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By Coptic Solidarity – Christian News Wire

Coptic Solidarity expresses extreme concern by the continued unjust imprisonment of leading Coptic human rights activist, Ramy Kamel, urges his immediate release, and dropping of all fallacious charges against him as stated in our joint letter to President Biden. Kamel’s continued imprisonment—now in its 19th month—and similar acts, which are simply inadmissible by international standards, will only ruin the reputation of the Egyptian justice system which appears to be a mere arm of the State Security apparatus.

In March 2021, an interparliamentary group sent a letter to Egypt’s Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohamed Hossam Abdel-Rahim, urging the immediate release of Mr. Kamel.

Mr. Kamel’s imprisonment is a direct result of cooperating with the UN, which makes a commensurate response by the UN a moral imperative. Coptic Solidarity submitted a reprisals report on Mr. Kamel’s case, to the United Nations on April 28, 2020 for inclusion in the Annual report of the Secretary-General on “Cooperation with the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms in the field of human rights.”

While a group of UN experts (including former UN Special Rapporteur Leilani Farha) published a statement in December 2019, urging Mr. Kamel’s release, no other meaningful action has been taken to free Mr. Kamel by the OHCHR.

We call upon:

  1. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bacheletto contact Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, urging the immediate release of Ramy Kamel.
  2. US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to contact Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, urging the release of Ramy Kamel.
  3. The United Nations Human Rights Council to establish a monitoring and reporting mechanism on Egypt at the Human Rights Council until there is meaningful and sustained improvement in the country’s human rights situation.
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