Abdullah Elshamy talking:
I was actually trying to get to the United Nations building, because, you know, I was accredited to go inside to kind of attend the sessions. And I had two of my colleagues from Al Jazeera along with me, so we were just walking down the street. That was probably 47th Street. And there were protests there—you know, Chinese people, Iranians and other people. And then, suddenly, one of the Sisi supporters—it was a lady, I remember—she kind of identified me and said—you know, started shouting to the others, “Guys, this is the traitor! This is the guy from Al Jazeera!” And they started shouting against me. And then, just for me, kind of, you know, ease things down, because they looked so aggressive, I kind of walked back to where I was coming from. And then, suddenly, I didn’t actually see the person, but I felt something was thrown on my legs and my back. And then, when I saw it, it was boiling coffee. And, well, what’s actually disappointing is that when we reported this to the police, they said, “We can’t do anything, because we were not there.” So, this is what actually happened.
They say this is a new country, this is the new Egypt, yet it’s the very same faces, yeah, the very same guys who during Mubarak time were supporting all his tyranny and dictatorship. And you can’t change to a new system without changing the people responsible for that system. He claims there’s, you know, freedom and press has a right to do whatever they want—they can even criticize him, he said that on CBS with Charlie Rose. But yet, my colleagues, Peter Greste, Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy, are still in prison, in prison now for over eight months, and other many dozens of journalists are still in prison.
14th of August 2013, when the security forces started cracking down on the protest at Rabaa Square and other places. I was just covering, you know, what’s happening there, just like any other day, because I had been stationed to cover that place since the 5th of July. I actually work in West Africa. That’s where my—you know, where I’m based, in Nigeria. But I was asked to move to Egypt to kind of cover there.
on that day, the security forces kind of, you know, made it hard for anyone to leave. I mean, I remember—they claim that there was some kind of warning for people to get out before they started clearing the place, which is not true, because at 7:00 in the morning I was in the makeshift hospital, and I’ve seen dozens of bodies inside there. So, at the end of that day, when the whole place was raided, and there was actually not any kind of resistance from the protesters, I had to leave. And I was at that time in the Rabaa hospital. It’s different from the makeshift hospital. It’s like a six-story building there. So, they stormed the building with guns and weapons and different—you know, there were mostly special forces, and they asked everyone to leave and to kind of surrender by putting their hands behind their heads. So I kind of left.
The only exit was through Rabaa mosque towards the seventh district of Nasr City, where the protest was taking place. And then I had to cross to a police checkpoint. There were two checkpoints: one, a police checkpoint, and then the one later was an army checkpoint. At the police checkpoint, nothing happened. But when I got close to the army checkpoint, I was asked to show my ID to one of the army officers. And that’s actually when my detention journey started, because I remember them saying that, oh—he was telling his colleague that “I think we’ve just got a spy,” because when they saw my passport, and it had—because of my work as a journalist, it had many visas, and, you know, it was mostly filled up, so they thought, “Well, we’ve got somebody here.” And that’s when my detention started.
we were about a thousand people who were detained that day, and everyone was charged with the same things, you know, things like inciting murder, possessing weapons illegally, assaulting police officers, causing public disorder—mostly these kind of crimes. It’s actually 15 charges. But actually, this was never brought up to a court, because there’s not any kind of evidence. And it was just, you know, plain charges.
after five months of my detention, you know, I felt that this was going nowhere, because trying to go through the justice system was kind of hopeless. There was just the usual detention renewal every 45 days. They take us as a group of people, almost 300 in one time, to see a judge, who doesn’t really listen to us or even to our lawyers. And even sometimes when the judge listens, he kind of makes the same decision every time. So I kind of lost hope in the whole judicial system. And I believe it’s a total farce, because it doesn’t really—it lacks any basics of justice.
So I decided I was going to embark on this hunger strike to kind of tell the world that I’m a journalist, I’ve been in prison for over five months now, and nothing is—you know, why am I in jail? This is what I just wanted to say. I said, “If I’ve actually done anything, then, well, take it against me and put me in jail. But there’s nothing.” So, I decided I was starting this on the 21st of January. And I knew it was going to be a long wait ’til I get my freedom back, because I was trying, you know, to kind of use former experiences of hunger strikers around the world in the last century to kind of give me support. So, that’s why I started the hunger strike.
I was held in four jails. The longest was Liman Abu Zaabal. It’s a prison kind of northeast of Cairo. It’s in the Nile Delta. And I stayed there from the 20th of August 2013 ’til the 16th of December that same year. And there was another prison, Istiqbal Tora, which I stayed there from the 16th of December ’til the 12th of May. And the last was the maximum-security prison, usually known as the Scorpion, al-Aqrab, for 37 days. The last one was actually the most kind of—the most painful for me, because I was in solitary confinement all the time, and I was not allowed to get in contact with anybody and was cut out from the outside world.
I’m here in United States to lobby for my colleagues, my three colleagues from Al Jazeera English, who have been in prison now for over 10 months, I believe, 270 days. And this is actually the thing that every official in the United States, starting from President Obama or Secretary of State John Kerry or any other official, who kind of believe that Sisi is really going to keep up his promises, you know, through spreading democracy and preserving freedom of press, should kind of put more pressure on him, because I believe this is the only way that my colleagues will be out, because pressure has worked in my own case. It has worked in other cases, like Alaa el-Fattah and other prisoners who were able to get back their freedom. They should actually do more, because I remember Secretary of State John Kerry, one day before the sentence, saying that he was given a firm promise from Sisi to keep a good record of human rights, and the next day you see seven and 10 days—sorry, seven and 10 years for my colleagues. So, I think if really the United States wanted to do more, they can do to put more pressure on him. And at the same time, I think all what he says or what he says is not really true, because he claimed with Charlie Rose on CBS that the freedom of press was preserved and everybody had the right to say anything, yet you see Peter and Baher and Mohamed imprisoned for over eight months now. You see other journalists also in prison. And I think also—I think if really that pressure is taken to an utmost level, then that will definitely work, because that’s the only way the new government in Egypt—I mean, that’s the only language they start understanding.
it’s not just the journalists, it’s thousands of others who are also in jail in Egypt. And one of them, which is Mohamed Soltan, the American citizen who’s been in prison for over one year now without any kind of charge, and he’s been on hunger strike for eight months now. And I kind of think that there should be more done for him. Last session, which was just two days ago, he was not even able to go to court. And the American ambassador was not allowed in. So I think this is really shameful and disgraceful that the United States doesn’t do more for the cause of press freedom and freedom generally.
Mohamed Soltan, the 26-year-old American citizen is reportedly near death. he is suffering from some medical conditions. He was suffering from that even before his imprisonment. And he doesn’t get any kind of medical care. And the last court session, the judge said that he should not be taken to hospital without his own permission, which is kind of, you know, making it harder for him.
— source democracynow.org
Abdullah Elshamy, Al Jazeera journalist who was released from prison in Egypt in June after being held for 10 months without charges. During his imprisonment, Elshamy went on a hunger strike for nearly five months and reportedly lost over a third of his body weight.