October 19, 2020
56 US Congressmen urge Egyptian president to release political activists
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
More than 50 US Congressmen have urged Egyptian President Abdel Fattah A-Sisi to release activists, journalists, lawyers, and prisoners of conscience warning that they risk death in custody due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The warning comes two weeks before US elections in which President Donald Trump, who has formed a close alliance with Al-Sisi, is trailing in polls to Democrat Joe Biden.
In a letter released on Monday, 56 Congressional Democrats (and one independent) urged Al-Sisi, a US Client, to release those "unjustly detained for exercising their fundamental human rights". The letter is spearheaded by three Democratic lawmakers: Ro Khanna, Jim McGovern, and Sherrod Brown.
Field Marshal el-Sisi, a US Client, is the second-largest recipient of US foreign military financing and US lawmakers have a special responsibility to press his government to free political prisoners and end its systematic human rights violations.
McGovern said, "The unjust detention of Egyptian human rights defenders, peaceful political activists and other prisoners of conscience is in direct opposition to the rights and freedoms enshrined in Egyptian and American law."
The congressmen are concerned that continued unjust imprisonment during large outbreaks of COVID-19 in Egyptian prisons might lead to their death.
"We are deeply disturbed that in the middle of a pandemic, the Egyptian government continues to wrongfully hold these political prisoners in overcrowded prisons - places where we know COVID-19 can spread like wildfire and cause severe illness and death," McGovern warned.
"Even in the middle of a global pandemic, President Sisi continues to lock up prisoners in notoriously overcrowded, dangerous prisons," Khanna said.
The letter specified the names of political activists Ramy Shaath, Zyad el-Elaimy, and Alaa Abdel Fattah; human rights lawyers Mohamed el Baqer and Mahienour el-Massry; journalists Esraa Abdel Fattah and Solafa Magdy, and other unjustly detained prisoners of conscience and demanded their release.
At least two prisoners have died in custody this year including Mustafa Kassem, a US citizen who was rounded up in a sweeping 2013 crackdown and had gone on a hunger strike.
El-Sisi, now the Egyptian president and assumed the title of Field Marshal, ousted his democratically elected predecessor, Brotherhood member Mohamed Morsi, in July 2013. Since then, Al-Sisi has led a crackdown on Brotherhood leaders and supporters, as well as secular opposition groups who criticize his rule.
Former President Mohamed Mursi died after collapsing in a prison courtroom in June 2019. The United Nations Human Rights Office in June 2019 called for an independent investigation into the death of Morsi.
The UN spokesman Rupert Colville cited concerns about Morsi's detention for several years, and said the investigation should examine whether those conditions factored in his death.
"As former President Mohamed Morsi was in the custody of the Egyptian authorities at the time of his death, the state is responsible for ensuring he was treated humanely and that his right to life and health were respected," Colville said in a statement.
Egypt has jailed thousands of members and supporters of the group since the army's overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Human Rights Watch has estimated that over 60,000 political prisoners are languishing in jails since Al-Sisi became president in 2014, while many others have been living in self-imposed exile fearing reprisals at home.
The HRW 2020 report said: Under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government, Egypt has been experiencing its worst human rights crisis in many decades. Authorities have jailed tens of thousands of peaceful critics while Security officers routinely commit serious human rights violations, including torture, disappearances and extra-judicial executions, in near-absolute impunity. Detention conditions are appalling and hundreds of prisoners, including political detainees, have died in detention from apparent insufficient medical care, including former president Mohamed Morsy. Constitutional amendments passed in 2019 amid mass arrests and suppression of fundamental freedoms have entrenched authoritarian rule and allow the military to intervene overtly in politics.
Alarmingly, since President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi's rise to power in 2013 there have been an unprecedented number of death sentences in Egypt. Between January 2014 and February 2018 courts recommended the death sentence for at least 2,159 individuals and carried out 83 of them, according to the London based anti-death penalty charity, Reprieve. Between 2011 and 2013, one person was executed.
Ten children have also been sentenced to death under the rule of Al-Sisi who was Army chief under President Morsi who died last year while appearing in a Cairo Kangaroo Court.
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Chief Editor of the Journal of America (www.journalofamerica.net) email: asghazali2011 (@) gmail.com
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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