Filmmaker Omar Salah Marei forcibly disappeared as family, cinema syndicate call on authorities to reveal his whereabouts

The family of film director and screenwriter Omar Salah Marei repeated their appeal to authorities Wednesday to disclose his whereabouts after security forces raided his home and forcibly disappeared him on Monday night. No official information has yet been provided on where he is being held, why he was arrested or his legal status, the director’s wife and the Cinema Professions Syndicate told Mada Masr. At around 9 pm on Monday, Marei’s wife, Nora al-Sayed, returned to their Sarayat al-Maadi home to find the door broken down and their apartment ransacked, she told Mada Masr. A real estate broker in the area later told her that National Security and Central Security personnel had arrived at the building at around 7 pm and arrested Marei. The broker and the building’s doorman were taken to the Maadi police station, where they were detained for several hours before being released. Marei has remained in custody at an unknown location. Sayed said several items were taken from the apartment during the raid, including LE50,000 in cash, four laptops, two mobile phones and a collection of scripts related to Marei’s film projects. According to Sayed, inquiries by the family and their lawyers at the Maadi Police Station were met with denials that Marei was being held there. Over the following days, the family sent telegrams to the Public Prosecutor and the Interior Ministry. They appointed lawyer Khaled Ali’s office to pursue legal action. Khaled Fouad, the syndicate’s legal advisor, told Mada Masr that the organization contacted the secretariat of the public prosecutor’s office on Wednesday in Sayed’s presence and provided details of the incident along with Marie’s information. Fouad said the case was “under review,” with no official clarification yet regarding the authority holding him. Sayed added that Marei suffers from chronic thyroid problems that require daily medication and is recovering from wrist surgery, raising concerns about his health amid the complete lack of communication since his forced disappearance. “We still don’t understand what happened,” syndicate media advisor Sayed Mahmoud told Mada Masr, adding that the organization is in contact with more than one authority and would issue a public statement once the picture becomes clearer so as not to diminish the remaining “glimmer of hope.” Over the past two days, human rights organizations have condemned Marei’s arrest and authorities’ failure to disclose his whereabouts or the reasons for his detention. The post Filmmaker Omar Salah Marei forcibly disappeared as family, cinema syndicate call on authorities to reveal his whereabouts first appeared on Mada Masr .