‘We got it’: Ramy Shaath arrives in France after liberating Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi News

Egyptian-Palestinian activist Ramy Shaath has arrived in France after being held in Egypt for more than 900 days.

Shaath, the founder of the Egyptian chapter in the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Punishment movement, arrived in the French capital, Paris, on Saturday.

His family said he was forced to do so by Egyptian authorities deny as a condition for the release of his Egyptian nationality.

Shaath left Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris with his French wife, Celine Lebrun, on Saturday for “Welcome!”

“We got it!” said the liberated activist.

“It’s a little awful, I’m so excited to be here,” he told reporters.

“I spent the last two and a half years in some prisons, some places of forced disappearance, some underground, some alone, and some of them in a very inhumane deal with a large number of people. , in a very challenging way of life, ”he said.

“I still have all my decision, and the decision to continue,” he said, asking for her release.friends and acquaintances”Still in Egyptian custody.

“I am emphasizing the human rights of Egypt. I insist on a free Palestine, that it will continue and that we will not be stopped. “

Ramy Shaath’s first statement with his wife @CelineLST, finally reunited after 30 months of separation.#RamyIsFree pic.twitter.com/CTWcCbxwDl

– Amnesty International France (@amnestyfrance) January 8, 2022

He is the son of 48-year-old veteran Palestinian politician Nabil Shaath, who was arrested in Egypt in June 2019 on charges of aiding a “terrorist organization.”

It happened during one of his arrests continuation of repression About the political dissent of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Shaath was released on Thursday evening.

Egyptian authorities later handed him over to a representative of the Palestinian Authority at Cairo Airport, where he boarded a plane before heading to Amman, the capital of Jordan, for Paris.

‘Happy result’

His family said in a statement that they were “calm and happy” with his release after the Egyptians’ 900 days of “arbitrary detention”.

But “we regret that Ramy was forced to renounce his Egyptian citizenship as a condition of his release, which should have been unconditional, after two and a half years of unjust detention in inhumane conditions.”

“No one should have to choose between their freedom and citizenship,” they said.

French President Emmanuel Macron has greeted via Twitter Egypt’s decision to release Shaath.

“I share his wife’s relief,” he wrote.

“Thank you to everyone who played a positive role in this happy outcome.”

In December, five human rights groups called on Macron to press Egypt to release Shaath.

Macron had earlier said that he had brought Shaath’s case with el-Sisi, but at the time said that human rights would not be a condition with Egypt for economic and military toes.

Ramy Kamel was also released

Separated on Saturday, the family of Ramy Kamel, a pro-Coptic detention rights activist who spent more than two years in Egypt, has been released.

“Rami is among his family … it’s time to celebrate!” his sister Bossi Kamel wrote on Facebook.

Coptic rights activist Ramy Kamel was released on Saturday by the State Security Prosecutor’s Office after being jailed for more than two years on charges of terrorism, lawyer Hoda Nasrallah told Mada Masr. pic.twitter.com/u9H0xe0Zy4

– Mada Masr Mada Masr (@MadaMasr) January 8, 2022

Kamel is a founding member of the 2011 Maspero Youth Union, a Coptic human rights organization born out of protests.

He was accused of “joining a terrorist group”, receiving foreign funding and transmitting false information.

But in a November 2021 report, the United States International Commission on Freedom of Religion (USCIRF) said that his arrest was “probably an attempt to prevent him from talking about the rights of Egyptian minorities in Geneva and a few days before the United Nations Conference.”

Since el-Sisi took office in 2014, the space for dissent in Egypt has been very limited.

Rights groups say Egypt has about 60,000 political prisoners, many of whom are facing brutal conditions and overcrowded cells.

It ranks among the lowest in Egypt in the Global Public Policy Institute’s Academic Freedom Index.