Nada Mougheeth [R] was detained on Thursday following months of campaigning for her husband’s release [Getty]
An Egyptian lawyer announced on Thursday that the wife of a well-known satirical cartoonist who was detained last year by authorities has now also been disappeared.
Nada Mougheeth, the wife of Ashraf Omar, was taken from her home early on Thursday, according to The New Arab’s Arabic language sister publication, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed,
Lawyer Khaled Ali made the announcement on social media, adding that she is in pretrial detention pending further investigations by state security protection.
“She was surprised at 8 a.m. today by the presence of two men at her apartment. They informed her that they were from the state security prosecution and took her with them,” he added.
He also noted that no further information is known about her so far, but his team is investigating where she was taken and the reasons behind her detention.
Omar’s case triggered a public outcry when the 38-year-old’s satirical caricatures about the government’s controversial policies resulted in him being accused of terrorism-related charges.
Last July, a Cairo state security prosecutor accused him of “disseminating false news”, “misusing social media tools” and “being involved in a terrorist group”.
His wife has been campaigning for his release in recent months and told The New Arab last year that he was jailed for “stating the obvious” and “for drawing cartoons and expressing what everybody has already been talking about…the country’s economic crisis, foreign debts, etc”.
Kamal Mougheeth, her father, confirmed her arrest saying: “The state security prosecution summoned my daughter and she is now in their custody”.
One of Omar’s latest cartoons published in June 2024 joked about the power outage crisis in Egypt amid soaring temperatures.
Since his arrest on 22 July, his detention has been renewed several times.
According to Omar’s defence team, no concrete evidence or police investigations against him have been presented by the prosecution for review yet.
“I remember when I told his lawyer I was trying to find evidence to refute the accusations against Ashraf. He laughed, simply because there was no undeniable proof against him in the first place,” Mougheeth told The New Arab in September.
“There must be a way out. I am given no choice and forced to be in a position where I cannot seek any possible legal means to get my husband out of prison… his only crime is that he drew cartoons.”
Omar has reportedly been subjected to torture for extended periods of time with his defence team demanding that he be legally considered a victim of torture due to security forces allegedly abusing him in custody.  Â
His lawyers, who have illegally been denied access to meet him privately, have asked the prosecution to order a forensic examination of his body to prove the allegations of torture.
