Egyptian activist’s arrest sparks safety fears in Lebanon

Lebanese security officers stormed the apartment of exiled Egyptian activist Abdelrahman Tarek, known to friends as Moka, on May 24, telling the 29-year-old to grab a bag. He was afraid he would be deported to Egypt and arrested again.

He was released six hours later, but Tarek’s detention sparked fears that Egypt is pressuring regional governments to arrest his critics. The incident also raised questions about security in Lebanon, where dissidents from across the Middle East have long sought refuge under authoritarian regimes and were able to speak freely.

Tarek, a critic of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, fled to Lebanon last winter after being arbitrarily detained and tortured for his human rights activism in Egypt for seven years. In September 2020, he was charged with “membership in an illegal organization” and “terrorist financing”.

According to human rights groups, the Egyptian regime often accuses human rights activists such as Tarek of having ties to terrorism in order to silence dissent.

Once he was taken in for questioning, “Moka asked for a lawyer but was told that was not necessary and they will be ready soon,” said Farouk Moghrabi, Tarek’s lawyer.

Moghrabi told Al Jazeera that he had not received a warrant or other paperwork to arrest his client.

His arrest sparked a wave of calls for his release by Beirut’s civil society, activists, at least three foreign embassies and the international human rights community.

“I was filled with fear because I had no idea why [Tarek] was arrested and taken from his home,” Mostafa Al-a’sar, an Egyptian journalist, human rights researcher and former political prisoner now living in Beirut, told Al Jazeera. “He had done nothing wrong and all his legal papers were in order.”

“I’m afraid the same thing could happen to me, even though I didn’t do anything against the law.”

Beirut as a safe place

The day after the incident, Tarek posted an account of what happened on his Facebook page. He said that after being told to pack a bag, he was taken to the intelligence unit’s office in Jounieh, north of Beirut, where he was greeted respectfully by an officer.

The officer told him that he would not be deported and that the investigation was only to learn about people on Lebanese soil.

According to Tarek’s first-hand account, the officer asked him about the Egyptian government’s interest in him and its labeling as a terrorist, previous trips to Gaza, and whether he had been in contact with Israeli organizations.

Tarek also seemed to suggest that Egypt had been pressuring Lebanese security forces to detain him.

“The question is whether it is the role of the Egyptian government to follow its citizens abroad,” Tarek wrote on his Facebook page.

When the intelligence agency reached out for comment, the intelligence agency Al Jazeera referred to Tarek or his attorney.

According to Ramy Shaath, an Egyptian-Palestinian activist imprisoned by the el-Sisi regime, Egypt has coordinated with other governments in the region to arrest critics of the regime.

He told Al Jazeera that while Interpol is no longer heeding Egyptian calls to arrest its political dissidents, el-Sisi’s government has found other avenues to harass and imprison its critics abroad.

“We know that the Egyptians used the platform of Arab interior ministries to issue arrest warrants and bring people from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia,” he said by phone from France, where he now lives.

In January 2022, a Badr Airlines flight from Khartoum to Istanbul was diverted to Luxor and an Egyptian opposition activist was taken away by security officials. In September 2022, Saudi Arabia deported several Egyptian political dissidents. And in December 2022, the UAE arrested an activist criticizing the COP27 climate summit held in Egypt.

“At least recently, people’s political activism and political position have not been a reason for their detention in Lebanon,” Ayman Mhanna, director of the media and cultural freedom organization SKeyes, told Al Jazeera.

Mhanna added that some Syrian opposition figures had been detained in the past, but those cases were related to residency issues and did not lead to repatriation.

‘We gave them hell’

Activists and others involved in pushing for Tarek’s release praised Lebanese civil society for their mass mobilization efforts and effectiveness.

“We gave them hell,” Shaath said. “Thank God Lebanon remains a country with freedom of expression and remains a country that does not have a bad history of extraditing dissidents, politicians, activists or human rights defenders.”

Shaath also said he saw the incident as a “warning” but that the result was “a good sign for other dissidents in Lebanon”.

SKeyes’ Mhanna said most Arab dissidents who fled their homes to Lebanon over issues related to free speech tended to be “non-stop concerned” even before Tarek’s case. But he was hesitant to say that a precedent has been set.

“I think they should be more careful now instead of concerned,” he said. “They should make sure they follow some measures to limit their exposure if they believe they are at imminent risk.”

Tarek refused to remain silent after his release. He criticized Egypt’s National Dialogue, which aims to spark a debate over the country’s future between a carefully assembled opposition and the el-Sisi regime.

In the months leading up to the March dialogue, el-Sisi authorized the release of hundreds of political prisoners, but some of them faced new criminal charges immediately after being pardoned.

According to human rights organizations, more than 60,000 political prisoners languish in prison.

With continued repression, people like Tarek believe the National Dialogue is just a way for el-Sisi to divert attention from the country’s rights crisis while trying to silence dissidents abroad.

“[F]or all parties participating in the National Dialogue, do you agree with the actions of the security services?” he wrote on Facebook.

“Your dialogue falls when it is useless and only because you follow the instructions of the security services. Withdraw or at least suspend your participation until the violations stop.”