The head of Egypt’s bar association Ragaei Attia died on Saturday in court whilst defending nine lawyers accused in 2015 of protesting and using force against public officials.

Ragaei was 84 when he had a heart attack in the South Giza Court.

The Giza Criminal Court later acquitted three of the lawyers and issued a suspended prison sentence for the remaining six.

One of the lawyers was imprisoned in 2015 after commenting on a judge’s ruling.

Following his arrest members of the Giza Bar Association tried to mediate on behalf of their colleague but instead of listening, North Giza’s public prosecution’s office referred nine lawyers to the criminal court.

They were accused of obstruction, force against public officials, theft of court books and preventing attorneys from carrying out their work.

On 9 February the North Giza Bar Association called on its members to stop paying judicial fees in all North Giza courts in protest of the decision to refer the nine lawyers.

More than 100 lawyers participated in a silent protest in front of the North Giza Court.

Human rights defenders have said that Sisi’s government is arresting lawyers to intimidate them into not covering political cases so that the government’s opponents will have no one to defend them.

At the beginning of this year Egypt’s most prominent human rights organisation The Arabic Network for Human Rights, made up of a team of lawyers and activists, closed after being arrested, intimidated, and physically assaulted by security forces.

Hoda Abdel Moneim, a lawyer and former member of the official National Council for Human Rights, was arrested in November 2018 after security forces destroyed her home.

Director of the Egyptian Coordianation for Rights and Freedoms, lawyer Ezzat Ghoneim, has been detained since September 2018.

Lawyer Ahmed Helmy was arrested last year after the prosecution prevented his client Takwa Nasser from being released and brought new charges against her, accusing her of forming a cell inside the prison through which she was allegedly communicating with Muslim Brotherhood members abroad.

Helmy appealed to the judge and in response he accused Helmy of insulting the prosecution and when he didn’t, the judge ordered that he be detained for 24 hours. He was eventually released.

Human rights lawyer Mohamed Al-Baqer was forcibly disappeared in December 2020 after attending an investigation into his client Alaa Abdul Fattah, the prominent Egyptian blogger who was arrested as part of the September protests in 2019.

Ragaei’s death in court echoes that of the late President Mohamed Morsi who collapsed in June 2019 whilst on trial and died later in hospital.