Finally free following two and a half years of detention in Egypt, activist Ramy Shaath let his joy burst out on his arrival at Roissy airport on Saturday 8 January. Alongside his French wife, Céline Lebrun-Shaath, who fought relentlessly for his release, this figure of the Egyptian progressive scene immediately denounced the “Inhumane conditions” Cairo prisons. He displayed his determination to continue his political struggle: “I have hope for a better Egypt, I have hope that the prisoners will be released, I have hope for an independent and stable Palestine. “
His departure for France is the provisional epilogue of a case that had shocked civil society in Egypt. A face known for his involvement in the 2011 revolution and his commitment to Palestinian rights, Ramy Shaath, of dual Palestinian and Egyptian nationality, was arrested at his home in Cairo on July 5, 2019. Ramallah’s efforts to do so to release had failed, and Céline Lebrun-Shaath, a teacher, had been deported to Paris. “The year 2019 has been very difficult for Egyptian civil society: it has suffered heavy reprisals from a regime that does not tolerate dissenting voices”, remembers, from Cairo, Mohamed Lotfy, director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms.
A heavy cost
But the release of Mr. Shaath, 50, son of Nabil Shaath, who has held important positions in the Palestinian Authority, comes at a heavy cost: he was forced to renounce his Egyptian nationality – he did so. was deposed in December 2021, according to a political source in Cairo. This imposed price is all the more bitter since ten years ago Ramy Shaath fought to retain his Egyptian citizenship, while the authorities were already trying to withdraw it, in order to weaken his political action. Moreover, his name remains on the “terrorist list” established by the Egyptian authorities; it had been added in absentia in 2020, for a period of five years, a measure condemned by UN experts.
After his arrest, Ramy Shaath was charged with assisting a “Terrorist group” and his name had been added to a case: at the end of June 2019, the state security had launched a net once morest opponents and activists, accusing them of preparing a plot once morest the state. His family, supported by human rights NGOs and French and European parliamentarians, has always denounced false accusations, the arbitrariness of his detention and the misuse of anti-terrorism laws to muzzle opponents.
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