Two young Egyptian content creators in TikTok were arrested, and placed in preventive prisonwhen they were accused of belonging to a terrorist organization after publishing a video in which they parodied a visit to a prison in Egyptinformed his lawyer.
The youth’s lawyer, Hoda Abdelwahab, said on her Facebook page that on Sunday she attended the investigations being carried out by the State Security Prosecutor’s Office against content creators Mohamed Hosam, known as “Bessa”, and Basma Hegazy. , who uses the pseudonym “Warda” on networks.
According to the lawyer, both young men were accused of “joining a terrorist group and spreading false news”for which the Public Ministry issued the decision to imprison them for 15 days while the investigations continue.
Bessa and Warda, both from Alexandria (north), published a week ago a video in which they made parody and normalized the fact of having relatives and friends imprisoned in isolation cells in Egypt.
Comments about the bad situation of the prisons in Egypt are harshly silenced by the government of the president Abdelfatah al-Sisias well as any dissident voice and negative criticism of the country’s government management.
According to local and international human rights organizations, since Al Sisi came to power in 2013, thousands of people have been detained for criticizing the government both in the streets and on social networks and, in many cases, they pass years in pretrial detention awaiting trial. Among those affected are bloggers, tweeters and even cartoonists for the mere fact of expressing critical opinions.
The Egyptian authorities have recently targeted the “influencers”and more than a dozen of them have been imprisoned for different reasons, such as “undermining state security” or “inciting adultery and debauchery”, in the case of Egyptian girls who post dance videos on TikTok.