PARIS (AP) – Egyptian human rights organizations, already under intense pressure from authorities, are now being targeted by volley after volley of malicious emails, according to a report published Thursday by a prominent internet watchdog.
More than half a dozen groups have been targeted, including the prominent Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a group founded by investigative reporter and rights advocate Hossam Bahgat, according to Citizen Lab, an interdisciplinary research group based at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs.
Also targeted was the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, the Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, and Nazra for Feminist Studies, according to Citizen Lab. So too were the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression and a seventh, unidentified group.
Egypt has waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent since the military overthrew an elected Islamist president in 2013. Local rights groups have had their assets frozen and their leaders subjected to travel bans as the government has carried out a grinding investigation of their activities and foreign funding.
The emails were disguised as messages about the government’s sprawling investigation, also known as Case No. 173. The emails directed recipients to knockoff websites aimed at harvesting internet passwords.