Egypt: PEN International raises concerns over poet Galal El-Behairy's health after 60 days on a hunger strike

Photo: Courtesy of Galal El-Behairy’s family

05 May: PEN International is deeply concerned over the health of Egyptian poet Galal El-Behairy after 60 days of hunger strike, started on 5 March 2023 to protest against his unjust imprisonment. We hold the Egyptian authorities responsible for his physical and psychological health and well-being. We reiterate our call to end his arbitrary detention and the crackdown on freedom of expression in Egypt.

PEN International reliably learned that Egyptian poet Galal El-Behairy had lost considerable weight due to the hunger strike. In March 2023, PEN International received a message from El-Behairy in which he declared a hunger strike, and that he will gradually escalate it, including refraining from taking heart medication and antidepressants. Fears are mounting concerning his health and safety amid poor detention conditions and inadequate medical care in Egyptian prisons. His health has significantly deteriorated over five years of imprisonment; he reportedly suffers from heart problems, high blood pressure, and acute depression.

Although Egyptian authorities launched its national dialogue initiative on May 3, which they claim to be a sign of a political opening, thousands of prisoners of conscience, including writers and poets, are lingering in arbitrary imprisonment. PEN International continues to call on the Egyptian authorities to release  El-Behairy immediately and unconditionally.

Background

Galal El-Behairy, an Egyptian poet and lyricist, has been held since 5 March 2018 and has reportedly been tortured and beaten while in detention. He initially faced charges of ‘joining a terrorist group’, ‘disseminating false news’, and ‘insulting the President’ for lyrics he had written for the song Balaha, which was performed and disseminated online by exiled Egyptian singer Ramy Essam. The case was eventually dropped, but he remained in detention.

In a separate case, on 31 July 2018, El-Behairy was sentenced to three years imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 Egyptian Pounds by a military court on charges of ‘disseminating false news and rumours by writing a book containing false news and statements about the Egyptian armed forces’, and ‘insulting the Egyptian army by issuing a book containing phrases that offend the Egyptian army’. The sentence related to his book of poetry, The Finest Women on Earth, which challenged the official narrative around the Egyptian military and its relation to politics. Later, the Court confirmed the three-year sentence at the appeal stage and dropped the fine.

In July 2021, El-Behairy completed his three-year prison term. However, rather than being released, he was instead subjected to enforced disappearance for three weeks before being charged with ‘disseminating false news’ and ‘joining a terrorist group’ by the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) in case no:2000/2021. The Egyptian authorities are notorious for bringing additional charges against prisoners of conscience to keep them in arbitrary pre-trial detention for prolonged periods. Along with other detainees, El-Behairy joined a collective hunger strike for several weeks in February 2022 to protest their arbitrary detention. However, demands to end his ordeal were ignored.

In April 2022, President Abdelfattah Al-Sisi called for political dialogue, addressing the human rights situation in the country and reactivating the ‘Presidential Amnesty Committee’. The Committee was initially formed in 2016 to consider cases of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. However, nearly a year later, thousands of Egyptians remain arbitrarily imprisoned due to their legitimate practice of the right to freedom of expression. The authorities have imposed severe restrictions on freedom of expression, including on press freedom and social media: PEN International has documented numerous cases of writers, poets, journalists, and bloggers who have been arrested by the Egyptian authorities for peacefully expressing their opinions. Many of them face discriminatory treatment in jail, including the denial of reading and writing materials, restrictions or total denial of in-person family visits, refusal of opportunity to exercise outside their cells, and denial of many other legal rights guaranteed to prisoners under Egyptian law.

PEN International calls on the Egyptian authorities to urgently and unconditionally release the many writers who remain detained in violation of their right to freedom of expression.  

For more information, please contact Mina Thabet, Head of the MENA Region, at PEN International, email: Mina.Thabet@pen-international.org