World Council of Churches calls for journalist Hesham Gaafar’s release

The World Council of Churches wrote a letter to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, urging him to use his authority to release journalist and researcher Hesham Gaafar from detention for humanitarian reasons.

The council, which includes 345 churches from 110 nations, is based in Geneva, Switzerland and includes Orthodox, Anglican, Catholic, Protestant, Baptist and Lutheran churches.

Gaafar is known by the Council for “his commitment to humanitarian work and his positive participation in dialogue and cooperation between religions,” both in and out of Egypt, the council wrote, adding, “He worked in the fields of conflict resolution and women and children’s rights, while supporting stability in the country and the preservation of the nation and its people.”

Gaafar has been detained for 11 months since his arrest on October 21 last year. He was taken into custody, along with the director of the foundation’s board of trustees, when security forces raided the Mada Foundation for Media Development (not to be confused with Mada Masr).

His whereabouts were discovered two days after his arrest by chance as he was being transferred to Tora’s high security Aqrab Prison.

Gaafar has been accused of taking an international bribe and being a member of a banned organization.

The Council expressed its concern for Gaafar’s deteriorating health in detention, adding that his incarceration is not good for the state and that releasing him would lead to positive results.

Gaafar is suffering from an enlarged prostate and optic nerve atrophy. His wife and lawyer have stated that that prison administration has refused to allow him to have necessary surgery for a year, and he has missed three appointments with doctors due to reluctance to transfer him for “security reasons.”

As his condition deteriorated two days after commencing a hunger strike, Gaafar was briefly moved to Qasr al-Ainy Hospital. He returned to Aqrab after a week, from where he was transferred to Tora hospital. Gaafar’s wife told Mada Masr on Sunday that he is not receiving any treatment at the hospital.

His family issued a statement a few days ago saying: Gaafar “is dying a slow death and suffering like many prisoners, without having committed any crime to deserve this pretrial detention and this horrendous treatment,” and stressing that Gaafar is “a serious journalist and researcher, who was a pioneer of online journalism in Egypt. He was one of the founders of electronic media in Egypt who helped found one of the biggest news sites (Islam Online), and as an owner left his mark through tolerance and dialogue. He founded the Mada Foundation for Media Development, which led to the opening of several community centers, as well as training programs for professional journalists.”

The Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANRHI) released a statementin May saying they had obtained documents showing that Gaafar, in cooperation with the Swiss Humanitarian Dialogue Foundation, was organizing a discussion between oppositional figures close to the Egyptian government.

ANHRI speculated that this conference was the true reason for Gaafar’s arrest, saying, “This shows the organs of the state and how it tried to stop dialogue in order to continue the chaos, infighting and polarization that allows it to bypass the rule of law.”