Since October, hundreds of people have been arrested across Egypt, as well as outside the country, while at least 150 remain held in custody as authorities heighten security measures, deploy personnel and vehicles onto main streets and carry out arbitrary stop-and-searches in the capital.

The security campaign comes as calls have emerged and circulated on social media for popular protests to be held on November 11 on the back of a prolonged economic crisis.

“These calls for protest are not at all part of the government’s calculus, because there is no such thing as 11/11,” said anchor Ibrahim Eissa in an edition of his Al-Qahera wal Nas current affairs program “Hadeeth al-Qahera.”

At least 150 people  are currently held in detention facilities after receiving orders to be detained for periods of at least 15 days in Cairo, Alexandria, Matrouh, Ismailia, Giza and Suez, facing investigation into charges of misusing social media and joining a terrorist group by the Supreme State Security Prosecution, including 28 people on Monday alone, according to two lawyers who witnessed interrogation sessions before the prosecution. 

Two legal advocacy groups monitored the remand detention of over 60 people who had been critical of the government on social media, some of whom participated in calls to protest in Cairo and other governorates. They were ordered held in custody by the prosecution pending investigation into charges which include joining a terrorist group. 

Forty-eight detainees were monitored by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said its director, Hossam Bahgat, while the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms registered that a further 21 individuals were ordered held by judicial authorities.

Other people have been stopped at random, regardless of their engagement with the wave of dissent or lack thereof. “Random security stops in which citizens’ mobile phones are searched and their social media posts are reviewed have taken place in Nasr City, Downtown, Shubra al-Kheima and Dokki,” lawyer Nabih al-Genady told Mada Masr. 

In Alexandria, too, hundreds of citizens were arrested over the weekend and released shortly afterward, said lawyer Mohamed Ramadan. “Individuals were arrested from their homes and places of work for their posts on social media, and charges filed against them by the Public Prosecution later included spreading false news and joining a banned group, with interrogation questions revolving around the November 11 call for demonstrations,” the Alexandria-based lawyer added.

A third lawyer asserted that, “the number of citizens arrested and interrogated before State Security Prosecution is on the rise every single day.” Defense lawyer Khaled Ali noted that people have also been summoned from their homes to be interrogated by authorities.

They are asked who is calling for the protests, and whether they’re planning to participate, he added. 

The origin of calls to protest on “11/11,” emerging since at least mid October remain unknown. Hashtags and videos have been shared on social media, while public figures related to the Muslim Brotherhood group have amplified the calls from their places of exile outside of Egypt, where they have also faced a security response. 

Turkey-based journalist Hossam al-Ghamry was summoned by the Turkish interior ministry, alongside a number of other Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated activists and journalists, and ordered either to stop supporting calls for November-11 protests or to leave the country, according to a source close to Ghamry who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity.

Ghamry, whose son was forcibly disappeared from his home in the Egyptian governorate of Sharqiya on October 25, refused to comply and was arrested on October 27 by Turkish authorities.

Ghamry was released on the evening of October 30, though his son’s whereabouts in Egypt remain unknown.

The arrest campaign comes as Egypt faces heightened scrutiny from critics inside and outside Egypt for its handling of rights and freedoms in the lead-up to the global climate conference, which will be held in Sharm el-Sheikh from November 6 to November 18.