Activist Ramy Shaath arrived in France after more than two years of detention in Egypt, Emmanuel Macron says he is “relieved”

Accused of fomenting “unrest against the state”he had been detained since July 2019. Egyptian-Palestinian political activist Ramy Shaath was released by Egypt and landed in Paris on Saturday January 8. The end of his detention was announced by an Egyptian judicial source on Monday. On Twitter, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his “relief”.

I welcome the decision of the Egyptian authorities to release Ramy Shaath. I share the relief of his wife Céline Le Brun, whom he finds in France, with whom we have not given up. Thank you to everyone who played a positive role in this happy outcome.

– Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) January 8, 2022

“We haven’t let go”says the head of state on Twitter. Ramy Shaath is married to a Frenchwoman, Céline Lebrun-Shaath, expelled by Egypt after her husband’s arrest, and who was fighting for his release. Ramy Shaath’s family said on Saturday that Egypt deprived him of his Egyptian nationality.

In December 2020, during a visit to Paris by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, Emmanuel Macron claimed to have spoken to him about “individual cases”including that of Ramy Shaath. One year later, five human rights organizations had questioned the French president about him.

Son of Palestinian political leader Nabil Shaath, Ramy Shaath, 48, was a figure of the Egyptian revolution of 2011 and the coordinator in Egypt of a movement advocating the boycott of Israel in the struggle against the occupation of the Palestinian Territories.

NGOs estimate the number of political prisoners in Egypt at over 60,000. The United States, in particular, believes that the country violates human rights in all areas and has consequently frozen 10% of its aid.