Egypt, Five Relatives of Former Political Mohamed Soltan Released

“All five of my apolitical cousins that were unjustly detained as a reprisal for my lawsuit were released after 144 days in prison.”

On 9 November, Mohamed Soltan, Egyptian human rights defender exiled in the USA, gave the good news of the release of his cousins Mahmoud, Ahmed, Mostafa, Hamza and Esmat, who had been arrested on the 9 and 15 June in various locations in Egypt.

On 1 June, under the Torture Victim Protection Act that allows claims against individuals who, acting in an official capacity for any foreign nation, committed torture and/or extrajudicial killing, Soltan filed suit in the District Court for the District of Columbia against former Egyptian Prime Minister, Hazem al-Beblawy, for his responsibility in the attempted extrajudicial execution and torture he suffered in prison between 2013, when Soltan was arrested, and 2015.

Al-Beblawy also currently lives in the United States and is an executive director for Egypt and other Arab countries with the International Monetary Fund.

However, Soltan’s father, Salah, is still being detained. On 15 June, unidentified policemen “visited” him in  Wadi al-Natroun Prison where he has been serving a life sentence. They interrogated him about his relatives and the morning after he was transferred to an undisclosed location.