Many of my colleagues and other political prisoners found in the ill-reputed Aqrab prison are currently waging a war from within the heart of the prion to protest against the harsh conditions and the slow death policy practiced by the Egyptian regime against its political opponents. The war is being led by hundreds of prisoners who stand in opposition to the military coup that took place in Egypt. The movement is being led by Abdullah Al-Shami and Mohamed Soltan, who survived despite the odds and thanks to God’s grace and will to keep them safe.
Many of my colleagues and other political prisoners found in the ill-reputed Aqrab prison are currently waging a war from within the heart of the prion to protest against the harsh conditions and the slow death policy practiced by the Egyptian regime
against its political opponents. The war is being led by hundreds of prisoners who stand in opposition to the military coup that took place in Egypt. The movement is being led by Abdullah Al-Shami and Mohamed Soltan, who survived despite the odds and
thanks to God’s grace and will to keep them safe.Yet, the success of both Al-Shami and Soltan is not due merely to their legendary steadfastness, which has gone down as a great example of journalistic protest, but also must be attributed to a great deal of media support from Al Jazeera for whom Al-Shami works. Not to mention, the American support for Soltan who holds dual US-Egyptian nationalities.
Also read:
We discuss this in order to support our journalist friends and those in the media who have been languishing in the regime’s prisons for more than two and a half years. Among them is Mohsen Radi MP, Ahmed Hussein the cultural representative in the constituent assembly, the leader of the Istiqlal party Magdy Ahmed Hussein, the president of Al-Shaab newspaper, the editor of Al-Yawm Al-Sabi Hani Salah Al-Din, the journalist Ibrahim Al-Duari and Ahmed Subai, the director of the Aqsa television channel in Cairo.
There is also Amro Khafif, the secretary of the first ministry of information, and the first president of the engineering branch union for media and television, Husssein Qabbani, a journalist in the Karama newspaper, and the three editors of Rassd: Samhi Mustafa, Abdullah Al-Fakharani and Mohmmad Al-Adel. Not to mention, Mused Al-Barbari, the director of Ahrar 25, journalist Walid Al-Shalabi and finally Hisham Jaafar the president of the Mada Institution for Media Development.
These are but a few names of the tens of other journalists and media figures that are also languishing in Egyptian jails. There are many other journalists who do not belong to any unions or any major networks like Al Jazeera to defend them. Therefore we call on the world to make the conscious effort to defend these journalists and prevent them from being thrown into the regime’s bloody and fascist prisons.
A few days ago, the Egyptian press syndicate released a report in which they declared that they would be working with five human rights organisations and issue a yearly report that highlights the reality of the freedom of the press in Egypt. In truth, journalism has become a risky business that is punishable by imprisonment. The report also stated that nearly 782 violations were carried out against journalists in 2015 alone. The nature of the violations spanned from temporary detention to political arrests, not to mention of course a great deal of physical abuse that these journalists face and the destruction of their equipment.
The report also stated that nearly 12 journalists were prohibited from writing in a number of publications and newspapers while other publications were banned from printing all together after discussing issues that related to the presidency, the republic, the interior ministry and several other state institutions.
I