CV NEWS FEED // A Christian and father in Egypt imprisoned for discussing theology announced in a heartbreaking letter he penned from prison that he has begun a hunger strike.
According to an Aug. 15 press release from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International, Christian convert Abdulbaqi Saeed Abdo has been in prison for two and a half years. He was arrested by Egyptian authorities in 2021 after it was revealed that he belonged to a private Facebook group dedicated to supporting Christian converts from Islam.
Abdo had been an asylum seeker registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Egypt, where he had fled after receiving death threats in his home country of Yemen on account of his conversion, according to ADF.
Egyptian authorities arrested Abdo and another Christian man, Nour Girgis, who was also linked with the Facebook page. The two men are accused of being involved with “terrorism activities” and have been held in pre-trial detention facilities since their 2021 arrest.
Their trials have been repeatedly postponed, and they have both suffered a continual decline in physical health.
In a letter addressed to his beloved wife and children, Abdo wrote, “My dear, I miss you a lot, a lot a lot. My prayer is that God will unite us together soon. Rest assured. I am fine when you are fine. My kisses to all of you.”
He wrote that on Aug. 7, the letter’s date, he started a partial strike, and explained, “I am going to increase my strike in stages until I make the strike complete during the coming weeks.” Abdo also stated that he has begun to refuse medical treatment from healthcare professionals in the prison.
“The reason of my strike is that they arrested me without any legal justification,” Abdo wrote: “They did not convict me for any violation of the law. And they did not set me free during my remand imprisonment which ended 8 months ago.”
He signed the letter: “I love you all, Daddy.”
Kelsey Zorzi, ADF International’s Director of Advocacy for Global Religious Freedom addressed the Egyptian government’s “gross human rights violations and injustice,” stating:
Nobody should be imprisoned for expressing their Christian beliefs in a social media post. This devastating cry for help from Abdulbaqi Saeed Abdo must not be ignored, and it is past time for Egyptian authorities to release him and Nour Girgis from their unwarranted and unlawful detention.
We are utilizing every mechanism available to ensure that both men are released and returned to their families.
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief have reportedly received information about Abdo and Girgis, according to ADF.
