Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) denounced the decision of Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly to revoke the nationality of the Egyptian political activist Ghada Mohamed Naguib Shaikh Gameel Sabuuni, 48. The decision came after pro-regime media launched a massive campaign aimed at discrediting her and her husband, the actor Hisham Abdallah, for their media and online activities on social media platforms.
Farcical justifications
The regime’s attempts to justify revoking Sabuni’s nationality by claiming that she is of Syrian origins and residing abroad, and convicted in a felony of inflicting harm on the state security, are false and farcical justifications.
Ms. Sabuni does not acquire any other nationality except the Egyptian nationality acquired by birth, and there is no legal text that allows for revoking nationalities of those living abroad or with dual nationalities. Ultimately, the ruling issued against Sabuni is politicized.
The Egyptian regime’s decision to withdraw the nationality of opponents because of their political or human rights activities is a dangerous development reflecting the regime’s disrespect for the Egyptian constitution and rules of international law. It also reveals the collapse of the state of law, the failure of the judicial system, and its flagrant inability to carry out the tasks entrusted to it.
The crackdown on opponents abroad
This decision comes after a number of arbitrary, official and unofficial, decisions by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs such as preventing the renewal of passports of dozens of Egyptian dissidents and their families living abroad, and denying them all official paperwork with Egyptian embassies in various countries of the world.
AOHR UK called on the international community to put pressure on the Egyptian regime to stop all repressive practices aimed at restricting opponents abroad, and to withdraw its revocation decision as it violates the Egyptian constitution, and international law, especially the 1954 convention relating to the status of stateless persons.
