[1] Prior to seeking asylum in Switzerland, El Ghanem was an Egyptian Government official, a Director in the Ministry of Interior, who also taught law at the police academy in Cairo.

In the late 1990s, El Ghanem had differences with Egyptian government, because he refused to fabricate false charges against journalists and other dissidents.

[3] Before he left Egypt, Dr. El Ghanem was well known for defending the rights of Egyptian Christians (Copts) who were at the time suffering under the church-building ban of President Hosni Mubarek.

According to journalist Robert Fisk, Dr. El Ghanem's defense of Christian Copts made him a "thorn in the side of the Mubarek regime".

In 2003, Dr. El Ghanem called journalist Robert Fisk in Beirut and told him of the threats and harassment he'd received from the Swiss secret services.

[10][11] Robert Fisk knew Dr. El Ghanem from Egypt; had previously written articles about his Egyptian government persecution.

Dr. El Ghanem was detained on the basis of these letters, but also on official allegations that he had published angry comments online, which wound-up on jihadic websites, inciting violence against Switzerland.

[14] The family of Dr. El Ghanem disputes these claims, stating he had no ties to extremist groups,[15] that he sought only protection, and that Dr. El Ghanem was peacefully studying at the University of Geneva to obtain Swiss recognition of his law degree from the University of Rome when the Swiss harassment started.

[21] The removal of Dr. El Ghanem's refugee status and his expulsion from Switzerland were performed administratively: without a hearing, and without the right to appeal.

[28] The FBI is "embedded" in the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police, under the auspices of a 2006 bilateral treaty for joint U.S.-Swiss investigations.

FBI tactics of forced recruitment for spying on Muslim leaders are well known, having been reported on extensively by the ACLU[30] and U.S. news outlets such as CNN.

[36] In 2010, lawyers for Dr. El Ghanem raised the case before the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Committee for "Enforced and Voluntary Disappearances".

[40] By 2012, the local press were accusing the Geneva judiciary of attempting to bury their mistakes by keeping Dr. El Ghanem in prison,[41] and noting that El Ghanem's incarceration was damaging the image of Switzerland abroad[42] Swiss activists were also angrily protesting for his release,[43] holding sit-ins in front of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.