No one is safe in Egypt. Faced with myriad crises both at home and abroad, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has sought to cement his already unilateral grip on power with a massive smear campaign meant to discredit his regime’s opponents as “terrorists” and “traitors.”
Last November, the Sisi regime placed 28 human rights defenders—some of whom were already political prisoners—on a terrorist watchlist. They joined hundreds of people, both secular and Islamist, who had already been established as enemies of the state. Far from just a rhetorical blemish, those on the watchlist face stark consequences: a court-imposed travel ban, frozen assets, and ineligibility from holding public office for the next five years.
