A letter by Egyptian detainee on his 23rd birthday

Ayman Ali Mousa, an Egyptian engineering student at the British University in Cairo who is serving a 15-year prison sentence, wrote a letter from his cell on his 23rd birthday. Ayman was first arrested in October 2013 during protests against Egypt’s coup.

The letter:

25/10/2013 I ended my teenage journey in prison.

My 20th birthday was the first in prison…

2014, the second…

2015, the third…

Today… 2016… My 23rd birthday… The 4th in prison…

The first birthday without my father… Without a clear future ahead of me, after being suspended from my “Engineering” college, after being sentenced for 15 years in prison for no reason… I’m sitting in my cell on the ground – where I sleep – feeling like a little rat trapped in a cage in a lab, waiting to be tested on in an experiment, where I have no idea what results it’s going to produce… What it’s going to turn me into!!

I’m tired of losing a gift every birthday…

This year instead of wearing my cap and gown with my friends and earning my certificate, I was wearing a navy prisoner’s suit and handcuffs, waiting to be transferred to another prison.

This year, I missed my father’s funerals… I miss my father!!

I’m tired…

I’m tired of waiting for nothing but losses…

I’m tired of living an abnormal life…

I wanna go home before I lose something else… Before I lose someone else!!

Ayman Ali Mousa [Facebook.com/gehad.hamdy]