Egypt releases rights activist Ramy Shaath after renouncing nationality
Ramy Shaath, son of Nabil Shaath, an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, has been released by Egyptian authorities and deported.
Palestinian-Egyptian activist Ramy Shaath was arrested on July 5, 2019 at his Cairo home and his French wife Celine Lebrun Shaath was deported.
Egyptian authorities have freed Egyptian-Palestinian rights activist Ramy Shaath from more than 900 days of detention after forcing him to renounce his Egyptian nationality.
In a statement on Saturday, his family said that Shaath was released on the evening of January 6 and handed to a representative of the Palestinian Authority in Cairo before being flown to Jordan.
He was now on his way to France, it added.
"If we are glad that the Egyptian authorities heard our call for freedom, we regret that they forced Ramy to renounce his Egyptian citizenship as a precondition for his release that should have been unconditional," the family statement said.
Shaath's French wife, Celine Lebrun Shaath, who was deported from Egypt following his arrest, had lobbied the French government to pressure Egypt to release him.
There was no immediate comment from Egyptian authorities on his release.
Shaath was a member of several secular political groups in Egypt and a co-founder of Egypt's pro-Palestinian BDS movement.
He was arrested in Egypt in June 2019 and held in pre-trial detention for two and a half years, alongside other activists on accusations of aiding a "terrorist" group.
READ MORE: Egypt releases journalists, activists amid US criticism of rights record
“We, the family of Palestinian-Egyptian rights activist Ramy Shaath, are relieved and overjoyed to announce that Ramy is free after over 900 days of arbitrary detention and forced separation."
— Free Ramy Shaath (@FreeRamyShaath) January 8, 2022
Full statement from Ramy’s family here: https://t.co/OoJsq6mTBy
Political prisoners
His detention came amid a continuing crackdown on political dissent under Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi that has swept up liberal critics and members of the Muslim Brotherhood whose ouster Sisi led in 2013.
Sisi and his supporters have said that there are no political prisoners in Egypt and that security measures were necessary to stabilise the country after a 2011 uprising.
In a statement last month, several NGOs questioned President Emmanuel Macron on the fate of Shaath a year after the French leader said he had brought up his case with Sisi.
However, at the time Macron made it clear that human rights would not be a condition for economic and military ties with Cairo.
France said in May it would deliver 30 Rafale warplanes to Egypt from 2024 in a $4.8 billion (4 billion euro) deal, as it strengthened its military partnership with Cairo.
READ MORE: Macron ignores human rights concerns in Egypt as Sisi visits France
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