Malek Mostafa Adly Elgendy is a prominent human rights lawyer who has represented countless peaceful protesters and civil society organizations in Egypt. He was arbitrarily arrested in May 2016 as part of a wider crackdown by Egyptian authorities on all forms of critique and peaceful dissent.

Since his arrest, Adly has been severely mistreated for nearly 70 days in solitary confinement—beaten by authorities, denied proper medical treatment, and unable to fully challenge his detention before an impartial court of law—deteriorating his physical and mental health.

Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights has submitted an urgent action and petition to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture on behalf of Adly, highlighting how his arrest and ongoing solitary confinement violate numerous rights protected by the Egyptian Constitution and Egypt’s international human rights obligations.

Unfortunately, Adly’s case is hardly unique. Other RFK Human Rights clients in Egypt, including Mahmoud Mohamed Ahmed Hussein and Aya Hijazi and Mohamed Hassanein, have been arrested and detained for years without cause and illustrate how Egypt has aggressively used pretrial detention as a punitive measure to silence independent voices.