At 11.30 a.m. on December 23, 2018, Ahmed and his wife Raia were asked to leave a boarded flight to Istanbul. They were subsequently taken to an unknown location by airport security officers and disappeared.

Ahmed is the director of a publishing company which prints Islamic books. 22 days after their disappearance, the couple were charged in Supreme State Security Court Case No. 884/2018, with belonging to a banned group (i.e. the Muslim Brotherhood). In addition, Ahmed was charged with financing a banned group. Their daughter, who had been disappeared after dropping the couple at the airport, was released on the same day. The disappearance and detention of the couple is part of a wave of politically-motivated arrests of individuals associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Following a six-month detention, Raia was released, pending trial. The condition of her parole requires that she visits the local police every Friday and visits the Institute of Police Trustees in Tora every 45 days.

Despite his repeated pleas for adequate medical care, Ahmed’s requests were denied and he remained imprisoned until he died on September 2, 2020.