High-profile Egyptian lawyer detained

A lawyer investigating the murder of an Italian student in Egypt is facing prosecution and up to five years in prison after being arrested at Cairo airport. Ebrahim Hegazy disappeared on Sunday last week while travelling to a session of the UN working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances in Geneva. The Guardian reports that he reappeared before prosecutors on Tuesday evening charged with 'managing an illegal group, spreading false news … and cooperating with foreign organisations'. Legalbrief reports that Hegazy provided legal aid to the family of Giulio Regeni, an Italian graduate student who was abducted and tortured to death in 2016 during a police crackdown in Cairo. Hegazy also represents families of people detained by the Egyptian state and held in an unknown location without access to legal services. Regeni's killing sparked a major diplomatic row with Italy.

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