Egyptian security officials say police have been questioning residents and searching apartments at more than 5,000 homes in central Cairo as a “precautionary measure” to prevent street protests on the upcoming anniversary of the Arab spring uprising on 25 January 2011.
A senior security official told the Associated Press that the 10-day search campaign was based on surveillance and intelligence gathered over months and focusing on pro-democracy activists inside and outside the country, including foreigners.
But some Cairo residents have said the sweeping raids are not targeted, instead designed to round up anyone who fits the youthful demographic of the 2011 protesters.
Journalist Emir Nader was out of the country when his flat was raided on 18 January. “I logged in to my Facebook and found messages from my friends in Cairo asking whether it was my flat that was targeted downtown,” he said. “I scrolled through and discovered friends and activists had reported my flat had been raided by police two hours previously and my three flatmates were arrested.”
Two of Nader’s three flatmates are involved in civil society movements: Dr Taher Mokhtar works to provide medical care for detainees and Ahmed Mohamed Hassan campaigns against Egypt’s compulsory military service. Their apartment is close to Tahrir Square, which was at the heart of the 2011 protests.
“We think the police have been knocking on every door downtown and when a young Egyptian opens they search the flat,” Nader said. “They discovered that Taher, a doctor, is a critic of the government and campaigns for medical treatment for detainees. They decided this was incriminating enough to arrest all three of my flatmates for possessing materials that call for overthrowing the state.”
In a speech in December, the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, warned that those calling for protests risked ruining the country and “destroying the people”. Public protest has been all but banned by a law enacted in November 2013 that formed part of the harsh response to the protests that deposed Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and Mohammed Morsi in July 2013.
Other Cairo residents have backed up Nader’s theory that the searches are not targeting specific individuals.
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