Egypt: Freedom in exchange for silence

They won’t say anything in exchange for their release. That’s the gist of the initiative presented to the Egyptian authorities by the families of thousands of political detainees, in the hope that it leads to their release. In return, they would retire from politics, the media and social media; indeed, from any kind of public life.

The authorities can, according to the proposal, impose other conditions as deemed appropriate by the relevant agencies, in exchange for the return of the forcibly disappeared persons who have been languishing in cells under pretrial detention for years.

Over the course of the past eleven years, there have been a number of humanitarian and human rights initiatives aimed at releasing thousands of political prisoners in Egypt. Ever since the military coup on 3 July, 2013, in fact.

The latest initiative presented on social media was not adopted by any political forces, parties or human rights organisations, which makes it closer to a distress call or humanitarian appeal by the families of political prisoners in an attempt to put the issue back on the Egyptian government’s agenda.

At the time of writing, the online campaign has collected nearly 10,000 signatures amid solidarity from human rights activists, trade unionists and politicians. Those behind the initiative are asking for the release of their family members on any conditions that satisfy the government and through any appropriate mechanisms, such as the Presidential Pardon Committee, for example.

The father of one prisoner told me that eleven years of ongoing arrests, prosecution and torture of opponents deem it important to support this humanitarian movement, before more innocent people die in prison cells. The pledges include accepting periodic security follow-ups in exchange for the release of detainees.

The follow-up system requires those released to sign-in at police stations close to their home on a daily or weekly basis, or spend a day or more at one of the National Security centres. The internal intelligence agency is responsible for the follow-ups.

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“We ask the officials to look at this issue with humanity and compassion,” wrote the petitioners. “We hope that everyone will spread this initiative as much as possible until it gets the attention of the officials. We confirm that this initiative is completely civil and does not belong to any party or organisation, but rather is the voice of affected families and their relatives only.”

A week later, there has been no official comment from any government department or security service regarding the initiative.

The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Qutb Al-Arabi, told me that the initiative did not originate with any participation or consultation with any political forces. It is a strictly humanitarian proposal that aims only to release relatives in exchange for any demands or conditions imposed by the authorities, even if they are unfair. He described ongoing trials as formalities that do not meet the standards of justice or integrity.

The Egyptian authorities hide the real numbers of political prisoners, but the Arab Network for Human Rights estimate the number of prisoners, pretrial detainees and other detainees in Egypt as at the beginning of March 2021, at about 120,000 people, including around 65,000 political prisoners and detainees.

Most political prisoners in the country undergo exceptional trials before the military judiciary and the Supreme State Emergency Security, on charges of a political nature, including spreading false news, misusing social media sites, and belonging to a banned group.

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Previous initiatives were prepared by opposition forces, or by the detainees themselves through letters from prison, in which they appealed to the authorities to release them. The most prominent stipulated that each detainee would pay a ransom of $5,000 into the Long Live Egypt bank account, under the pretext of supporting the Egyptian economy, which has been severely damaged under the presidency of Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

“In January 2022, a dear friend of mine, a senior journalist, told me that the second half of that year would witness a political breakthrough, and then two days ago, another friend repeated the same thing,” wrote the former editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Economics, journalist Anwar Al-Hawari, on Facebook. “My point of view, however, is that those who get accustomed to ruling with cruelty do not know how to rule with mercy.”

From time to time, the Egyptian authorities release a limited number of detainees, as per presidential pardon lists, including journalists and opposition activists from liberal and leftist movements, in an attempt to whitewash the image of the regime and reduce the severity of the criticism directed at Egypt by the EU and the US.

The Interior Ministry and influential sovereign bodies have always excluded leaders and cadres of the Muslim Brotherhood from the pardon lists. They have also generally excluded other opposition figures, including former presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abu Al-Fotouh, human rights activist Hoda Abdel Moneim, 6 April Movement activist Mohamed Adel, and the well-known blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah.

The Egyptian Code of Criminal Procedure allows detainees to be kept in pretrial detention for up to two years, but the authorities have often left people in detention for longer, according to Human Rights Watch.

The absence of internal and external pressure on this issue has left human rights at the bottom of the list of priorities in Egypt.

And with recent European-American rapprochement with Cairo, there is nothing to force the Egyptian regime to deal with the matter flexibly, according to political researcher Mohamed Gomaa.

He expressed his pessimism about the initiative, saying that he does not expect the authorities to react differently. There is nothing new that could change their usual reaction seen over the past eleven years, he believes.

However, a member of the Presidential Pardon Committee, lawyer Tariq Al-Awadi, announced in press statements that the initiative had been presented to the relevant agencies. He stressed the importance of ending the issue of political prisoners and releasing those imprisoned in cases of freedom of speech.

A few days ago, Counsellor Mahmoud Fawzi, Minister of Parliamentary, Legal and Political Communications, said during an evening show on CBC satellite channel, that lists of names of young men and women imprisoned for their solidarity with Palestine are currently being prepared, indicating that they will be sent to competent judicial authorities for consideration.

Since last October, the Egyptian authorities have arrested 120 people for demonstrating in support of the Palestinians, according to local human rights organisations.

During the past six months, the number of deaths of political prisoners in Egypt has risen to 21. These deaths are generally a result of medical negligence, detention in poor conditions, or torture, according to the independent Shehab Centre for Human Rights.

There is no political or legal window that would allow a breakthrough or an end to the issue of political prisoners in Egypt, except for presidential pardons. This is not an ideal procedure. The release of some detainees is usually countered by the arrest of twice as many.

In some cases, those released are rearrested on different charges.

One year after the reactivation of the Pardon Committee in April 2022, the Egyptian authorities released about 1,151 people, while at least 3,666 people were arrested, according to the Egyptian Front for Human Rights. The same organisation documented the release of only three defendants in 2023, out of 35,966 detention renewal orders considered by the Egyptian courts.

Last month, the Cairo Criminal Circuit Judge decided to renew the detention of more than a thousand political detainees, for a period of 45 days, via a video conference call, in the absence of their lawyers and without allowing them to attend in person to present any defence.

AM says that she received verbal promises from political parties and figures to include her husband on the presidential pardon lists, but he has so far spent eight years behind bars. She now wonders if the authorities will ever grant her husband freedom in exchange for his silence.

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