Egyptian authorities have renewed the detention of Al-Jazeera journalist Hisham Abdelaziz for a further 45 days, despite his imprisonment having already exceeded the lawful period of pretrial detention.
Abdelaziz has now been detained for over 900 days, despite his deteriorating health condition.
His wife, Samira al-Taher, has said that the renewal of his detention follows a new, spurious investigation. The 45-day renewal adds to over two years of pretrial detention as part of case number 1956, which began in December 2019.
“Hisham has been unlawfully detained since June 2019”, al-Taher wrote on Twitter.
In a previous tweet, al-Taher wrote that she hoped 2022 would be a year of freedom for all detainees, and appealed for everyone to pray for Abdelaziz’s release, in order that he can receive proper medical treatment.
In June 2019, the Egyptian authorities detained Abdelaziz and his family on their arrival at Cairo airport, as they were beginning their annual holiday. Abdelaziz was taken to the National Security Agency’s (NSA) office within the airport and interrogated for five hours. His mobile phone and computer, and his wife and children’s passports and travel bags, were taken. Abdelaziz was told he would be able to retrieve their belongings from the NSA headquarters.
Only hours after his release, he was informed that he was to return to the NSA’s airport office, where he was arrested and subjected to three days of enforced disappearance. Over those three days, he was deprived of food and water, blocked from using the bathroom, amongst other humiliating treatments, and had his personal clothing removed. By the time of his appearance before a prosecutor, Abdelaziz was in a confused state.
Hisham was involved in case number 1365 in 2018, though was released. However, the following year security forces ‘recycled’ the allegations during case number 1956.
Abdelaziz’s family report that he suffers from glaucoma, amongst other eye issues, causing clouding and blurred vision, and that he requires urgent surgery to save his sight. However, the Egyptian authorities have blocked any such treatment. Hisham also suffers from a serious aural condition, which affects his ability to hear, which has also gone untreated.
As well as Abdelaziz, Egyptian authorities are currently detaining three other Al-Jazeera journalists, Bahaa al-Din Ibrahim, Ahmed al-Najdi and Rabie al-Sheikh. All three were, like Abdelaziz, arrested whilst vacationing in Egypt.
Since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi assumed power, Egyptian authorities have waged an unprecedented crackdown against dissidents and critics, with thousands of politically motivated arrests recorded. Many of those arrested has been sentenced following unfair trials, whilst others have been held without trial for years, often on baseless terrorism charges. Detainees are typically held in appalling conditions.
