Ismail ALEXANDRANI

Writer, journalist and researcher Ismail Alexandrani continues to be unable to travel since his release in December 2022 after completing a seven-year prison term for ‘leaking military secrets’ and ‘membership of a terrorist group’ following a grossly unfair trial, according to information received by PEN International (See Case Lists 2015 -  2023/2024). PEN International believes that Alexandrani’s ongoing harassment since his release is linked to his work, which challenges the government’s narrative on its counter-terrorism operations in the Sinai Peninsula.

Ismail Alexandrani, an award-winning writer, investigative journalist and socio-political researcher, has worked with several research centres, including the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights and the Arab Reform Initiative, and is best known for his research and writings on militant groups operating in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. His work has been published in various regional and international media, as well as academic journals, including the independent Lebanese newspapers Assafir and al-Modon, and the American Arab Studies Journal Jadaliyya. He contributed to the book Egypt beyond Tahrir Square (Indiana University Press, 2016). Alexandrani was awarded the 2015 Visiting Arab Journalist Fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. In 2014, he won the Open Eye - Hany Darweesh Award for Exceptional Essay. In 2009, he was one of the global winners in the World Youth Movement for Democracy’s Youth Essay Contest on Democracy, and the winner of the National Contest for Spreading Understanding and Mutual Respect at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.