Academic urges new era for political prisoners in Egypt

Thousands of people have been imprisoned without trial for years on fabricated charges in Egypt, an Egyptian academic said Friday, as he called on the government to open a new page on political prisoners

The request came from the former head of the Department of Political Science at Cairo University, Hasan Naf, 73, after Amnesty International launched a campaign Wednesday to secure the release of human rights defenders who are arbitrarily detained by authorities.

Naf was arrested in September 2019 on charges of "spreading fake news and joining a terrorist group". He was released in March 2020.

“Ten years after the Jan. 25 Revolution in Egypt, activists and human rights defenders are still arbitrarily held in prisons,” the global rights group said on Twitter to mark 10 years since the revolution ended the previous Egyptian regime of Husni Mubarak.

It urged everyone interested in world affairs to support a recent campaign on Twitter that demands the immediate release of prisoners.

Egyptians marked Monday the anniversary of the Arab Spring protests which led to the end of Mubarak's 30-year rule.

The string of protests in 2011 against dictatorships across the Arab world spread after a Tunisian street vendor self-immolated to protest that regime's human rights abuse.

Egyptians staged protests Jan. 25, 2011, against unemployment and corruption as security forces responded with disproportionate violence that killed hundreds of people.

The ensuing demonstrations forced Mubarak to step down Feb. 11, 2011.

The first democratic elections in the country brought President Mohammed Morsi to power in 2012.

His rule was short-lived as he was ousted in a military coup in 2013 by now-President Abdelfattah al-Sisi.

During the Sisi era, thousands of political dissidents and human rights defenders have been arrested.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz