by praveen | May 24, 2018 | Arrest and Detention, Latest News, Pretrial Rights
May 16, 2018 – WASHINGTON ― A 27-year-old American man detained in Egypt for nearly five years has been freed, according to his lawyer. “Today, after spending 1,733 days in jail for allegedly committing crimes at a protest he never attended, American Ahmed Etiwy and his cousin were released from an Egyptian prison,” Praveen Madhiraju of the nonprofit Pretrial Rights International wrote in a Wednesday afternoon statement. “The two were released at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, an occasion that has been traditionally marked by such pardons.” Read more...
by praveen | May 24, 2018 | Arrest and Detention, Latest News, Pretrial Rights
MAy 10, 2018 – For Americans behind bars in Iran, Egypt, Turkey and elsewhere, homecoming ceremonies appear to be a long way off. WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump warmly received three Americans back from North Korean imprisonment early Thursday, calling their release a vindication of his aggressive foreign policy strategy. But many Americans jailed by other repressive regimes around the world appear to have gained little from Trump’s ad-hoc and often confrontational international approach, their advocates say, and in several cases the president may have actually made it harder for them to come home. Read more on the Huffington Post’s...
by praveen | Jan 18, 2018 | Arrest and Detention, Case Studies, Latest News, Pretrial Rights
December 26, 2017 – Vice President Mike Pence will travel to Egypt next month, and there’s a group of Americans watching that trip very closely. They are the friends and relatives of people who’ve been swept up in arrests in Egypt over the past few years…. Listen to the rest of the story on...
by praveen | Jan 18, 2018 | Arrest and Detention, Case Studies, International Law, Pretrial Rights
December 25, 2017 – …Take the cases of Mostafa Kassem and Ahmed Etiwy, two of the U.S. citizens held by Egypt. Both have been imprisoned since 2013 after being swept up in crackdowns against protests in which they did not participate. Kassem, a 52-year-old auto-parts dealer from New York, happened to be in Egypt on the day that security forces crushed a mass sit-in in Cairo’s Rabaa Square, killing hundreds. He was not there but was stopped at a security checkpoint two miles away; when police saw his U.S. passport, they beat him up and arrested him. Etiwy, a 27-year-old student also from New York, similarly was dropping off a relative at a bus station when police stormed a nearby mosque. He was surrounded by a mob who suspected him of being a journalist, then was turned over to security forces. Kassem has never been convicted of a crime, but Etiwy was sentenced in September to five years in prison. Praveen Madhiraju of the Washington-based group Pretrial Rights International said he and two other advocates had contacted officials at the White House and National Security Council a dozen times about the cases but received no response. A letter from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to Trump in August prompted no visible action. But an Irish citizen arrested in the same mosque crackdown that swept up Etiwy was freed in October after intensive lobbying by the Irish government. Read the rest of the story on the Washington Post’s...
by praveen | Jan 18, 2018 | Arrest and Detention, Case Studies, International Law, Pretrial Rights
December 19, 2017 – When Vice President Mike Pence visits Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in January, more is at stake than the fallout from President Trump’s controversial decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem… Read the rest of the story on...
by praveen | Jan 18, 2018 | Arrest and Detention, Case Studies, International Law, Pretrial Rights
December 18, 2017 – Americans Once Held As Prisoners in Egypt, Mohamed Soltan and Aya Hijazi, Join American Family of Couple Currently Being Held in Solitary Confinement and Pretrial Rights International to call on WH...
