The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) condemns the unlawful detention of six employees who were dismissed after being nonconsensually tested positive for drugs. The six were arrested on October 13th after participating in a seminar held by Conservative Party, to present their case. Some of them are still being forcibly disappeared, as the authorities have not disclosed their places of detention or enabled their families to contact them until now.

Enforced disappearance is criminalized according to Article 54 of the constitution, which states that “personal freedom is a natural right, shall be protected and may not be infringed upon. Except for the case of being caught in flagrante delicto, it is not permissible to arrest, search, detain, or restrict the freedom of anyone in any way except by virtue of a reasoned judicial order that was required in the context of an investigation. Every person whose freedom is restricted shall be immediately notified of the reasons therefore; shall be informed of his/her rights in writing; shall be immediately enabled to contact his/her relatives and lawyer; and shall be brought before the investigation authority within twenty four hours as of the time of restricting his/her freedom”.

The Conservative Party held a meeting on Saturday, October 12th, attended by some of those dismissed for being tested positive for drugs and their families in order to present their case and convey their voice to the parliament, in an effort to push for an amendment of Law No. 73 of 2021, which is unconstitutional and used as a basis for dismissals. The meeting was also attended by MP from the Social Democratic Party Samira El-Gazzar and some representatives from the workers' committees of various parties.

According to the families of detainees who sent pleas to officials to reveal the fate of their relatives, plain-clothed security forces arrested Hossam Shawky Abdel Mohsen, Wael Ismail Zaki, Sayed Gharib Mustafa, Bayoumi Hassan Mustafa, Sameh Abdel Alim Abdel Hafeez, and Mohamed Medhat Atef from their homes, only one day after they attended the seminar. Despite the passage of a week of their detention, only some of them have been referred to the Public Prosecution for investigation, while the others’ fate remains unknown, constituting a grave violation of their rights.

EIPR believes that the incident brings us back to the debate about the repercussions and feasibility of implementing Law No. 73 of 2021, which obliges government bodies and other entities subject to the law to conduct drug tests for all employees periodically and suddenly, and to dismiss them if they test positive, without going through the normal course of disciplinary measures. This entails a number of constitutional and legal violations against victims of this law, which has already been backed by some administrative court rulings.

EIPR pointed out that the law considers drug abuse as a crime that requires immediate punishment, regardless of its impact or the career, thus allowing for abuse of power and deviation through the imposition of the toughest administrative penalty, namely dismissal, without referral to investigation committees, disciplinary courts, or even independent appeal and grievance bodies.

EIPR calls on the concerned authorities to immediately disclose the fate of forcibly disappeared detainees, release them all, and investigate the circumstances of their disappearance. It also stresses the need to hold a real and serious societal dialogue on Law No. 73 in order to amend it and to avoid the constitutional and legal violations mentioned above.