{"id":20778,"date":"2021-01-28T22:32:08","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T20:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/afteegypt.org\/?p=20778"},"modified":"2021-01-28T22:32:48","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T20:32:48","slug":"on-the-10th-anniversary-of-the-revolution-stop-imprisoning-artists-and-creative-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afteegypt.org\/en\/advocacy-en\/statements-en\/2021\/01\/28\/20778-afteegypt.html","title":{"rendered":"On the 10th Anniversary of the Revolution, Stop Imprisoning Artists and Creative People"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) calls on the Egyptian authorities to release\u00a0cartoonist Ashraf Hamdy, who was arrested on Monday 25 January 2021, on the 10thanniversary of the Egyptian revolution. It also calls on the authorities\u00a0to stop\u00a0cracking down\u00a0on\u00a0artists and creative people\u00a0and charging them for doing their work and exercising their right to expression\u00a0and\u00a0creativity.<\/p>\n<p>Hamdy\u00a0announced his arrest\u00a0on\u00a0Facebook. Security sources\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/instant-article\/idARAKBN29U1S3\"><span class=\"Hyperlink\">told Reuters<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that they had arrested him from his home\u00a0on\u00a0charges\u00a0of misusing social media\u00a0and spreading false news.\u00a0Earlier,\u00a0Hamdy posted a cartoon video\u00a0on his\u00a0YouTube\u00a0channel &#8220;Egyptoon&#8221;\u00a0about\u00a0the\u00a010th\u00a0anniversary of the\u00a0revolution, praising\u00a0the youth of the revolution.<\/p>\n<p>The Egyptian state\u2019s\u00a0narrative\u00a0is not\u00a0consistent with its practices. At a time when\u00a0President Abdel Fattah\u00a0al-Sisi\u00a0points out that \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qv-H06ea7h8\"><span class=\"Hyperlink\">the 25\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"Hyperlink\">January revolution\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"Hyperlink\">was\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"Hyperlink\">led by loyal youths looking forward to a better future and reality<\/span><\/a>\u201d, the Egyptian authorities are persistently\u00a0cracking down on those youths.\u00a0They\u00a0usually\u00a0increase\u00a0pre-emptive repressive practices, including arrests, detention and imprisonment,ahead of any anniversary of key events that have taken place since\u00a0the\u00a025\u00a0Januaryrevolution. These\u00a0systematic\u00a0practices\u00a0are\u00a0hostile to creativity and creative people,\u00a0especially\u00a0opponents.<\/p>\n<p>Hamdy\u2019s arrest comes as part of a series of widespread violations committed by the\u00a0authorities\u00a0against\u00a0creative people. At least 7 creative people\u00a0are currently\u00a0behind bars\u00a0due to their various creative productions. The\u00a0continuation of levelling\u00a0criminal charges against\u00a0creative people\u00a0because of the content of\u00a0their works\u00a0is\u00a0meant to\u00a0besiege creativity, and\u00a0it violates\u00a0Article 76 of\u00a0the Egyptian constitution, which\u00a0forbids\u00a0the imprisonment of creative people for publishing their works.<\/p>\n<p>In a similar context, the Supreme State Security Prosecution renewed the detention of graphicdesigner Bassem\u00a0al-Shahawi for another\u00a045 days\u00a0on 17 January 2021. Shahawi has been in\u00a0pretrial\u00a0detention for a year now.<\/p>\n<p>Shahawi\u00a0was arrested from his home in Cairo on 5 February 2020\u00a0for\u00a0his work on\u00a0a documentary about the\u00a0Ethiopian\u00a0Renaissance Dam. He\u00a0was charged in Case No. 585 of 2020\u00a0(State Security Prosecution)\u00a0which\u00a0deals with\u00a0publication during the\u00a0Covid-19\u00a0pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0crackdown\u00a0does not stop just by imprisoning\u00a0creative people. The Egyptian authorities\u00a0do not only arrest young people due to\u00a0their\u00a0artistic\u00a0works and restrict their freedom under the pretext of pretrial detention, but\u00a0the matter\u00a0sometimes\u00a0reached\u00a0the\u00a0degree of\u00a0murder\u00a0by refraining, as happened with young photographer and\u00a0filmmaker\u00a0Shady Habash\u00a0who died in prison\u00a0after\u00a0the prison doctor\u00a0reportedly\u00a0ignored his repeated\u00a0health\u00a0complaints.\u00a0Accordingly,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/afteegypt.org\/en\/advocacy-en\/statements-en\/2020\/05\/04\/18692-afteegypt.html\"><span class=\"Hyperlink\">AFTE\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"Hyperlink\">called on the\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"Hyperlink\">Attorney General\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"Hyperlink\">to\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"Hyperlink\">launch\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"Hyperlink\">a transparent and independent investigation<\/span><\/a>\u00a0into the circumstances of his death.<\/p>\n<p>In this regard,\u00a0AFTE\u00a0calls on the Egyptian authorities to immediately release Hamdy, stop imprisoning creative people\u00a0and opinion-makers,\u00a0and\u00a0stop\u00a0\u2018recycling\u2019\u00a0released creative people\u00a0in new cases. AFTE also calls on\u00a0the Attorney General to release Bassem Abdel Salam\u00a0al-Shahawi and Mostafa\u00a0Gamal,\u00a0as per\u00a0the powers granted to him in Article 204 of the Criminal Procedure Code.<\/p>\n<p>AFTE\u00a0stresses that it is dangerous\u00a0that\u00a0the authorities continue\u00a0to\u00a0ignore\u00a0the human rights organizations\u2019 callsfor halting the crackdown on\u00a0creative people and\u00a0opinion-makers\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/afteegypt.org\/en\/research-en\/monitoring-reports-en\/2020\/12\/22\/20528-afteegypt.html\"><span class=\"Hyperlink\">releasing<\/span><span class=\"Hyperlink\">\u00a0those\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"Hyperlink\">in pretrial detention<\/span><\/a>. The overcrowding in\u00a0Egyptian prisons, especially\u00a0amid the Covid-19\u00a0pandemic, may constitute a systematic suppression of freedom of expression\u00a0and disregard for\u00a0the\u00a0prisoners\u2019\u00a0health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) calls on the Egyptian authorities to release\u00a0cartoonist Ashraf Hamdy, who was arrested on Monday 25 January 2021, on the 10thanniversary of the Egyptian revolution. It also calls on the authorities\u00a0to stop\u00a0cracking down\u00a0on\u00a0artists and creative people\u00a0and charging them for doing their work and exercising their right to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"yes","_lmt_disable":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[986],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>On the 10th Anniversary of the Revolution, Stop Imprisoning Artists and Creative People - Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/afteegypt.org\/en\/advocacy-en\/statements-en\/2021\/01\/28\/20778-afteegypt.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On the 10th Anniversary of the Revolution, Stop Imprisoning Artists and Creative People - Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) calls on the Egyptian authorities to release\u00a0cartoonist Ashraf Hamdy, who was arrested on Monday 25 January 2021, on the 10thanniversary of the Egyptian revolution. 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