A/HRC/WGAD/2021/79 Submissions Communication from the source 4. The source presents the cases of two Egyptian citizens, namely, Zyad el-Elaimy and Louaya Sabri Alshahat Abdelhalim, charged in the case known as the Hope Coalition case by the Supreme State Security Prosecution. The case takes its name from the Hope Coalition, an emerging secular and civil association that a number of former parliamentarians, journalists, businesspersons, youth leaders, human rights defenders and labour rights activists attempted to establish in an effort to participate in the Egyptian parliamentary elections in 2020. 5. According to the information received, more than 83 individuals are accused of terrorism-related offences, including not only members of the Hope Coalition, like Mr. ElElaimy. Most of those accused in the case are civilians who were not affiliated with the Hope Coalition or its members and did not engage in any political activities. This allegedly shows the large-scale crackdown by the Government on any opposition and its citizens in general in an attempt to inflict fear and prevent human rights groups and citizens from practising their rights and freedoms, hoping to make a change in their country. The large-scale arrest and detention of Hope Coalition members reportedly shows the alarming penalization of peaceful and lawful participation in the political process. 6. Mr. El-Elaimy is an Egyptian citizen, born in 1980. He is a human rights lawyer, former member of the Parliament, one of the leaders of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party and a founding member of the January 25 youth revolutionary coalition. 7. According to the information received, on 25 June 2019 at around 2 a.m., a number of national security agents in plain clothes arrested Mr. El-Elaimy upon leaving a friend’s house in Cairo. The arrest happened simultaneously with the arrest of several other political activists, under the pretext of allegedly planning to commit violent acts financed by the Muslim Brotherhood, with the intention of causing chaos across the country, as announced by the Minister of Interior in a public statement that day. 8. Mr. El-Elaimy was reportedly brought before the Supreme State Security Prosecution on the same day and accused of sharing common goals with a terrorist group and publishing false news. The prosecution then ordered his pretrial detention in Tora prison for 15 days, pending investigations. Since then, Mr. El-Elaimy’s pretrial detention in the case has been periodically renewed. 9. On 2 July 2019, the Public Prosecutor issued a decision to freeze the assets and ban the travel of 83 individuals in relation to the Hope Coalition case, including Mr. El-Elaimy. On 4 July, the Abdeen Felonies Court, Circuit No. 5, upheld the decision. 10. The source claims that, in January 2020, Mr. El-Elaimy learned that there was another case against him, in which a complaint had been filed stating that he had mentioned false news about Egypt aimed at tainting its reputation in the international community. On 10 March, the Mokattam Misdemeanour Court sentenced Mr. El-Elaimy to one year in prison in that case (No. 649/2020) and he received a fine of LE 20,000 (about $1,270). The case is related to a television interview Mr. El-Elaimy gave to BBC News Arabic in July 2017, in which he spoke about large-scale arbitrary detention and human rights abuses in Egypt. Mr. El-Elaimy was sentenced according to articles 3/171 and 188 of the Egyptian Penal Code. His defence lodged an appeal against the sentence. On 2 June 2020, the Court of Appeals rejected the appeal and upheld the sentence. 11. On 17 April 2020, the Cairo Felonies Court allegedly added Mr. El-Elaimy, along with the names of 12 other detainees, to the country’s terrorist list for a period of five years. The decision was reportedly taken in the absence of the defendants and their lawyers. Being added to this list reportedly means the imposition of travel bans and asset freezes and disbarment from the Lawyers Syndicate and from any political party. Subsequently, Mr. ElElaimy was named in a new case, investigated by the Supreme State Security Prosecution and for which charges are reportedly unknown. 12. Mr. El-Elaimy is in pretrial detention in Tora prison. Since he completed his one-year sentence for one case, his pretrial detention has continued to be renewed approximately every 2