Egyptian graduate student in the social sciences Ahmed Samir Santawy was one of a small number of prisoners who received a presidential pardon from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on July 29, 2022.  The following day, he was released from prison.  His release comes just weeks after Mr. Santawy received a three-year prison sentence – in a retrial – in apparent connection with his academic research.

Mr. Santawy has been a graduate student of sociology and social anthropology at Central European University, now in Vienna, Austria, since fall 2019, where his academic work has focused on women’s rights, including the history of women’s reproductive rights in Egypt.  On February 1, 2021, he was arrested by officers of the National Security Agency shortly after his return to Egypt to visit family.  Mr. Santawy was subjected to enforced disappearance for several days before being brought before the Supreme State Security Prosecution.  According to numerous human rights and scholarly organizations, Mr. Santawy appears to have been targeted for arrest in connection with his research on women’s rights, a topic about which he had been questioned repeatedly by Egyptian security services before and after his February 2021 arrest.  On February 6, he was charged with publishing false information, reportedly in connection with online criticism of the government, which he denies writing.  In late June 2021, Mr. Santawy was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison in proceedings that failed to meet international fair trial standards.

Following widespread international pressure from the scholarly and human rights communities, among others, Mr. Santawy’s conviction and prison sentence were annulled in February 2022, and he was ordered to have a retrial.  After numerous unexplained postponements, he was retried in June and was convicted on July 4 on the same charges.  Reliable reports indicate that, as was the case in his first trial, no credible evidence was presented to support the charges brought against him.

Mr. Santawy was imprisoned throughout his ordeal under harsh conditions of confinement, where he endured prolonged solitary confinement and physical abuse.  His imprisonment came amidst an ongoing crackdown on academic freedom in Egypt.