Patrick George Zaki has been accused of disseminating false news about the country’s internal conditions to disturb security and social peace. His case is emblematic of the large-scale crackdown by the Abdel Fattah el-Sisi government on rights and freedoms in Egypt

Bahgat is the founder-director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR). He has previously been targeted by successive governments for his work towards the advancement of civil liberties and human rights in Egypt

The state of emergency in Egypt was first imposed in 2017. It gave the authorities powers to arbitrarily arrest people, search houses without warrants, restrict people’s freedom of gathering and movement, and conduct trials in special courts