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Free Ola and Hosam
Free Ola and Hosam
  • The Case
    • About Ola and Hosam
    • Political Affiliations
    • Due Process and Human Rights Violations
    • Detainment Renewals
    • Prison Conditions
    • Medical Conditions
    • INTERPOL Cancels Red Notices against Dr. Youssef Al Qaradawi and Deletes all Files and Data
  • Campaign Statements
    Ola al-Qaradawi Released, Hosam Remains Detained

    Ola al-Qaradawi Released, Hosam Remains Detained

    Campaign Update: Ola Al-Qaradawi Renewed For 15 Days

    Campaign Update: Ola Al-Qaradawi Renewed For 15 Days

    Campaign Update: Ola taken to court a day early for the pre-trial detention hearing of her new case Prosecutor extended her detention for 15 days

    Campaign Update: Ola taken to court a day early for the pre-trial detention hearing of her new case Prosecutor extended her detention for 15 days

    Campaign Update: Ola Al-Qaradawi Charged In a New Case, Sent Back into Solitary Confinement and Has Started an Open Hunger Strike

    Campaign Update: Ola Al-Qaradawi Charged In a New Case, Sent Back into Solitary Confinement and Has Started an Open Hunger Strike

    Campaign Update: Ola Given a Conditional Release and Hosam’s Hearing Delayed

    Campaign Update: Ola Given a Conditional Release and Hosam’s Hearing Delayed

  • Human Rights Reports
    Egypt: Escalating Reprisals, Arrests of Critics’ Families

    Egypt: Escalating Reprisals, Arrests of Critics’ Families

    Amnesty: URGENT ACTION UPDATE: ARBITRARILY DETAINED COUPLE REMAINS HELD

    Amnesty: URGENT ACTION UPDATE: ARBITRARILY DETAINED COUPLE REMAINS HELD

    HRW: Renewed Detention of Scholar’s Daughter Unlawful

    HRW: Renewed Detention of Scholar’s Daughter Unlawful

    AOHR UK: The Egyptian authorities’ refusal to release Ola Al-Qaradawi, and renewing her imprisonment on a new case, is malicious.

    AOHR UK: The Egyptian authorities’ refusal to release Ola Al-Qaradawi, and renewing her imprisonment on a new case, is malicious.

    Amnesty Releases an Urgent Action for Ola al-Qaradawi's Hunger Strike

    Amnesty Releases an Urgent Action for Ola al-Qaradawi's Hunger Strike

  • Support
    40 Members of Congress signed a letter to Secretary Pompeo specifically mentioning Ola and Hosam

    40 Members of Congress signed a letter to Secretary Pompeo specifically mentioning Ola and Hosam

    US State Department Express Concern about the Conditions of Ola al Qaradawi & Hosam Khalaf

    US State Department Express Concern about the Conditions of Ola al Qaradawi & Hosam Khalaf

    Amnesty: URGENT ACTION UPDATE: ARBITRARILY DETAINED COUPLE REMAINS HELD

    Amnesty: URGENT ACTION UPDATE: ARBITRARILY DETAINED COUPLE REMAINS HELD

    The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: The Working Group on Egypt’s Letter to Secretary of State Pompeo

    The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: The Working Group on Egypt’s Letter to Secretary of State Pompeo

    POMED: The Working Group on Egypt’s Letter to Secretary of State Pompeo

    POMED: The Working Group on Egypt’s Letter to Secretary of State Pompeo

  • Media
    Citizen Truth: Amnesty International Condemns Egypt’s System of Perpetual Imprisonment

    Citizen Truth: Amnesty International Condemns Egypt’s System of Perpetual Imprisonment

    AlJazeera: Daughter of Islamic scholar al-Qaradawi remanded in Egypt again

    AlJazeera: Daughter of Islamic scholar al-Qaradawi remanded in Egypt again

    MEMO: Egypt returns Ola Al-Qaradawi to solitary confinement

    MEMO: Egypt returns Ola Al-Qaradawi to solitary confinement

    HAKESH: Ola al Qaradawi goes on hunger strike after being arrested

    HAKESH: Ola al Qaradawi goes on hunger strike after being arrested

    Anadolu Agency: Prominent scholar's daughter remanded in Egypt again

    Anadolu Agency: Prominent scholar's daughter remanded in Egypt again

  • How You Can Help
    Help Free My Grandparents!

    Help Free My Grandparents!

    Egyptians in America - Joint Letter to Embassy

    Egyptians in America - Joint Letter to Embassy

    Sign The Online Petition to Help Free Ola and Hosam

    Sign The Online Petition to Help Free Ola and Hosam

    Print, Capture and Share !

    Print, Capture and Share !

    Amnesty Urgent Action - Write for Ola and Hosam's Freedom

    Amnesty Urgent Action - Write for Ola and Hosam's Freedom

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THE HILL: Pence, when you visit Cairo take a stand on human rights abuses
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THE HILL: Pence, when you visit Cairo take a stand on human rights abuses

January 19th, 2018 Web Admin Media 0 comments

Original Link: http://thehill.com/opinion/international/369784-vice-president-pence-when-you-visit-cairo-take-a-stand-on-human-rights?rnd=1516392406

Mr. Vice-President, when you visit Cairo on Jan. 19, there are a few people you should meet, and a few things you should discuss with President al-Sisi.

In January 2011, Egypt erupted in a popular uprising spurred by the abusive government behavior, including rampant torture, extrajudicial executions, and wretched prison conditions. Under al-Sisi, Egypt has seen the revival of those abusive practices to an unprecedented extent.

Since al-Sisi and other generals took power in July 2013, authorities have arrested more than 65,000 people — secular activists as well as alleged Muslim Brothers. Many were later convicted in transparently unfair mass trials.

Authorities routinely renew pretrial detention orders a tool of political punishment without trial. Exhibit A: the three-year detention of the Egyptian-American child rights activist Aya Hegazi. Though ultimately acquitted, following welcome intervention by President Trump, her prolonged incarceration showed the perverse consequences of pre-trial detention practices in cases involving peaceful activists.Mr. Pence, ask President al-Sisi why Ismail al-Iskandrani, is in prison. Iskandrani is one of the very few journalists who reported on Sinai. When arrested in November 2015 an officer told his family he would be released in a few hours. He’s still in jail today on allegations of belonging to a banned organization and disseminating “false news” for his reporting on security force abuses in Sinai.

Mr. Pence, you should also ask why Hossam Khalaf and his wife Ola al-Qaradawi have been kept in solitary confinement for more than six months without charge following their arrest in June. Earlier in 2017 they had received green cards to legally reside in the United States, and had planned to join their American citizen children in Seattle.

For Egyptian political prisoners, finishing a prison term does not mean you are free. Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel, founders of the April 6 movement, finished their three-year “illegal assembly” sentences a year ago but are subjected to highly abusive probation — spending 12 hours every night, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., in their respective police stations, unable to resume their lives.

Please also ask al-Sisi why he has done nothing to rein in National Security officers who have “disappeared” detainees for days or months, even years, at a time. Officers have murdered suspects in their custody in incidents staged as shootouts with “terrorists.” The murdered men turned out to have been “disappeared” by police weeks and months earlier.

In May, police arrested Hanan Badr al-Din, a co-founder of the Association of Families of the Disappeared, when she tried to get information about her husband, who had been disappeared since July 2013. Authorities arrested Ibrahim Metwally, co-founder of the association, in September as he was about to board a flight to Geneva to present the UN Human Rights Council with a file on enforced disappearances in Egypt, including his son Amr.

A Human Rights Watch report in September documented how National Security Agency officers routinely tortured suspects to coerce confessions or inflict punishment, in some cases inside Interior Ministry headquarters.

Prosecutors refuse to investigate torture allegations, and some threaten detainees with additional abuse to pressure suspects to confirm their confessions. The behavior of prosecutors paints a disturbing picture of complicity in perpetrating and covering up torture at every level of Egyptian law enforcement.

Officials at the highest level, including al-Sisi, have effectively green-lighted the crime by failing to authorize independent investigations or otherwise hold perpetrators accountable.

Al-Sisi’s response has been to silence Egyptians attempting who speak up against the scourge of torture. In early 2016 the government ordered the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture and Violence to shut its doors. Authorities summoned Negad al-Borai, a prominent defense attorney and rights advocate, for several interrogations on charges of “broadcasting false information” and “disturbing public security” after his firm sent to President al-Sisi a draft bill that would criminalize torture. Two judges face disciplinary hearings before the Supreme Judicial Council for their anti-torture efforts.

The quasi-official National Council for Human Rights has reported on severe prison overcrowding and harsh conditions for the expanding prison population. Human Rights Watch documented particularly bad conditions in Cairo’s Scorpion Prison, a maximum-security facility infamous for its record of abuse. Many Scorpion inmates are political prisoners rather than dangerous criminals. In the words of a former Scorpion warden, Scorpion “was designed so that those who go in don’t come out unless dead.” Staff beat inmates, isolated them in cramped “discipline” cells, and prevented access to health care, contributing to at least six deaths in recent years.

Vice President Pence, Egyptians and many others will be watching and listening on Jan. 19. Do not miss this chance to make very clear what you think about a government that “disappears” and tortures its citizens and keeps them locked up though they committed no crime.

Joe Stork is the former deputy Middle East director for Human Rights Watch.

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Ordeal Timeline
Dec 31st 8:15 PM
Campaign Statements

Ola al-Qaradawi Released, Hosam Remains Detained

Aug 7th 2:41 PM
Campaign Statements

Campaign Update: Ola Al-Qaradawi Renewed For 15 Days

Jul 15th 8:02 PM
Campaign Statements

Campaign Update: Ola taken to court a day early for the pre-trial detention hearing of her new case Prosecutor extended her detention for 15 days

Jul 4th 4:13 PM
Campaign Statements

Campaign Update: Ola Al-Qaradawi Charged In a New Case, Sent Back into Solitary Confinement and Has Started an Open Hunger Strike

Jul 3rd 1:56 PM
Campaign Statements

Campaign Update: Ola Given a Conditional Release and Hosam’s Hearing Delayed

Jun 19th 5:52 PM
Campaign Statements

Campaign Update: Ola and Hosam Retrial postponed until July 3 2019 due to African Cup of Nations

Jun 12th 9:44 PM
Campaign Statements

Campaign Update: Ola and Hosam brought to court today but then postponed until June 18th

May 14th 7:13 PM
Campaign Statements

Campaign Update: Hosam Khalaf’s Mother Passes Away While he is Detained in Prison

Apr 19th 7:27 PM
Campaign Statements

Campaign Update: Ola and Hosam Renewed in the Midst of Recent Releases

Mar 17th 8:22 PM
Campaign Statements

Campaign Update: Ola and Hosam are Included in the US State Department’s 2018 Human Rights Report

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