Rights group says Egypt arrests 40 lawyers, activists

CAIRO – An international rights group says Egypt has rounded up at least 40 lawyers and activists since last month, the latest arrests in a wide-scale crackdown on dissent.

Human Rights Watch said Sunday that many of those arrested were people who provided humanitarian and legal support to families of political detainees, and that some have been disappeared.

Citing family members, it said the security forces did not present arrest warrants and authorities refused to say where detainees were being held.

Michael Page, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s regional office, says “the Egyptian security agencies’ repression now extends to disappearing those brave men and women who have been trying to protect the disappeared and to end this abusive practice.”