Read here: https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/canadian-detainee-in-egypt-is-at-high-risk-from-covid-19-family-37226

Imprisoned in the notorious Tora prison, Yasser Albaz’s family says he might be suffering from the coronavirus.

The family of a Canadian citizen arbitrarily held in Egypt’s infamous Tora prison for more than a year, fear that he’s now suffering from the potentially deadly coronavirus. 

Yasser Albaz, 52, a businessman, was detained in Cairo in February 2019, but never formally charged. He’s an Egyptian who moved his family to Canada about 20 years ago but frequently travelled to his native land. 

His daughter, Amal Albaz, has mounted an international effort in order to bring attention to his plight. She has given multiple interviews, and has kept up the pressure on various Canadian officials in the hope she may secure her father’s release.  

“We have been told that another prisoner has died in my father’s wing from Covid-19 and that some guards were infected and spread it in the prison from our source,” Amal told TRT World. 

“He is held in a cell with so many inmates and one shared toilet. It has been very difficult for him”. 

Egypt’s Tora prison is known for its inhumane conditions. The torture of detainees occurs frequently there and is now a well-documented crime, according to the Human Rights Watch. 

The prison was once again in the news last month when 24-year-old filmmaker, Shady Habash, died there. Habash’s crime was that he had directed a music video for a song that was critical of Sisi. 

“For some days now, Yasser has been experiencing symptoms of coronavirus. Information received by the family confirms he is suffering from severe cough, extreme fatigue, tightness in his chest and difficulty breathing,” his family said in a statement.  

“Not only is Yasser in horribly unhygienic conditions with limited ventilation and almost non-existing medical care, he is in his fifties, and has pre-existing medical conditions which increase his risk and need for immediate medical care.” 

Unnatural alliance 

The Egyptian government is accused of arbitrarily arresting thousands of political and civil rights activists on fabricated charges.

While American and European lawmakers have voiced concerns over human rights violations, their governments continue to back Sisi, a former military commander who came to power in a coup in 2013. 

The Egyptian military has used brutal force to stifle any sort of dissent – often with the indirect backing of its western allies. 

Whether it is the $15 billion arms deal that was signed with France in 2018, the promise to keep the refugees away from the European borders or working with Italy’s ENI on the gas field in the eastern Mediterranean, Sisi has found ways to avoid criticism. 

This is despite the public pressure within Europe to take Sisi to task over human rights violations. 

More recently, hundreds of people have protested in Italy for the release of Patrick Zaki, 27, a student of the University of Bologna and activist of an Egyptian NGO. 

Zaki was arrested earlier this year, and despite demonstrations, he continues to remain in prison. His supporters fear that he may suffer the same fate as Giulio Regeni, an Italian student who was abducted in Cairo in 2016 and later killed – his murder blamed on the security forces. 

At the same time, the Italian government is looking to sell frigates and warplanes to Egypt in a multibillion dollar deal. 

The EU’s commitment to human rights, especially its staunch opposition to capital punishment, came under the spotlight last year when its senior leadership, attended the EU-Arab League summit in Sharm el Sheikh. The visit took place days after Egypt executed 15 men following sham trials. 

“The alarmist political narrative (of migration) that has spread through the EU member states in recent years – especially those bordering the Mediterranean – has increased citizens’ concerns about the issue exponentially,” Pier Antonio Panzeri, an Italian politician and the then-member of the European Parliament, told TRT World at the time. 

“For this reason, many countries have preferred to close their eyes to the human rights situation, provided that Egypt takes responsibility for migrants from other African countries, thus acting as a barrier.

By carrying out a ruthless military operation against militants in the Sinai Peninsula, Cairo’s establishment has tried to convince the world that it’s hard on terrorism.

For people like Yasser Albaz who have lingered on in an Egyptian prison for months, the best hope is for foreign governments to keep up the pressure on Cairo to do the right thing and release detainees. 

As Amal says: “Yasser’s life is Canada’s responsibility.” 

Read here: https://www.trtworld.com/mea/daughter-of-canadian-man-detained-in-egypt-begs-trudeau-to-intervene-24600

Last month as Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el Sisi was mingling with senior European leaders in the resort city of Sharm el Sheikh, a 24-year-old Amal Ahmed was busy in Canada mobilising support for her father who had been detained by the Egyptian authorities. 

After a short business trip, Yasser Ahmed Albaz, 51, was about to board a Canada-bound flight on February 18 at the Cairo International Airport when his passport was taken away and his bags brought down from the plane. 

“At 10 o’clock he wrote on our family Whatsapp group that he loved us. We didn’t hear from him for a week,” Amal told TRT World over the phone from her home in Oakville, Ontario, where the family of five has lived for 20 years. 

Initially, the Egyptian authorities denied Albaz was in their custody.  Then he was brought before the prosecutor a week later. 

“He hasn’t been charged with anything,” says Amal.

The family’s biggest concern is that Albaz is being kept at the Tora Prison, which is notorious as a place where prisoners are routinely tortured. 

Amal says she and her family travels to Egypt regularly. “We were there just last summer to celebrate my younger sister’s engagement. Nothing like this has ever happened. We have never been questioned or anything like that.”

The Egyptian government is accused of arbitrarily arresting thousands of political and civil rights activists on fabricated charges.

While American and European lawmakers have voiced concerns over human rights violations, their governments continue to back Sisi, a former military commander who came to power in a coup in 2013. 

Since then the Egyptian military has used brutal force to stifle any sort of dissent – often with the indirect backing of its western allies. 

Double standards

The EU’s commitment to human rights, especially its staunch opposition to capital punishment, came under the spotlight last month when its senior leadership, including European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, attended the first EU-Arab League summit in Sharm el Sheikh. 

In the month of February alone Egypt executed 15 men after trials which the United Nations and other human rights organisations termed ‘unfair’. 

It has made some European lawmakers question the close ties with Sisi’s government. 

“We cannot deny the fact that holding of the summit in Egypt at the court of the Pharaoh Al Sisi, has recognised, by default, the authority of the Egyptian dictator,” Pier Antonio Panzeri, a member of the European Parliament, told TRT World. 

Panzeri, an Italian, heads the EU’s Subcommittee on Human Rights which has been pressing Egypt to solve the case of Giulio Regeni, the young researcher who was murdered in Cairo in 2016.

“It thus seems absurd that the heads of European governments can truly believe the promises made by the Egyptian leader,” said Panzeri. Particularly, he added, when Sisi is seeking to amend the constitution to extend his rule and his government had just executed so many people.

EU leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron consider Egypt important in fighting terrorism and stemming the flow of refugees. 

France has become Egypt’s largest supplier of military equipment even as human rights organisations say that weapons meant to be deployed against terrorists are used against dissidents. 

“The alarmist political narrative (of migration) that has spread through the EU member states in recent years – especially those bordering the Mediterranean – has increased citizens’ concerns about the issue exponentially,” says Panzeri. 

“For this reason, many countries have preferred to close their eyes to the human rights situation, provided that Egypt takes responsibility for migrants from other African countries, thus acting as a barrier.”

The EU has struggled to come up with a collective response to Egypt because individual member states have their own bilateral interests to look after, he says. 

“Let us not forget that the European Union is a fundamental trading partner for Egypt, and trade can therefore be used as a tool to force the North African country to meet certain standards in the field of human rights.”

Egypt has even detained US citizens, which gives over a billion dollars in military and economic aid to Sisi’s government every year. 

Hosam Khalaf and Ola al Qaradawi, both from the United States, have been in an Egyptian prison since June 2017 without any charges. 

Washington also looks at its decades-old ally from the prism of security.  

Amid these varying policy interests, Amal is hoping for her father’s return. “It has been a shock for us and I hope the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will take up the issue.”

Read here: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/i-want-my-father-home-family-man-detained-egypt-calls-canada-intervene

The family of an Egyptian-Canadian man detained in Egypt for almost two weeks has called on the “highest levels” of Canada’s government to intervene, saying they fear for the safety of Yasser Ahmed Albaz.

In a news conference on Thursday morning in Ottawa, Albaz’s daughter, Amal, said her family has been living a nightmare since 18 February, when Albaz was detained at Cairo International Airport.

“Our lives have turned upside down. Our pain is like a cloud that’s constantly hovering over us … We’re all impacted by this storm,” she told reporters.

“We need the Canadian government to intervene at the highest levels and bring my father home.”

Albaz, a 51-year-old engineer and businessman, was detained at the airport in Cairo as he attempted to return to Canada from a business trip. At first, the Egyptian authorities denied he was in their custody, his family said.

“My father was subjected to enforced disappearance for days,” Amal said.

The family was able to confirm Albaz’s whereabouts when he was taken to the Egyptian state security prosecutor’s office for questioning on 23 February, they said in a statement earlier this week.

He was interrogated again a few days later, on 26 February.

He now is being held at the notorious Tora prison facility in the capital, and his family says they expect him to be questioned again on Saturday.

“Until this moment, my dad continues to be detained at one of the worst prisons in the world. He is sleeping on a concrete floor, without a blanket,” Amal said.

Fears of abuse, mistreatment

Albaz’s family and supporters in Canada also raised concerns on Thursday about the conditions he may be facing in Egyptian detention.

The Egyptian government under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has been accused of myriad human rights violations, including the use of torture in order to coerce confessions from detainees.

Human rights groups have described the country’s justice system as deeply flawed, pointing to a widespread lack of due process.

On Monday, a Canadian government spokesman told MEE in an email that “consular services are being provided to a Canadian citizen who has been detained in Egypt and to their family”.

The spokesman said further details could not be provided in light of Canada’s privacy laws.

Ahmed Abdelkader, chairman of the Egyptian Canadian Coalition for Democracy, an advocacy group, said while consular services are important, the Canadian government must escalate its diplomatic pressure on Egypt to secure Albaz’s release.Egypt: Executed prisoners had said they were forced to confess to prosecutor’s killingRead More »

“[Albaz] is not the first Canadian to be arbitrarily detained by the current Egyptian regime. Despite lessons learned from past cases, we are concerned that Canadian officials don’t appear to be treating the case with the urgency that it warrants,” Abdelkader said.

Speaking at the news conference on Thursday, he said that to his knowledge, Albaz has not been charged with a crime.

“A Canadian citizen is being arbitrarily held without charge by a brutal regime known for torture and abuse of prisoners,” Abdelkader said.

“It is imperative that [Canadian officials] use any leverage they have in these relations [with Egypt] to secure Yasser’s release. Every moment’s delay increases the risk to Yasser’s safety.”

That was echoed by Amal, Albaz’s daughter.

“We all lost weight, we all can’t sleep – but who am I to complain? It’s my baba [father] who’s truly suffering,” she said.

“We miss you, baba … I want this storm to end. I want to see the rainbow. I want my father home.”

Read here: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190226-canadian-citizen-detained-in-egypt-jails-says-foreign-ministry/

Canada is “aware” that a Canadian citizen has been arrested by the Egyptian authorities and detained in the country’s local prisons, Canadian foreign ministry announced yesterday.

In an official statement, the ministry’s spokesperson Richard Walker said that the detainee, identified as Yasser Ahmed Albaz, was arrested in December during his business trip to Egypt, refusing to disclose further information about him “for privacy reasons.”

“Consular services are being provided to the family,” Walker stressed.

Albaz’s family told Canada’s CBC that he was stopped at the Cairo International Airport by the local security as he was attempting to board his flight back to the eastern Canadian province of Ontario.

The family explained that an airport security officer confiscated Albaz’s passport and informed him that his name was flagged for investigation. He was reported to have been arrested afterwards.

Right after his arrest, the family added, Albaz sent a text message to one of his friends, informing him that he had been arrested. “This is when we last heard from him [Albaz],” family stressed.

Albaz’s daughter, Amal, on her part, said that the Canadian government informed her family earlier this week that Canadian officials in Egypt were in contact with the local government “to seek answers.”

“The state authorities at first denied that they were holding my father, but later admitted he is in custody,” Amal pointed out, adding that the authorities refused to reveal Albaz’s whereabouts.

“An injustice has been done to my father,” she stressed.

The family called on the Canadian foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, to intervene and demand the release of Albaz.

Albaz is a Canadian 52-year-old engineer of Egyptian origin. For two decades, he and his family have been living in Ontario’s suburban town of Oakville.

Last Saturday, Canada’s foreign ministry-affiliated Global Affairs told the family that Albaz being questioned at the State Security Prosecutor’s office, noting that he had not been charged with any crimes. He was later transferred to Cairo’s Tora prison, according to the family.

In January, Cairo deported two Germans of Egyptian origin after being detained for allegedly “attempting to join Daesh terrorist ranks in the Sinai Peninsula.”

Since the President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi took power – after overthrowing Egypt’s first freely-elected president Mohamed Morsi in the 2013 military coup – the government has been launching a crackdown on anyone suspected of opposing Al-Sisi.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other humanitarian groups have repeatedly criticised the Egyptian authorities for carrying out arbitrary detentions, as well as torturing of detainees. Sisi denies the allegations.