Egyptian human rights activist Hossam Bahgat was released on bail Sunday after facing charges of “joining and financing a terrorist group” and “spreading false news,” according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).

Bahgat, the executive director of EIPR, was summoned last week by Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) and questioned for more than three hours without having information on “the nature of the investigation or accusation,” the rights group said. EIPR condemned the terrorism charges and called for all allegations against Bahgat to be dropped.

EIPR stated that this is the fourth investigation initiated by prosecutors against the organization since 2020, “solely due to EIPR’s work defending human rights in Egypt.” The group referred to their appeal to the Prosecutor General to investigate claims made by detainees on hunger strike protesting their extended pretrial detention and poor conditions of confinement at Egypt’s 10th of Ramadan prison.

According to Amnesty International, the Egyptian authorities have a history of trying to intimidate Bahgat and EIPR’s staff. In 2015, authorities detained Bahgat for his coverage of a plan to overthrow the government, effectively freezing his assets and banning his travelling the following year. Whereas, in 2020, three EIPR staff members were detained for “unfounded terrorism charges.”

In Human Rights Watch’s 2024 review of Egypt, the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) was characterized as “an abusive branch of Egypt’s public prosecution,” responsible for arbitrarily detaining thousands of peaceful activists and journalists without evidence, mainly because of their human rights work.