Letter to President of Egypt Regarding Freedom of Expression

SUMMARY

The City Bar sent a letter to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi regarding troubling reports of suppression of freedom of expression and assembly in Egypt.  The actions reportedly taken by the Egyptian government against human rights activists, journalists and others—including the arrest and imprisonment of Al Jazeera journalists Mohammed Fahmy, Baher Mohamed, Peter Greste and Mahmoud Hussein, the detention and interrogation of journalist and human rights advocate Hossam Bahgat, and the arrest of Masr al-Arabia photographer Omar Abdel Maksoud—run counter to the Egyptian Constitution, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African (Banjul) Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.  And, in addition to these publicized cases, there are thousands more: human rights organizations estimate the number of political prisoners in Egypt to be as high as 60,000.  The City Bar urges “institutional reforms … [to] ensure that laws are written and enforced in a way that is consistent with Egypt’s Constitution and the international agreements to which Egypt is a signatory,” and “to enable citizens to freely express their opinions and the press to report events without fear of governmental reprisal.”