On 2 January 2021, Ibrahim Ezz El-Din was charged with allegedly baseless charges of "belonging to a terrorist group". The urban planning engineer and a human rights defender was previously arbitrarily arrested after criticising how authorities managed slums and megaprojects, and publicly alleging that the choice of creating the mega-project New Capital was reserved for the country's elite. On 27 December 2020, the Cairo Criminal Court had ordered his release in that case, after 13 months of pre-trial detention, and he had been transferred the next day to the Samanoud police station in the governorate of his residence, in preparation for his release. However, he was never released until the new charges. Rights groups maintain the new unsubstantiated charges are related to his human rights work.