Mohamed Hafez, an Egyptian lawyer and human rights defender, from Alexandria Governorate. Over the years of his professional life, he devoted his time and activity to defending victims of human rights violations in Egypt, providing legal defense in opinion cases, and supporting victims and Egyptian demonstrators, bearing all the consequences and risks of his advocacy for the oppressed until Exile.

He was one of the most prominent people who faced the crime of enforced disappearance carried out by Egyptian security forces against activists and political detainees before presenting them to the prosecution.

He was personally exposed to this crime in August 2019, when security forces kidnapped him in civilian clothes from the vicinity of the Criminal Court in Mansheya in Alexandria Governorate, after attending one of the sessions of a case he was following, at approximately two-thirty in the afternoon on Thursday, August 22, 2019, and communication with him was cut off or receiving information about his whereabouts. During his presence, he was subjected to torture and abuse during the period of enforced disappearance. He even wrote on his personal page about this period, saying: “Like today, 4 years ago, I was kidnapped from inside the Alexandria Criminal Court and forcibly disappeared, and since then I have not been the same again, and it seems that I will not return.” ".

He continued to face the crime of enforced disappearance, and on August 30, the International Day for Victims of Enforced Disappearance, Hafez said: “As one of those who were subjected to this crime, I am certain that this crime is one of the greatest calamities that a person can be exposed to in his life.

The police prosecution of Hafez did not stop there. Rather, the security forces continued to send informants and security personnel to the vicinity of his house to collect investigations and verify the dates of his presence and departure from his house. This posed a real threat to his life, but after the disappearance ended and he was released without charges being brought against him; A national security officer continued to threaten Hafez with every legal and professional move he made as a lawyer and human rights defender, until he was forced to seek refuge in the Netherlands and emigrate away from the persecutions and pressures that have been following him since he was subjected to enforced disappearance.

He participated as a defender, pleader, and was strongly present in dozens of political cases involving political activists, journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders, and ultra youth, regardless of the political affiliation or ideology of their defender. He also played a role in being present with young people who were referred for military trial.

He also played a major role in communicating with the Presidential Pardon Members Committee, and informing them of the statements and grievances of political detainees in an attempt to raise the voice of the detainees to release them through pardon.

He faced torture and abuse of political detainees in prisons and detention centers, and he played a role in confronting the attack that took place on political detainees in Burj Al Arab prison in 2016, and monitored the transfer of some of them to the prison hospital, and others to disciplinary detention, which caused the injury of 3 of them. By fainting in deportation cars, and trying to stop the series of attacks on detainees and the wasting of their rights guaranteed by law.

During his forced exile, Hafez fell ill. It developed into a severe illness that he underwent treatment for periods until he died on March 22, 2024, alone in forced exile, closing the last pages of the book of “Hafez,” the human rights defender, the simple lawyer with principles, who lived as a fighter and died alone, paying the price for loving his country and defending human rights. He left a legacy of legal and human rights struggle and support for the oppressed.