Why has Gamal Abdel Fattah been imprisoned in Egypt?

It is now a month since Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s forces kidnapped Dr Gamal Abdel Fattah from his home in Al-Haram district of Cairo in the early hours of 28 February. We do not know for certain who kidnapped him or where he is being held. He was forcibly disappeared and then showed up a week later at the State Security Court, completely exhausted due to sleep deprivation, a lack of food and being denied his medication. To-date, nobody has been able to visit or contact him.

Dr Gamal Abdel Fattah is a 70-year-old pharmacist who suffers from several illnesses. The fact that he is being treated in this manner suggests strongly that those behind his abduction are trying to kill him. This is probably not only motivated by his position on the presidential elections, but also by his history of activism, recorded in state security files since the early 1970s, when he was a left-leaning university student.

At university, he supported the labourers and poor farmers, calling for their rights and liberties. He was opposed to the policies of subordination and privatisation. Most importantly, he called for the liberation of all of Palestine and believed that the Palestinian issue was the central cause in the region. He is the leftist fighter who is openly against normalisation with the Israeli enemy.

Therein lies the point in all of this. In the eyes of the government and its leader, Gamal Abdel Fattah’s position, whether objecting to the government’s policies, especially towards the poor; the government’s systematic looting; its disregard for democratic liberties; or its concession of land, gas and water, was all fine until it came to his position towards Israel and the normalising of relations with Egypt’s neighbour. Abdel Fattah’s position on the Camp David Accords and their consequences was a constant matter of interest for the government. He has remained committed to his position and has declared that he is against the government’s domestic and foreign policies, and the concession of the country’s resources and capabilities. He also stated publically that he is against the government’s constant disregard of the rights of the poor and its gagging of them. Despite all of this, the government is mostly concerned with Dr Abdel Fattah’s public position regarding Israel.

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Hence, we fear for his life as the government deprives him of his medicines and prohibits anyone from visiting him.

I am stating clearly and openly, therefore, that Dr Gamal Abdel Fattah’s life is in immediate danger and that the main person responsible for this is the head of the government, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. In the eyes of the government, Gamal Abdel Fattah is no different than the martyr Suleiman Khater, who was killed in prison for his position on Israel.

I hold Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi totally complicit in the kidnapping and imprisonment of Dr Gamal Abdel Fattah. I also call for the revolutionary fighter Dr Gamal Abdel Fattah to be set free unconditionally.

The author is the wife of Dr Gamal Abdel Fattah. This article was first published in Arabic on 28 March 2018 in Arabi21

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.