Mohamed Mostafa/Demotix. All rights reserved.
The news of Sisi pardoning
a hundred activists leaves me more angry than joyful. It's not that I'm not
happy the injustice of false imprisonment has been suspended, but that for some
reason the pardon highlights the injustices that persist. The news comes ahead
of Sisi's visit to New York for the UN assembly, and follows the deadly
attacks by the Egyptian army on Egyptian and Mexican tourists that left 12
dead in the Western desert.
Once again, in the
alleviation of the deliberate injustices inflicted upon these citizens,
journalists and activists, they are used as a bargaining chip. Even in their
release they are used to further Sisi's political agenda of buying people's
silence on the irresponsibility with which he deals with Egyptian resources and
lives. With people reporting it as 'great news', it feels as though I'm
expected to celebrate the release of these activists, maybe because I know most
to be innocent, maybe because they're famous and maybe because some of those
released include friends.
But I find myself
thinking of those who were not released, such as Alaa
Abdel Fattah, who remains a prisoner of conscience, or Mahienour
El-Massry, or Ahmed Douma, Ahmed
Maher and Mohamed
Adel. I also think about the multitude of others such as Mahmoud
Hussein, a young boy who has been in pre-trial detention for over 600 days
for wearing a 'no to torture' T-shirt, or Shawkan,
a photojournalist who has been in jail without trial for over two years—exceeding the maximum possible pre-trial detention, in
violation of Egypt's own laws. I think about the thousands who are held
in prison, with or without charge, with or without trials, who are not getting
the exposure necessary to make their release a political win for Sisi.
The word 'pardon'
incenses me. It is a clear indication that a tiny amelioration of injustice,
small as it may be, is the exception in a judiciary structurally designed to
deliver injustice. Prisoners of conscience remain locked up several Eid feasts
in a row, as the boy who cried 'pardon' too many times continues to use them as
a bargaining chip.
There are over
40,000 people that have been incarcerated without due process under Sisi, and
of late scores of young activists have disappeared, largely through
extrajudicial kidnappings performed by Sisi's police force. The number of
people released is a drop in the ocean and is meant to alleviate international
pressure, particularly when it comes to the AlJazeera
journalists, Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and Baher Mohamed.
Had the sentences
been just one year, would people be celebrating the release? What we see here
is an oppressor who has decided to reduce his torture of a hundred people out
of thousands. Are we expected to commend the oppressor or celebrate the little
relief afforded to a few? It would be like commending a killer for partly
stopping their killing spree, or a torturer for suspending some of his
activities on a select few.
Egypt's security
apparatus operates with impunity. The law is used as a tool to manipulate
justice not to attain it. People's freedoms are a currency used by the regime.
Sisi himself admitted
to knowing there are innocent people in jail, yet declared he saw it as a
necessity. How can we celebrate when he pardons the innocent?
I do
not mean to undermine the happiness of those who will get to see their loved
ones and friends. I myself feel a sense of relief that I will be seeing some of
Egypt's finest very soon. Yet to be truthful, the prevailing sentiment is
anger. I'm angry that our justice system terrorises the innocent, angry that
we're run by a police state that tortures and imprisons its youth, angry that
many killed by the army are automatically declared as terrorists posthumously.
I'm
angry because the Sisi regime feels like man who stole all your money, and is
now throwing you a bit of change expecting you to be grateful. I'm angry that
those pardoned were put in a jail they don't belong to in the first place and
that it takes a criminal to pardon the innocent.