He had been detained since July 2019, accused of instigating “unrest against the state”. Freed by Egypt, Egyptian-Palestinian political activist Ramy Shaath landed in Paris on Saturday January 8. His release from detention was announced by an Egyptian judicial source on Monday. On Twitter, Emmanuel Macron shared 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 President of the Republic in his tweet. 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’s family Shaath claimed 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 the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, advocating the boycott of Israel in the fight against the occupation of the Palestinian Territories.
NGOs estimate the number of prisoners of conscience 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.