Scholars worry free expression under threat in Sisi’s Egypt

A group of North America-based academics decried the “deterioration of the right to freedom of expression in Egypt” in a statement released Wednesday.

The statement was signed by 29 scholars who have lived, studied, worked and conducted research in Egypt, including Nathan Brown (George Washington University), Khaled Fahmy (Harvard University), Zachary Lockman (New York University), Hesham Sallam (Stanford University) and Paul Sedra (Simon Fraser University).

Addressing their letter to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Justice Minister Ahmed al-Zend, Defense Minister Sedky Sobhy, Egypt’s Ambassador to the US Yasser Reda and US Secretary of State John Kerry, the scholars also expressed concern about the ongoing military trials of civilians.

“More than 3,700 Egyptians have been tried in military courts since October 2014,” the statement read. “These government policies only harm and weaken Egypt’s international reputation.”

Mada Masr contributor Hossam Bahgat’s detention last week at the order of the military prosecution was cited as the most recent example of the “consistent violation of the right to freedom of the press enshrined in Egypt’s 2014 Constitution.”

While it remains unclear whether Bahgat will be tried on charges of disseminating false information, the statement maintained that “any such charges would clearly violate the right to freedom of the press guaranteed in the Constitution.” 

In September, Sisi told the US-based news network CNN that Egypt was enjoying a period of unprecedented freedom of expression, the statement noted, but events on the ground undercut those claims.

Photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, known as Shawkan, is still being held in pretrial detention that has extended beyond the two-year legal limit after he was arrested during the Rabea al-Adaweya sit-in in August 2013, the statement said. Sinai-based videographer Saeed Abuhaj, who was arrested in November 2013, is also still in pretrial detention.

And several other journalists have been convicted and sentenced to lengthy stints in prison. Omar Abdel Maqsoud, for instance, was sentenced to life after he was arrested in February 2014 for reporting on a celebration organized for Dahab Hamdy, a 19-year-old woman arrested for allegedly violating the protest law who was forced to give birth in custody. The journalist and two of his brothers were convicted of setting cars on fire to protest Sisi’s campaign for president and belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The statement also lamented the arrest and prosecution of people for other forms of expression, such as participating in protests or criticizing government figures, policies or institutions on social media.

Pointing to incarcerated protesters including Mahienour al-Massry, Alaa Abd El Fattah and Ahmed Abdel Rahman, who was defending women protesters at the Shura Council protest, the statement said that such crackdowns “are more often motivated by a desire to protect the government’s image than to protect the ‘public interest’.”

“Along with many Egyptians, we delighted in the promise of social justice and political freedom brought by the 2011 revolution,” the scholars said. “Egypt can only conquer the grave challenges it faces by allowing citizens the right to free expression about the solutions to these problems, and by ensuring that civilians are tried in civilian, not military courts.”