Cairo accused of ‘punishment by proxy’ after British-Egyptian woman arrested over sister's activism

Cairo accused of ‘punishment by proxy’ after British-Egyptian woman arrested over sister's activism Elis Gjevori on Fri, 08/28/2026 - 14:47 Lawyers say Egypt detained Eman el-Shazly to pressure her UK-based sister into ending her criticism of President Sisi An Egyptian detention facility pictured in 2022 (Khaled Desouki/AFP) Off There is mounting alarm over the treatment of a British-Egyptian woman detained in Egypt on what her lawyers say are politically motivated charges intended to silence her sister. Egyptian security personnel detained Eman el-Shazly, a 45-year-old mother of four from Birmingham, while she was visiting Egypt on 16 August. Her lawyer said the authorities arrested her to intimidate the family and pressure her sister, Mona el-Shazly, into ending her criticism of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government. Mona runs a UK-based YouTube channel with 130,000 subscribers and remains active on X. Much of her work focuses on corruption inside Egypt’s security services and public utilities, sectors in which the country’s secretive and powerful military has extensive business interests. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Eman’s lawyer said there were “com