Decision of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights on Seizure Communication 661/17: Amir Fam & 141 Others v The Arab Republic of Egypt Summary of the Complaint: 1. The Secretariat of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Secretariat) received a Complaint on 07 June 2017 from Amir Fam (the Complainant) on behalf of himself and 141 Others (the Victims). 2. The Complaint is submitted against the Arab Republic of Egypt (the Respondent State) a State Party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Charter), having ratified the same on 20 March 1984. 3. The Complainant alleges that after the 23 July 1952 military coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt was transformed from a democratic monarchy into a military dictatorship. 4, The Complainant avers that in order to gain popular support, the new military dictatorship on 18 September 1952 imposed a reduction by 15% of all rental agreements without compensation to landlords of the rented properties. 5. The Complainant states further that subsequent rental reductions were imposed by the military dictatorship as follows: 1955 by 20%; 1958 by 20% and 1961 by 20%. The Complainant avers. that in 1962 rent assessment committees called “Communism Committees” were formed to estimate new rentals. In 1965 the last rental reduction by 35% took»place for all.properties constructed since 1961, including those that had previously been estimated by the Communism Committees. The Complainant reiterates that all these impositions of reductions in the rental agreements revoked the rights of landlords in favour of tenants and were done without any compensation to the owners /\andlords of the properties. 6. The Complainant claims that the rent assessment committees continued to enforce very low rentals for all units (villas, shops, apartments), with estimates less than the actual cost. 7. The Complainant also claims that the regime forbade the landlords from evacuating the units at the end of the contractual period and also forced the contract extension for generations which is still ongoing to the present. 8. The Complainant alleges that rental amounts were fixed (65 years ago) at a rate of 36-180 EGP (2-10 USD) annually, despite operational costs that landlords were obliged to pay (including utility and security) which increased dramatically and became : RS multiples of the revenue collected from the units. The Government agencies f 1|Page