Egypt: Poet Galal El-Behairy marks two years in arbitrary pre-trial detention
Galal Behairy. Photo courtesy of Galal Behairy’s family
RAN 03/2023
UPDATE:
5 September: Today, Galal El-Behairy reached the maximum legal limit of pre-trial detention without a trial, marking two years in arbitrary pre-trial detention on trumped-up charges of “disseminating false news” and “joining a terrorist group” in case number 2000/2021 SSSP. According to the law, he should be released today. However, Egyptian authorities continue to detain him arbitrarily. In a message to PEN International in Agust, El-Behairy announced his intention to resume his hunger strike on 5 September, which he suspended in June, to protest his unjust pre-trial detention that exceeds the maximum legal limit. He expressed desire to attend his younger sister’s wedding in October as a free man.
PEN International remains concerned over El-Behairy’s health condition and calls for his immediate and unconditional release. His prolonged arbitrary detention, surpassing the maximum legal limit, is yet another clear indicator of the worsening human rights crisis in Egypt, where critical voices are trapped in endless cycles of arbitrary imprisonment. The use of arbitrary imprisonment to stifle dissent and silence writers, poets, journalists, and political figures, undermines President Al-Sisi’s calls for a national dialogue, particularly as the country prepares for the 2024 presidential elections.
UPDATE:
05 June: On Sunday 4 June, during a prison visit, Galal El-Behairy informed his family that he had no choice but to suspend his hunger strike due to his declining health. During the visit, the family noticed that he had lost more weight and appeared fatigued and pale. El-Behairy explained that while in prison, he could only conduct limited medical tests, and the tests he managed to undergo indicated signs of deteriorating kidney functions and overall health.
PEN International remains gravely concerned over El-Behairy’s deteriorating health following 89 days of hunger strike, including three days in which he did not take any fluids. PEN International reiterates its calls on the Egyptian authorities to release El-Behairy immediately and unconditionally and ensure he has access to adequate medical care, including food and medicines, pending his release.
PEN International raises serious concerns about the health of imprisoned Egyptian poet and lyricist Galal El-Behairy after 80 days on hunger strike. Earlier in May 2023, PEN International received a message from El-Behairy announcing that he will escalate his hunger strike on 1 June 2023, refusing to take fluids, in protest against his continued unjust detention. This follows a message PEN International received from El-Behairy in February, announcing that he would begin a hunger strike on 5 March, the fifth anniversary of his arrest.
Despite fully serving an unjust 3 year sentence by a military court in July 2021, Egyptian prosecutors subsequently brought forth additional fabricated charges against El-Behairy, leading to his continued arbitrary pre-trial detention. El-Behairy’s health has significantly deteriorated due to torture and inhumane detention conditions over five years of imprisonment, and he has reportedly lost considerable weight since he began striking in March 2023.
PEN International believes that El-Behairy is being targeted for his writings, which are critical of the Egyptian authorities. The organisation believes that El-Behairy's life is at grave risk, and holds the Egyptian authorities responsible for El-Behairy's physical and psychological health and well-being, and Egypt’s General Prosecutor Hamada El-Sawy, for his unfair imprisonment. PEN International calls on the authorities to immediately and unconditionally release El-Behairy and drop all charges against him, and to ensure that he receives urgent and adequate medical care, pending his release.
TAKE ACTION
Advocacy
Please send appeals to the Egyptian authorities, urging them to:
· Release Galal El-Behairy immediately and unconditionally;
· Drop all charges against him;
· Ensure that, pending his release, he is held in conditions that meet international standards for the treatment of prisoners, including by providing urgent access to adequate health care and regular communication with his family and lawyers.
Send appeals to:
· Hamada El-Sawy
Role: Head of Egypt’s Public Prosecutor
Email: m.office@ppo.gov.eg
WhatsApp: +201111755959
***Please note: The current Head of Egypt’s Public Prosecutor will step down on 16 September 2023. Please check with PEN International for information on the new Prosecutor.***
· Abdel Fattah El Sisi
Role: President of Egypt
Email: p.spokesman@op.gov.eg
Send copies to the Egyptian Embassy in your own country. Embassy addresses may be found here: https://www.embassypages.com/egypt
Please reach out to your Ministry of Foreign Affairs and diplomatic representatives in Egypt, calling on them to raise the case of Galal El-Behairy with the Egyptian authorities and at bilateral fora.
***Please send appeals immediately ***
Solidarity
Please send messages of solidarity to Galal El-Behairy through English PEN’s PENWriters Campaign.
Social Media
Raise awareness about Galal El-Behairy’s case on social media, using the hashtags #GalalElBehairy and #FreeGalal, tagging:
o Egypt’s Public Persecutor’s Office: @EgyptianPPO
o The President of Egyp: @AlsisiOfficial
o Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs: @MfaEgypt
Outreach
Publish articles and opinion pieces in your national or local press highlighting the case of Galal El-Behairy and the state of freedom of expression in Egypt;
Share information about Galal El-Behairy and your campaigning activities via social media.
Please keep PEN International informed of your solidarity actions.
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Galal El-Behairy, an Egyptian poet and lyricist, has been unjustly 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 the authorities continued to detain him.
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 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 SSSP is 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, over 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 whom the Egyptian authorities have arrested for peacefully expressing their opinions. Many of them face discriminatory treatment in jail, including 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.
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Against the life of coercion and the prison’s grave
Against the colours of the cell’s walls
Against the iron’s logic
Against the sensation of the sun behind bars and the wires
Against the prison’s uniform and food
Against the shining lights in my cell 24/7
Against the 20 minutes of the allowed time for the prison visit
Against the ban on pens and papers
Against the ban on lighters
Against the ban on all colours but white[1]… the ban on white[2]
Against 1912 nights in which I only saw the moon once, and by chance
Against every dream that dies over time and joins all my wasted dreams. Dreams of love, a home, establishing a family, fatherhood in my thirties, being beside my little sister in every hard step she takes in the sea of life, my dance with her on her big night, being there for my mom and dad as they are slowly devoured by time
Against myself, against every day I get away from the human inside, and become a concrete thing in a concrete place, under a concrete law[3]
Against all this, and to save what is left, on the 1 of June, I will start a life strike to regain my life back.[4]
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During the court hearing on 22 July 2023, the investigative judge said that a song might destroy a country. But, at the same time, he saw that my imprisonment was a chance to write poems and songs. When I told him that the country [authorities] does not allow this kind of poetry, he got outraged, decided to protect me from myself, and ordered an extension to my pre-trial detention.
In August 2021, I was supposed to regain my freedom after I served a three-year sentence following a military trial because of a poetry collection I wrote; however, the National Security officer told me that even “if the Law guaranteed your freedom, society is not done with you yet.” The officer decided to protect society from me. He subjected me to enforced disappearance for a month before sending me to the Supreme State Security Prosecution with trumped-up charges of “belonging to a terrorist group,” “misuse of social media,” and “spreading false news.” The investigation in this case remains open as of today.
Today 5 September 2023, according to the Law, I should be released having spent the maximum legal limit of pre-trial detention. Over two years, the prosecution failed to reach a decision on whether to release me, or refer me to a court to face trial on a crime I [allegedly] committed.
Today, 5 September 2023, I am resuming my hunger strike to demand my freedom because every moment I spend in jail clearly and directly violates my legal and constitutional rights.
I know very well that the “Law” is not an important figure in the equation, but I am trying with all I have until my last breath. I know my chance to be with my sister on her wedding day on 11 October is very low. But I promised her that I would try until the last breath.
I also know that the most probable odds are that the Law will be ignored, and my detention will be extended, or misused, and I will be rotated [reaccused] in a new case, which will deplete another two years of my life, or that they will bend the Law by referring me to trial for any other made up reason.
I do not have anything but hope and try all I have in the face of all these odds.
Galal El Behairy
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For more information about Galal El-Behairy – please click here.
To read Galal El-Behairy’s latest poem, please click here.
Please click here to see writers and artists reading El-Behairy’s February message.
For further details please contact Mina Thabet, Head of the MENA Region, at PEN International, email: Mina.Thabet@pen-international.org