Cairo accused of ‘punishment by proxy’ after British-Egyptian woman arrested over sister's activism

Lawyers say Egypt detained Eman el-Shazly to pressure her UK-based sister into ending her criticism of President Sisi An Egyptian detention facility pictured in 2022 (Khaled Desouki/AFP) Published date: 28 August 2026 15:43 BST | Last update: 8 sec ago There is mounting alarm over the treatment of a British-Egyptian woman detained in Egypt on what her lawyers say are politically motivated charges intended to silence her sister. Egyptian security personnel detained Eman el-Shazly, a 45-year-old mother of four from Birmingham, while she was visiting Egypt on 16 August. Her lawyer said the authorities arrested her to intimidate the family and pressure her sister, Mona el-Shazly, into ending her criticism of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government. Mona runs a UK-based YouTube channel with 130,000 subscribers and remains active on X. Much of her work focuses on corruption inside Egypt’s security services and public utilities, sectors in which the country’s secretive and powerful military has extensive business interests. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Eman’s lawyer said there were “compelling grounds” to conclude that the authorities detained her because of her sister’s political speech. Her brothers, Hassan and Eid, previously spent nearly three years in pretrial detention on accusations routinely deployed against the Sisi government’s opponents, including “promoting the ideas of a terrorist organisation on social media, as well as broadcasting false news harmful to state security”. Families of Egyptian political prisoners launch UK advocacy group Read More » Egyptian authorities rearrested them in May. The UK Foreign Office told the family that Egypt was holding Eman at the 10th of Ramadan Rehabilitation Centre and had placed her in the same case as her brothers. Eman travelled to Egypt about two months before her arrest to care for her elderly and unwell mother. On 18 August, Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered her detention for 15 days pending further investigation. She now faces the prospect of confinement in Egypt’s notoriously abusive prison system, where rights groups have documented extensive torture, medical neglect and degrading treatment. The Sisi government has repeatedly targeted the relatives of critics living abroad, using their families as leverage to silence opposition beyond Egypt’s borders. Request to stop criticism Mona told The Guardian that relatives had asked her to remove her videos and stop her activism, but she refused. “I have done nothing wrong nor broken any law … I am a very strong woman, but it is very traumatic for me since 11 or 12 children are without their parents," she said. "It is a horrible situation, but the Egyptian government will not stop if I appear weak. The government is close to collapsing." Eman’s husband, Zeesharn Moustapha, has launched a fundraising campaign to cover the family’s mounting legal costs. He said they remained “deeply concerned about her safety and wellbeing”. The British government acknowledged earlier this year that Egypt regularly used “punishment by proxy” against critics living abroad. Human Rights Watch has also documented the regime’s escalating use of relatives to intimidate dissidents. British officials have requested consular access to Eman, but Egyptian authorities have yet to grant it. Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.