We, the undersigned civil society
organizations, condemn the three-year prison sentence handed down to
human rights researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
(EIPR) and academic Patrick George Zaki for his writings highlighting the hardship and discrimination faced by Coptic Christians in Egypt, such as himself.
On July 18, 2023, following a trial rife
with due process violations, an Egyptian emergency state security court
handed down a three-year prison sentence to Patrick on trumped up
charges of spreading false news. Patrick, who was a graduate student at
the University of Bologna at the time, was arrested by Egyptian
authorities on February 7, 2020, while at the Cairo Airport during a
visit home to see his family. In custody, he was held incommunicado for a
24-hour period; he was beaten, stripped, electrocuted, verbally abused,
and threatened. He was initially accused of joining a terrorist
organization and spreading false news. In September 2021, lawyers
learned that he had been referred to emergency state security court on
false news charges for a 2019 article
that he authored for independent digital media outlet Daraj on his
experience as a Coptic Christian religious minority, titled,
"Displacement, Killing & Harassment: A Week in the Diaries of
Egypt's Copts." On December 7, 2021, following 22 months behind bars, he
was ordered released from detention pending trial, and placed on travel
ban. His trial continued until the July 2023 verdict, following which
he was taken back into custody today.
Verdicts handed down by an emergency
court are not subject to legal appeal, only to ratification by the
President. The President also has the authority to commute the sentence
or to quash the verdict. Furthermore, under Circular No. 10 of 2017
governing emergency state security courts, “If the accused is brought to
trial while not in custody and sentenced to a prison penalty, he must
be released immediately without executing the penalty pending the
decision of the ratifying authority.” Per this provision, Patrick must
legally be free while the President considers ratification; for Egyptian
authorities to have taken him into custody constitutes a clear
violation of this circular.
The targeting, arrest, prosecution,
and sentencing of Patrick Zaki for writing about his experiences as a
Coptic Christian is an egregious measure by Egyptian authorities that is
indicative of a larger failure by the state to protect religious
minorities. Instead, the authorities target Copts for merely expressing
themselves and bringing attention to the discrimination they regularly
endure. This sentence occurs in violation of Egypt’s domestic laws and
international legal commitments, and sends a clear message that the
Egyptian government is not serious about implementing its national human
rights strategy or carrying out a meaningful national dialogue. At a
time during which Egyptian authorities should be addressing the dire
economic crisis, this step raises severe questions on the trajectory of
the country.
We, the undersigned civil society
organizations, call on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi not to
ratify the verdict handed down to Patrick Zaki and instead to quash it
in its entirety. We call on Egyptian authorities to immediately release
Patrick Zaki from custody, to drop all charges and close all cases
brought against him in their entirety, and to lift the travel ban
brought against him. We urge all of Egypt's international, multilateral,
and government partners to press the Egyptian government to immediately
release Patrick and cease persecuting him for his legally protected
speech and vital human rights work.
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