Shot by Both Sides: An American Activist in Egypt
Democracy activist Mohamad Soltan is about to die.
Not because he is the citizen of a repressive regime; he is a US citizen.
Not because he has been captured by ISIS or other violent insurgents; he is in custody in an Egyptian prison.
Not because he has been convicted of any crime.
Soltan was arrested in Egypt in 2013 after a democracy demonstration where he was an interpreter for US and other English speaking media. He is charged with activity that would be ridiculous to call a crime in any reasonable country: “misinforming the media with the purpose of de-stabilizing the state”—in other words, talking to the press.
His father is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but Mohammed has remained independent of any party. Instead, he became a citizen journalist, live tweeting from protests and using his English skills to explain events to international reporters. As a result of being present at a demonstration and providing translation to the media, Soltan, 26, has been jailed in Cairo’s Tora prison for 18 months, and on hunger strike for the last 255 days. In that time, has been beaten with rods and chains and has suffered a stroke.
He began his hunger strike to draw attention to his situation and the anti-democratic laws that have been enacted in Egypt.
Soltan, his family, Amnesty International, Egyptian activists, and international democracy advocates have called on the Egyptian government to release Soltan and allow him to return to his home in the United States. Essentially no answer has been received.
They have also called on the US State Department to push for his release, but inexplicably, there has been deafening silence. This is where American citizens should be especially outraged. A US citizen is being held on trumped-up charges by a foreign government that is a close US ally. Egypt receives $1.5 billion a year in US aid. Yet the US State Department seems impotent to prevent Soltan’s ongoing detention and likely death.
A few days ago, the Washington Post editorial board criticized US Secretary of State John Kerry for fawning over the military regime of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and failing to press for the release of Soltan and other political prisoners during a meeting with Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. Soltan’s family issued a statement on October 10 condemning the State Department for inaction on his case.
Soltan was raised in Kansas City and Cleveland and Dearborn, Michigan. He graduated from Ohio State with a degree in Economics in 2012. He identifies himself as an American, a fact that has made his horrific experience in prison even more difficult.
The Obama Administration works hard to try to convince Americans that it has a strategy for keeping them safe from undemocratic extremists in the Middle East.
If they can’t protect one citizen from death at the hands of one of America’s allies — why should anyone believe them?
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Please register your concern for Mohamed Soltan at the US State Department by calling +1 202–647–5548 and leaving a message. When Tweeting, cc @JohnKerry and @StateDept. Mohamed’s Twitter account, maintained by friends, is @SoltanLife.
