force raided Arafa's house, arrested her and took her to an unknown destination. She appeared two weeks later before the State Security Prosecution, which accused her of joining a terrorist group and committing a crime of financing. The prosecution remanded her in custody at the time, without looking into her family's reports about her enforced disappearance for two weeks.

Arafa has been facing violations for more than 1,600 days. These included the use of violence during her arrest without a reason, something which still has impacts on her girl – an infant at the time – who witnessed the arrest of her mother and has been deprived of her over the past years without being able to communicate with her properly. Arafa was detained for three months after being interrogated at Nasr City police station and denied visits. Her detention has been renewed automatically without serious examination of her case, despite exceeding double the legal maximum period of pretrial detention.

Arafa’s mother had previously submitted two appeals to the National Council for Human Rights and the director of the Community Protection Authority at the Ministry of Interior (formerly known as the Prisons Authority) to improve the conditions of her daughter's detention and enable her to exercise her rights to work and study, which are stipulated by law. However, the appeals went unheeded, and Afara’s pretrial detention turned into an open-ended detention.

In addition to forfeiting her legal rights to study and work and detaining her for more than four years, Arafa is going through a range of other violations, including her detention – along with others – in connection with similar cases at the 10th of Ramadan 4 Prison, where other female inmates are held in connection with different cases. This violates Article 14 of the Prisons Regulation Law, which stipulates that pretrial detainees shall be held in places separate from the places of other prisoners who serve jail terms. This resulted in Arafa being ill-treated by other prisoners, who force her to pay money for her movement in the cell or the use of cooking utensils. Meanwhile, the prison administration does not respond to Arafa’s repeated requests to work in the prison’s workshops for a fee. Work has become necessary for Arafa after four years of pretrial detention that exhausted her and her family financially.

Moreover, Arafa’s request to take postgraduate exams was rejected for the second time, violating Article 31 of the Prisons Regulation Law, even though she had previously obtained a bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Law during her detention. Last year, Arafa enrolled in a public law diploma, and her family submitted an appeal to the prosecution to enable her to take the exams. Still, the Community Protection Authority rejected the appeal, citing a "decision" to prevent detainees from taking postgraduate exams. The situation was different this year, as the university refused to register Arafa in the first place, citing "orders" not to register any detainees in postgraduate programs. The university told Arafa’s family that she must obtain approval from the prosecution or the Community Protection Authority to enrol in postgraduate programs. The Community Protection Authority refused approval, claiming that there were "verbal orders" not to enrol any detainees in postgraduate programs.

Arafa's case deserves reflection and consideration at a time when the House of Representatives is discussing a new draft law on criminal procedures, which is supposed to ensure that a mother will not be arrested, separated from her baby for years in violation of the law, and held in deteriorating detention conditions. The bill under discussion is supposed to prevent pretrial detention from being turned from a precautionary measure to an open-ended and harsher punishment without trial. The bill should allow Arafa and other detainees subjected to violations to appeal the successive decisions to renew their detention. It should also enable Arafa to file a complaint that is genuinely examined when she faces any violation. Since Arafa was arrested, a human rights strategy has been issued, and a presidential pardon committee has been formed to look into the cases of pretrial detainees while she has remained in pretrial detention without being able to care for her child and mother.

EIPR stresses the need for the immediate release of Arafa. It calls on Public Prosecutor Mohamed Shawky to release her and to drop her case, in which no evidence has emerged that requires her to be put on trial, in addition to the failure to complete the investigation with her over the past years.