POLITICIAN DETAINED OVER SOCIAL MEDIA POST

On July 31, policemen in plain clothes arbitrarily arrested prominent Egyptian opposition politician, Yehia Hussein Abdelhady, aged 71, from a street in Cairo. His arrest came a few days after he published a post on Facebook criticizing President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the army and calling for regime change. On the same day of his arrest, a Supreme State Security Prosecution prosecutor interrogated him over the post and ordered his pretrial detention for 15 days pending investigations into bogus terrorism-related charges and for publishing “false news”. He must be immediately and unconditionally released as he is detained solely for his peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression.  

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: November 9, 2024

Take action:

• Write a letter in your own words or using the sample below as a guide to one or both government officials listed. You can also email, fax, call or Tweet them.
• Click here to let us know the actions you took on Urgent Action 74.24. It’s important to report because we share the total number with the officials we are trying to persuade and the people we are trying to help.

contact information:

sample letter:

Dear Counselor, or Dear Ambassador,

I am writing to express my concern over the arbitrary detention of 71-year-old Yehia Hussein Abdelhady, a prominent opposition politician and former spokesperson of the Civil Democratic Movement. Authorities are targeting him in relation to his Facebook post published on July 22 in which he questioned how long the military intends to remain silent while Egyptian people live in acute poverty amid the government’s failure and corruption, calling for regime change in the country.   

On July 31, policemen in plain clothes arrested Yehia Hussein Abdelhady. Policemen neither showed an arrest warrant nor informed Yehia Hussein Abdelhady of the reasons for his arrest. They also refused to identify themselves. On the same day, a Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) prosecutor interrogated him in relation to charges of “joining a terrorist group”, publishing “false news”, “inciting the commission of a terrorist crime”, “misuse of social media”, and “funding terrorism”. After interrogations, the prosecutor ordered his pretrial detention for 15 days pending investigations. Yehia Hussein Abdelhady is held in 10th of Ramadan prison and has yet to be permitted visits by his family, amid concerns over his age-related health conditions.

I urge you to ensure that Yehia Hussein Abdelhady is immediately and unconditionally released and all charges against him dropped as he is being detained solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression. The Egyptian authorities must refrain from using counterterrorism legislation to target peaceful critics and keeping them in pretrial detention indefinitely.

Yours sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• READ THE FULL URGENT ACTION: Wordopens in a new tab or PDFopens in a new tab
• GET INSPIRED: Read about the people you have helped
• READ TIPS for writing effective letters and emails
• CONTACT US: [email protected]